Christ Always Had A Body?

[WoundedIcon]

When we celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass, the sacrifice of the cross is re-presented because it’s ever present in eternity - there all here is the present. In fact, the Bible says that Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world (that’s how marriage, which came temporally before the cross, can symbolize the relationship it created - how all reality is essentially Christian from the start.) So… wouldn’t this mean that, in terms of eternity, Christ always was part human? Of course… my logic may open up the can of worms of trying to figure out how humans “go to” timeless Heaven at specific points in time… but it’s an interesting thought.

 

[Aelred_Minor]

When we celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass, the sacrifice of the cross is re-presented because it’s ever present in eternity - there all here is the present. In fact, the Bible says that Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world (that’s how marriage, which came temporally before the cross, can symbolize the relationship it created - how all reality is essentially Christian from the start.) So… wouldn’t this mean that, in terms of eternity, Christ always was part human? Of course… my logic may open up the can of worms of trying to figure out how humans “go to” timeless Heaven at specific points in time… but it’s an interesting thought.

Could you provide the exact quote that says “Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world”?

 

[Shin]

And all that dwell upon the earth adored him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, which was slain from the beginning of the world. [9] If any man have an ear, let him hear. [10] He that shall lead into captivity, shall go into captivity: he that shall kill by the sword, must be killed by the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

Apocalypse 13:8-10

[8] “Slain from the beginning”… In the foreknowledge of God; and inasmuch as all mercy and grace, from the beginning, was given in view of his death and passion.

From the Douay-Rheims.

 

[Aelred_Minor]

The NAB renders it: “All the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, all whose names were not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life, which belongs to the Lamb who was slain.”

I don’t have my prefered RSV-CE with me, but an online quote saying it is from the RSV makes it: “and all who dwell on earth will worship it, every one whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain.”

 

[SunnaB16]

From Gods point of view, in the timelessness of eternity, God the Son "has always been" Christ. He is (eternally) The eternal Word incarnate. Of course, in time, His body was formed in Marys womb.
Be careful with terms: Christ isnt part human (i know what you mean, though.): Hes fully human, as well as being fully divine.

Again from Gods angle, all of Creation must be NOW, seeing He doesnt experience past and future: only the eternal NOW.

WoundedIcon:
i wonder whether we can refer to time as a subset of eternity? As you said, its good to ponder this sort of thing. Eternity and time remind me in some ways of a perfect (lossless) parallel tuned circuit...... (Pity: theres no smiley for a nutcase…)

 

[GloriousOrder]

There is no way our Lord Jesus Christ had a human form before His assumption of one exactly 2011 years ago. God is absolutely immutable, perfect, and cannot be undone, but a human body is changing, imperfect, and may pass away. How can we possibly believe that it is in God’s very essence to have a human body, given His infinite and eternal character? I see no way of reconciling this notion with the perfection of our Lord.

Regarding it right for our salvation, He took the human form and nature and united His perfect divine essence to it. By taking the mutable and destructible and imparting undying life to it, He elevated humanity beyond our understanding. The Lord’s human nativity occurred only once, and is not a thing in eternity. Perhaps we can say that Christ is the “Lamb slain from the beginning” in the same way that we can say God remains the “Creator from the beginning”; that is, Christ upholds His plan of salvation-by-union-and-death across all generations, just as the Father is continually creating and “holding up” the Universe by His essence.

One of the great mysteries of the Universe is the fact that God now has a human body: forever. It is something that will never die away, because He has united humanity so perfectly to Himself that the very essence of “human” has become greater than before. Christ our Lord is literally between Heaven and Earth, now united to a physical body FOR ALL TIME, and even beyond time when He shall transfigure us all, if we become saints.

We profess the Lamb slain from the beginning because God began this Universe solely with the intention of uniting sentient beings to Himself by Jesus Christ - through the means He had set down to be followed, from all eternity. It need not have been the Cross, for all we know, but any manner of lowly death. He is slain from the beginning because He decided that is how we will be united to Him. Men are raised up with Him, and when manhood was immolated on the Cross, all mankind was burned away of its impurities.

How glorious is our God, Lord of majesty!