5.1 Why a Body?
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Why does God want a Body? This is a MOST peculiar thing.
Two other Biblical terms express this same thing God wants from differing viewpoints – Temple and Home. We go back and forth between these three terms as if they are the same. In its largest sense, a body is a form through which an invisible person expresses him or herself and communicates with other similar entities or makes direct use of things outside themselves.
What would life be like without a body through which to express one’s self and to connect with others? It would be only a wandering emptiness.
Different Types of Bodies. Now, Paul gives an interesting, though odd, explanation of different types of bodies. But God gives it (what is sown) a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another (1 Corinthians 15:38-40).
Every type of entity in heaven and earth possesses a body of some kind, an outward form in which they live and through which they act. And each type of body possesses its own glory.
Differing Glory. Then Paul says that, There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory (verse 41).
We used to imagine this a difference of “superiority,” but that was when we lived upside down and called things the opposite of what they are. Certainly, an eagle looks more impressive than a sparrow outwardly, but that cannot mean that a sparrow is of less value or beauty or purpose. The two are simply different. And that’s really all that Paul is saying, that bodies are different, but each possesses its own glory, that is, its own value and purpose.
Out from a Seed. Then we see that all bodies come only out from the planting of a seed. God cannot “snap His fingers” in order to “create” bodies. That’s not how it’s done. In order to create any kind of outward form, whether of spirit substance or of physical substance, God must first speak His Word. Then, that Word must pass through Spirit to be planted inside creation. There, the Word God speaks brings forth a body, a body of whatever kind it might be.
The plant is the body of the seed. The nature of the seed expresses itself in and through the plant, bringing out from the plant many more seeds like itself. It matters not what type of body; all bodies serve the same overall function.
The Passage of Time. God does not have a body.
Now, if God created nothing, then having no body would be no problem for God. But the more I consider God as He is, the harder it is for me to conceive of creation as something temporal “outside” of God. Creation cannot be outside of God, outside of the pro-knowing of His Heart, and thus, creation, in its essence, cannot be temporal.
Temporal refers to a vital function of appearance as God intends it. Without the passage of time, there is no movement, no change, no story, no adventure, no excitement. Without the passage of time existence is very DULL.
A Picture versus a Movie. Consider a painting. It might be beautiful, certainly, and one might enjoy gazing at it for a few minutes, even. But who would spend three hours in fixed attention, unable to pull one’s eyes away from a non-moving picture? Yet we do just that at the theater, watching a powerful story unfold itself through time on the big screen. And yet all that appears on that screen is the appearance of outward forms, the movement of bodies of various kinds, each containing some inner person or function and all interacting with each other.
Without a body, there is no story; without a body, there is no Community of Christ.
The Word Became Flesh. Here is another peculiar statement, as odd as the thought that God desires above all things a body for His own expression. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
Now this is clearly something different from all created things coming out from the planting of the Word God speaks. This Word become flesh is Personal to God.
Let’s continue with the same definition of glory, that is, the particular and unique value, beauty, and purpose of each outward form as it expresses the qualities of the inward Person or intention.
Jesus’ Glory. But consider the “glory” expressed through this Body. Most like to think of it as Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration when He glowed. Of what value is a glowing Jesus? I’m sorry, but my heart is not touched, nor am I drawn to sharing the same “glow.”
We looked at the 12 hours of the cutting of the Covenant, from 3 AM to 3 PM. But let’s add the prior 6 hours, from 9 PM to 3 PM, 18 hours, all occurring within one day as Jewish custom measured the day. We first saw a Man on His knees to serve, then a Man rising to His feet in Gethsemane, then a Man stumbling under a cross He could not carry, then a Man laying down His life for His friends.
Real Glory. I see more glory in those snapshots of Jesus, more expression of the Person and Heart of the Father, then in all other things in the universe put together. And by those moving pictures, that story told, my heart is fully won. This is the real glory, full of grace and truth.
But let’s take this picture back into our thoughts of God as Creator. Creation comes out, every moment, from the pro-knowing that is the Heart of God. God does not just want to create and sustain; God wants to be known. That means that God Himself wants to enter His creation to be part of the glory that only creation knows.
God Is Like Us. God created us like Himself in so many, many ways. Human sin perverted that likeness of God by turning it in all the wrong directions. But as we have turned entirely around in the Holiest, so we now see every part of our makeup and nature as being a reflection of what God Himself is like. God is not like heavenly angels; God is like us. That is, we are God’s appearance.
I like four things, and I suspect that all other humans are the same. Or rather, I like five. I like adventure; I like comfort; I like fellowship; and I like quiet contemplation. But most of all, I like to create.
The Equation of Being Human. God likes adventure; God likes comfort (home); God likes fellowship; and God likes quiet contemplation. But most of all, God likes to create.
And every human differs in these things only by degree and by direction. Your adventure is different from mine, and the degree to which you would balance fellowship and quiet solitude is different than mine. And the thing you love most to create, as well as the specific and unique form your own creations take, that also is different from all others.
But I think that all of us call our greatest comfort – “Home.”
Home with Us. And this is why the set of my heart has been fixed on one thing since my early twenties. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him (John 14:23). The Father at HOME in me. What could be better or of greater value than that?
Now, the base forms of the key words in the order of the English are poieó: to make, do; moné: an abiding, an abode; and para: by the side of, closely alongside. Here’s where we start. From poieó we get poem, or writing a poem. And moné means permanent.
Participation Together. But para is close beside, implying intimate participation together. Yes, the Father does make His Home in us, but that is not the full meaning because Father does NOT “take over” us. The Father and us together make Oour Home together.
The Father and I together plunge into great adventures together; the Father and I together rest in the comfort of Oour Home together; the Father and I together delight in joyous fellowship with others; and the Father and I together find solitude in quiet contemplation together.
But most of all, Father and I together love to create together; we like to do things, to make things for beauty and for service.
God’s Body. There are three specific requirements for God possessing a body, that is an outwardly visible form through which He can act inside heaven and earth as part of the creation. First, this body must be capable of expressing itself in and interacting with both heaven and earth at the same time. The bodies of angels and animals do not suit this requirement. Second, this body must be shared with other persons, that is, the form must be that of other persons, for God Himself has no form. The substance of nonpersonal things like trees or rocks in either heaven or earth does not suit this requirement. And third, God’s body must be a corporate, many-membered body. God requires many dwelling places, for God is family. Although each one of us shares body with God, by ourselves, we do not fit this requirement.
Only His Same Kind. But more than each of these three general requirements, God cannot share a body with anything not of His same kind.
What is man? Man is the likeness and image of God, of His same kind. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
In short, God can inhabit only a very specific kind of outward physical/spirit form in order to move inside of and interact with His creation as part of all those whom He creates. If God appeared in creation as any other form than humans with whom He enjoys a full symmorphic union, then we are speaking only of idolatry and not God at all. You and I together are the only form God-as-He-is takes.
The Place I Have Chosen. Then we have the metaphor of a temple, the place of worship. Over and over in the Old Testament, God commanded the children of Israel not to worship Him just anywhere they pleased, but ONLY in the place which God Himself had chosen. It is so very easy for the worship of God to turn into idolatry, that is, pretending obeisance for the purpose of gaining an advantage over others.
Picture a homeless man, elderly and crippled, with long stringy hair, smelly and repulsive in his whining for cash. Are you in any way compelled to fall on your face and worship such a form? Why not? Because you perceive no advantage for yourself by such obeisance.
True Worship. Yet that man is closer to what God looks like than all the glory of the brightest stars of heaven.
So what is true worship? Worship that in no way seeks an advantage for self over others? Love. If you see God in that smelly beggar, you will love him as God loves. And you will lay down your life for him. In the place that I have chosen.
But the filthy beggar is only for illustration. Love revealed through us never leaves anyone in that state. The place God has chosen is His Church, which is family.
A Family of People. The Body of God is a family of people, walking together in life inside this heaven/earth, loving one another with a pure heart fervently. There is no idolatrous worship of any outward form in this expression that is God made visible, God acting inside His creation as part of the creation, God seen and known.
And inside and together with this outward form, this shared corporate Body, God embarks on exciting adventures, He rests in the comfort of Home, He drinks in deep fellowship together, and He finds strength in the quiet solitude of contemplation.
But most of all, inside and together with us, God creates.