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After the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, almost everyone, except for the Sadducees, believed in His bodily resurrection. All the eyewitness accounts of the Jesus’ resurrection and historical accounts report that Jesus had the exact same physical body that died on the cross.

Mary didn’t recognize Him at first. Jesus called her name, and she realized who He was. Her response was immediate and so emotional that Jesus said to her “Do not cling to me…” (John 19:38—20:18).

Jesus appeared to the disciples but Thomas. The disciples believed and no doubt were overjoyed. When they shared what they had seen to Thomas several days later, he was adamant that Jesus was dead and was sure that the disciples who said they saw him were crazy. “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe,” he said (John 20:25). In Luke 24:39, Jesus appears to the disciples and tells them “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Jesus then took a piece of broiled fish from them and ate it in their presence. Only a physical body could eat food and be touched.

Much is made of the passage in John 20:26 where it says, “Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them.” The implications from those who deny the physical resurrection are supposed to indicate that Jesus had a non-physical body. It does not say that Jesus walked through walls but merely says that He appeared to them when the door was locked.

It is obvious that Jesus was raised in the same body in which He died–with the same holes in His hands and feet. We see that Jesus proclaimed He had flesh and bones. Does a “spirit body” consist of flesh and bones? No! If Jesus did not rise physically, then what happened to His body? Was it dissolved? Was it moved somewhere? There is no biblical account of what happened to Jesus’ body other than that it was raised from the dead. Therefore, His body was raised from the dead. He predicted it!

John 2:19-21,” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews therefore said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body.” (John 2:19-21).

The word temple, as referring to the body, is also used in referencing the body of believers. 1 Corinthians 6:19,20, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Therefore nothing in the Scriptures indicate that Jesus’ body was non-physical either before or after the resurrection. In fact, with the eyewitness accounts say that Jesus’ resurrected body was physical, handled by the disciples, and still had the wounds that Jesus received on the cross, there should be no doubt.

1 Corinthians 15:3 “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”

This is great news for all believers. When we die, we too will be raised to live forever with God in Heaven.

Ephesians 2:4-7 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”