/…Continued
For this reason Jesus said to his Father when presenting himself for baptism, to begin his sacrificial course: “You prepared a body for me.”—Heb 10:5.
I still remain confused as to how these verses support the claim that Jesus was not resurrected with a physical body.
To conclude:
The arguments in favor of your claim are extremely weak. The only evidence you have produced that even relates to the claim are 1 Peter 3:18 and 1 Corinthians 15:45, and they require a lot of stretching to make them appear to support it. On the other hand, scriptural evidence against your claim are overwhelming:
1) The “empty tomb” is possibly the strongest evidence of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ:
Matthew 28:
1 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
6
He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
(See also Mark 16:1–8; Luke 24:1–6.) Why was the “emptiness of the tomb” so important in the narrative accounts of the resurrection, if it was not meant to signify that the resurrection of Jesus was a physical one, of His physical body?
2) The second strongest evidence of the physical nature of the resurrection was the showing the marks of His wounds to his disciples when He first appeared to them. Why would He want to do that if it was not for real? It would have been deception otherwise.
3) Jesus Himself testified before His Passion that His resurrection would be of His physical body, not something else:
John 2:
18 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
21 But he spake of the
temple of his body.
22 When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
4) Even His enemies recognized that His resurrection should be a physical one, therefore they asked Pilate to provide a watch of soldiers to guard the tomb in case the body was stolen; and those very soldiers then became the greatest witnesses to His physical resurrection! Why should an angel come down and roll the stone away if the resurrection was not intended to be a physical one?
5) What would be the theological reason, justification, or logic behind a non-physical or a spiritual resurrection? Resurrection means to be brought back to life after death. Paul tells us that Jesus was “the first fruits of them that slept”:
1 Corinthians 15:
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
And the “first that should rise from the dead”:
Acts 26:
23 That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.
That means that His resurrection was to set the pattern for the resurrection of everyone else. He was resurrected in the same way that everyone else will be resurrected, no difference. If everyone else’s resurrection would be a physical one (even by JW accounts), then Jesus’ resurrection should be physical too. Matthew in fact tells us that Jesus’ resurrection was immediately followed by the resurrection of many saints who had died before the time of Christ:
Matthew 27:
52 And the
graves were opened; and many
bodies of the saints which slept arose,
53 And came out of the
graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
So how were they resurrected? If their resurrection was physical (which it says it was), why should their resurrection have been any different from Jesus’ resurrection, when the scriptures clearly teach that their resurrection should follow the same pattern as Jesus’ resurrection?
