MAY, 1946
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T HE BIBLE is written around the fact of God. Hun dreds of statements sure made regarding His charac ter and the qualities which He possesses in an is eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, holy, just, merciful, kind and loving. Many other details concerning Him are offered, but when we search for clues as to His personal appearance, we discover that the Holy Spirit exhibits a Divine reticence, and refuses to satisfy our curiosity. In a similar manner, not much has been told us about the personal appearance of the Lord Jesus. We might like to know whether He was tall or of average height; what were the colors of His' hair and eyes; what kind of features He possessed. But these are withheld from us. We must wait for that wonderful day when we shall see Him face to face to learn these things. We read Isaiah 53:2 with‘ a sense of shock and sur prise: “He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see hinj, there is no beauty that we should desire him.’1 In spite of this brief description by Isaiah, I know that the Song of Solomon is equally true: “Yea, he is al together lovely” (S. S. 5:16). . There can be no doubt that in body structure, Jesus was exactly as we are. He was “made in the likeness of men,” with 206 bones and 520 muscles; He had arms, legs, hands and fingers, ears, eyes, mouth, teeth, tongqfe, taste buds—every normal tissue and organ were there. His wonderful body was the special responsibility of His Father: “ a body didst thou prepare for me” (Heb,10:5 R.V.).
Are we, then, given no information about the appear ance of God? It must be admitted that there is not much, but that little is very suggestive. In Hebrews 1:1-3 R.V., there is a remarkable statement: “ God. . . hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son. . . who being the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance . . . sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Note that Jesus was the exact image of the “ substance” of God. This word, selected by the Holy Spirit with char acteristic precision, indicates/if we are to take it literally, that God has substance. This is not to say that God is an anthropmorphic God—precisely like us—but, seeing Jesus in the flesh, we have seen God. As to personal appearance, the Father and Jesus are indistinguishable. That leads me to ask: “If we could see the Lord Jesus as He is today, what would He be like?” And the answer is: “Exactly as He was before His resurrection.” Then, He had a body which looked like the one He possessed before the crucifixion. He had flesh and bones, apparently everything He had when He lived with His disciples. They recognized Him as “this same Jesus.” His feat ures were not changed. With that body, He entered Heaven, where He is today seated on His Father’s throne. With that same body, He is coming again to earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. However, the flesh which the disciples saw after Jesus rose from the dead, although it looked like it, was not the same He had before His death. For instance,
infinite degree. We know that He is a‘ Person; that He
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