M___ wrote
Hi Mike, I pray all is well with you and your family. Had a question I have been thinking about that I am having trouble reconciling – as always any insight you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I understand these scriptures:  “it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body…(not a spiritual natural body)” “flesh and blood (or bone) can’t inherit the kingdom of God…” “what is born of the spirit is spirit, what is born of the flesh is flesh…” “.. corruption must put on incorruption…” “The things seen are made from things unseen (spiritual realm)”… etc,… So, Jesus took on different forms with a specific purpose for each form after His resurrection (i. e. doubting Thomas needed to see and place his fingers in the hole so Jesus manifested that way).  What is seen (natural) is made from what is unseen (spiritual). My question is since the actual body of Jesus was missing after the resurrection (He has gone ahead to Galilee the angel said), and since I was always taught and not given much thought to it till very recently that it was a bodily resurrection, yet flesh/ blood/ bone can’t inherit the kingdom, I am having trouble reconciling the “body missing” – bodily resurrection with the incorruptible spiritual resurrection.  In John Carpenter’s book Evidence that demands a Verdict and More than a Carpenter he goes to great lengths to “prove” that it was a bodily resurrection… I think this contributes to the confusion and assumptions of the “church” teaching regarding spiritual matters – why they teach we will have a spiritual, physical body (different form) as they see Jesus’ body gone and how he seems to manifests physically, sometimes unrecognizable… it fits with the idol of not letting go of natural, physical world/ kingsdom… Hope my question makes sense… Blessings, M____

Hi M____,
Your question makes perfect sense, but I believe that you answer your own question. Insisting upon having a physical body…

“contributes to the confusion and assumptions of the “church” teaching regarding spiritual matters – why they teach we will have a spiritual, physical body (different form) as they see Jesus’ body gone and how he seems to manifest physically, sometimes unrecognizable… it fits with the idol of not letting go of the natural, physical world/ kingdom…”

Asking about the whereabouts of Christ’s physical body after the resurrection is like asking where was His physical body while he was talking to Mary as “the gardener,” the two men on the road to Emmaus, as a “only a stranger in Jerusalem” and finally as a stranger who “none of them durst ask who He was because they knew He was Jesus” by the sea of Galilee.

Joh 21:12  Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.

What became of Christ’s physical body which the disciples recognized is about as important as the other physical bodies in which He manifested Himself. Why is no one asking about what became of the ‘gardener’s’ body or the body of the ‘stranger in Jerusalem,’ or the body of the man by the sea of Galilee?
Here is a scripture which will put this all in perspective if God has given you eyes to see the things of the spirit:

Psa 102:25  Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
Psa 102:26  They shall perish , but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:
Psa 102:27  But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
Psa 102:28  The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.  

Those who read this website regularly know that ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’ are both within each of us. Read the papers on this site What And Where Is Heaven? and What And Where Is The Bottomless Pit ?
David tells us that our heavens and our earth will perish and “thou shalt change them.” Christ changed His physical body at least 4 times that we know of. Where any of those four now are is totally immaterial and of no consequence to the fact that He is now a “changed” spiritual body. Here is the same statement made by King David, but now put into a New Testament spiritual context and quoted by Christ’s apostles:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
1Co 15:51  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [ must] put on immortality.

“We shall all be changed” certainly includes Christ. His physical body was “changed’ into spirit; into a spiritual body “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and He was changed.”
 Now here is the same message again in Old Testament words quoted in the New Testament:

Heb 1:10  And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
Heb 1:11  They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
Heb 1:12  And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail

And finally Peter, too, puts this all in its spiritual context:

2Pe 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us- ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2Pe 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2Pe 3:11  [ Seeing] then [ that] all these things shall be dissolved, what manner [ of persons] ought ye to be in [ all] holy conversation and godliness,
2Pe 3:12  Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
2Pe 3:13  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness [ within each of us].
2Pe 3:14  Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

All who read this site know what fire is in God’s Word. Christ came to baptize us all with fire:

Luk 12:49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?
Mat 3:11  I [ John the baptist] indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

If Christ “came to send fire on the earth” then where is that ‘fire?’ We all want to put negative scriptures off on the Pharisees or some other hapless group. We fail to realize that we all have had our time as Pharisees and as the children of disobedience even as others:

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye [ you and me] walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

The whole “historical orthodox Christian” world declares that God’s elect have never been the children of His wrath. I will let them take that up with the apostle Paul who declares the ” we all… were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
So the ‘fire’ of Christ’s words is even now burning out the wood, hay and stubble and even the dross in each of His elect. As such we are told that the things of the true heavens must be cleansed with better sacrifices than the blood of calves and goats:

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves [ you and me] with better sacrifices than these.

And so our heavens and our earth must pass away with a great noise and melt with fervent heat as Peter puts it. It is all within each of us and it is not given to but very few to see that flesh and blood truly cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
They are all aware of 1Co 15:50-51…

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
1Co 15:51  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

… but they cannot receive it. I believe that you can and do see that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. I believe that you can believe the angels when they told Mary “He is not here He is risen,” and I believe that you see that “we shall all be changed.”
 “All” certainly includes Christ’s physical body. Our bodies, just as His was, will “be changed… in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye:”

1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Mike