Who/What Does God Look Like?

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buddytaco

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Why do we know what Jesus Christ looked like, but not what God himself looked like?
 
Because God has no form. If he did, he’d be limited and thus not God. Although God took human form of Jesus, God was not confined to Jesus’ human form.
 
Jesus is the second person of the most Holy Trinity, God made flesh, and walked among us.

ZP
 
We don’t truly know what Jesus looked like. Better to take it that Jesus looks like those we see around us each day - especially in the disadvantaged.
 
With apologies to Sir Mix-A-Lot, we know God’s got back 😉

Exodus 33:23
“And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.”
 
John 14:9
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (Bold is my emphasis).
 
I watched an episode of Brain Games on Netflix some time ago where they asked people of varying ages to draw God. Some people drew a person. Some people drew symbols they associated with God. Some people drew natural scenes. I don’t remember the conclusion of that demonstration…so I have contributed very little to this thread.
 
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Jesus Christ is the image of God the Father. He is God’s physical appearance because He is God in the flesh. To “see” God in spirit is more like possessing perfect knowledge of His nature (to the best of our individual capabilities) rather than seeing Him with physical eyes.

I believe that this intellectual perception of God is what we experience in the beatific vision after particular judgment, and the visible form of God in Christ is How we will physically see Him in the Resurrection.
 
AngelusDomini said:
We don’t truly know what Jesus looked like.
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The first person to know what Jesus looked like without having ever seen Him was probably King Abgar V of Edessa, the one who is receiving the Image of Edessa from the disciple Thaddeus in the left picture. I assume that you recognize the right image.
 
It’s probably more glorious than we can imagine. Imagine how the apostle John saw an angel and fell down on his face. He fell down as dead when it was Christ.
 
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If there are alien life forms (and it is rather likely) and they are part of salvation, will they see Jesus as human or will Jesus appear to them in their own form? How would the resurrection of His body appear to them?
 
Latetotheparty said:
If there are alien life forms (and it is rather likely) and they are part of salvation, will they see Jesus as human or will Jesus appear to them in their own form?
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The only way to know is to ask them (the aliens :alien:)
 
God assumed a human nature in Jesus Christ. We don’t actually know exactly what Jesus looked like, other than that he was a man, but we can speculate. Even the Shroud only allows us to guess.

But outside of the assumed human nature, God is invisible. He isn’t just “see-through,” he doesn’t have a body at all. He doesn’t have a body which occupies some localized space. He is incomprehensible and invisible and impossible to make an actual image of.

To quote St. John of Damascus:
I believe in one God, the source of all things, without beginning, uncreated, immortal and unassailable, eternal, everlasting, incomprehensible, bodiless, invisible, uncircumscribed, without form.
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And he continues, with Jesus and icons of Jesus in mind:
I believe in one superessential Being, one Godhead greater than our conception of divinity, in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and I adore Him alone. I worship one God, one Godhead, but I adore three persons: God the Father, God the Son made flesh, and God the Holy Spirit, one God. I do not adore the creation rather than the Creator, but I adore the one who became a creature, who was formed as I was, who clothed Himself in creation without weakening or departing from His divinity, that He might raise our nature in glory and make us partakers of His divine nature.
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And just a little later, speaking of icons of Jesus:
Therefore, I boldly draw an image of the invisible God, not as invisible, but as having become visible for our sakes by partaking of flesh and blood ( cf. Heb. 2: 14) I do not draw an image of the immortal Godhead , but I paint the image of God who became visible in the flesh, for if it is impossible to make a representation of a spirit, how much more impossible is it to depict the God who gives life to the spirit?"
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But surely, he would have to stay in his human form as that is his reserrected body…

I actually find this a ridiculous stumbling block!
 
I’m not a theologian, nor do I play one on television.
I’m just spit-balling with these hypotheticals.

But in all seriousness, at the end of the day, I don’t worry about it because I trust in God to work it all out.
 
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