DOES GOD HAVE A BODY?

DOES GOD HAVE A BODY?

Since God is an invisible Spirit and is omnipresent, He certainly does not have a body, as we know it. The Bible does not record any permanent bodily manifestation of God until Jesus Christ was born. In Jesus Christ, God had a human body and now has a glorified, immortal human body. Scriptural references to the eyes, hands, arms, feet, heart, and other bodily parts of God are examples of  figurative language or anthropomorphisms (interpretations of the nonhuman in terms of the human so that man can understand). An infinite God is described in finite, human terms in order that we may better comprehend Him.

Examples:- “ the heart of God” denotes His intellect and His emotions, not a blood-pumping organ (Genesis 6:6; 8:21).

• When God said heaven was His throne and earth was His footstool, He described His omnipresence, not a pair of literal feet propped up on the globe (Isaiah 66:1).
• When God said “His right hand” spanned the heavens, He described His great power and not a large hand stretching through the atmosphere (Isaiah 48:13).
• "The eyes of the LORD are in every place" does not mean that God has physical eyes in every location but indicates His omnipresence and omniscience (Proverbs 15:3).
• When Jesus cast devils out by the finger of God, He did not pull down a giant finger from heaven, but He exercised the power of God (Luke 11:20).
• In fact, literal interpretation of all the visions and physical descriptions of God would lead to the belief that God has feathers and wings (Psalm 91:4).

In short, we believe that God, as Spirit does not have a body unless He chooses to manifest Himself in a bodily form, which He did in the person of Jesus Christ. There is no possibility of separating God and Jesus, and there is no God visible outside of Jesus.

• God is Omniscient (All Knowing)

• Psalm 139:1-6 teaches us that God knows everything, including our movements, thoughts, paths, ways, and words.
• Job confessed, "I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee" (Job 42:2).
• God has complete knowledge of everything, including foreknowledge of the future (Acts 2:23).
• Like omnipresence, omniscience is an attribute that belongs solely to God. He is "the only wise God" (I Timothy 1:17). The Bible does not identify any other being (including Satan) who can read all the thoughts of man, foresee the future with certainty, or know everything there is to know.

God is Omnipotent (All Powerful)

God calls Himself the Almighty many times throughout the Bible (Genesis 17:1; 35:11, etc.).

He has all the power there is, and no being can exercise any power unless God allows it (Romans 13:1).

Only God is omnipotent, for only one being can have all power (I Timothy 6:15; Rev 19:6; Job 38-41).

The only limitations God has are those He willingly places on Himself or those resulting from His moral

nature. Since He is holy and sinless, He abides by His own moral limitations. Therefore, it is impossible

for God to lie or contradict His own Word (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18).

God is Eternal (No beginning and no ending)

• God is eternal, immortal, and everlasting (Deuteronomy 33:27; Isaiah 9:6; I Timothy 1:17).
• He is the first and the last (Isaiah 44:6).
• He had no beginning and will have no ending; other spiritual beings, including man, are immortal as far as the future is concerned but only God is eternal in the past and future.

God is Immutable (Unchanging)

• God's character and attributes never change: "I am the LORD, I change not" (Malachi 3:6).
• It is true that God sometimes repents (changes His course of action in relation to man), but this is only because man changes his actions.
• God's nature remains the same; only His future course of action changes to respond to the changes of man. For example, the repentance of Nineveh caused God to “change” His plans to destroy that city (Jonah 3:10).  
• Also, the Bible sometimes speaks of God repenting in the sense of grieving or sorrowing rather than in the sense of changing His mind (Genesis 6:6).

God Has Individuality, Personality, and Rationality. God is an intelligent being with a will (Romans 9:19) and reasoning ability (Isaiah 1:18). He has an intelligent mind (Romans 11:33-34).

God having emotions is indicated from the fact that man is an emotional being, for God created man in  His own image (Genesis 1:27).

• The essential emotional nature of God is love, but He has many emotions such as delight, pity or compassion, hatred of sin and zeal for righteousness (Psalm 18:19; Psalm 103:13; Proverbs 6:16;
• Exodus 20:5). He is slow to anger, but He can be provoked to anger (Psalm 103:8; Deuteronomy 4:25).
• God can be grieved (Genesis 6:6) and blessed (Psalm 103:1).

Of course, His emotions transcend our emotions, but we can only describe Him by using terms that describe human emotions.

Some of God’s many other qualities and attributes are these: