What was Jesus like before he came down to earth?

[DeeJay]

I have been reading both posts, because like I said I am trying to make up my mind. I have wondered about this topic before.

Question.
If Jesus was spirit before, was He omnipresent with the Father?
What made Him different then the Father?

 

[JFox1]

I have been reading both posts, because like I said I am trying to make up my mind. I have wondered about this topic before.

Question.
If Jesus was spirit before, was He omnipresent with the Father?
What made Him different then the Father?

Each member of the Trinity is omnipresent: The Father: Jeremiah 23:24 The Son: Matthew 18:20, and The Holy Spirit: Psalm 139:7-10. :saint:

 

[DeeJay]

Each member of the Trinity is omnipresent: The Father: Jeremiah 23:24 The Son: Matthew 18:20, and The Holy Spirit: Psalm 139:7-10. :saint:

For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

That is very interesting I did not think about that. Do you think Jesus is saying He is there, because the Holy Spirit is there and they are one. OR is all three members of the Trinity here in the same space. If that is the case how are they seperate. This is hard to think about:flower:

Thanks JFox.

 

[Marcia]

Disclamer; I am listining to all sides, because I am still makeing up my mind.

Marcia, I can see where you are comeing from that Jeuss did not have a HUMAN body. I dont think Webdog is saying that.

Is it possable that the personage of the Godhead we know as Jesus was shaped like a human. Not human but had a form that looked human before He became flesh.

But the point of dispute with webdog was whether Jesus was a man before the incarnation. That's what I understood him to be saying.

Why would Jesus need to be shaped like anything?

If Jesus was spirit before, was He omnipresent with the Father?
What made Him different then the Father?

Yes, Jesus has always been God and so has always had the same characteristics as all 3 Persons of the Godhead.

Deejay, please look at the comments here on the discussion of this topic (more narrowly) on the Baptist Theology and Bible Study thread. Please go to this link; the comments are more clear here:
http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=33118

You are Baptist, and you can post questions there as well.

 

[El_Guero]

He was God . . . He was, is, and will always be God.

 

[webdog]

Why couldn't a spirit walk with Adam?

In order to "walk" you need feet. Spirits don't have feet, or any limb for that matter.

Wasn't this God?

YES!!

God does not have a body.

Christ does. Christ is God. Are you denying His deity?

Angels appeared with bodies but they did not become human. We are not told what the bodies of angels are, but they are not human bodies.

No kidding...I never claimed angels to be human. Angels walk...talk...EAT. Everything that walks, talks and eats doesn't have to be human in order to have a real body. Chimpanzees walk, talk (in their own way) and eat...and they are not human, but have very real bodies.

Angels are a separate category of beings; angels are called spirits in the OT and in the NT (book of Hebrews).

We have spirits, and we are beings. Same with angels.

Becoming flesh means Jesus incarnated. Please study what incarnation means - it means Jesus became a man. Becoming human is the same thing.

Please study what "flesh" means. Jesus became "flesh"...corruptible. This is the only way He could have died for us. Becoming human is the same thing in that humans are "meat"...and we die.

I believe that his appearances in the OT were done as the angels' appearances were - temporary human appearance and body. That is not an incarnation.

Tell me...after Christ rose from the dead, did He only have a "temporary" body? Everything else depends on this. When we die, and are resurrected, will we inhabit the New Earth in "temporary" bodies...or will they be real? Your thinking sounds awfully gnostic to me.

You seem to be ignoring Hebrews 2, which tells us in God's words that Jesus became like his brothers. He became. That means he was not always that way.

I'm not ignoring it...you are just adding to it. I do believe Jesus became human...corruptible, and He was not always this way. He had to in order to die.

Every church and theology I've encountered, including my pastor and seminary, teach that Jesus' incarantion was adding on a human nature and human body.

...and this is exactly what I believe!

Angels may have bodies, but they are not human bodies, and their physicality is not explained in the Bible. But we know they are not men in the sense of being human.

Have I not been saying this all along! Their physicallity is explained. We know that they rest...eat...talk...walk...look like men. Pretty explanatory to me!

 

[BobRyan]

Was he a spirit and didn't have a real look or form and only when he came down to earth he finally got his body which also serves as an expression of who he is and now he will have this kind of body forever? Or did Jesus always have a body and he always looked the way he looks now? Does the bible say anything about this? I mean why do humans look the way they look? Do we look the way we look because Jesus looked like a human before God created humans?
...I just ask myself wether Jesus can take on any form he wants and wether he looks the way he does because of us, in order to relate to us, or wether we look the way we do because of him, because God says let us make man in our image. Does this refer to the shape of Jesus? And because Jesus looks like a human God created humans in the same shape?

In all that - you turn to God's Word in Genesis 1 and find your answer -- nice going.

God HAD/HAS a form. WE "INVENT" ideas about what a spirit can or can't do or look like - but that is just us talking to us. GOD's word says that HE has form and that Moses could not LOOK UPON it or he would die.

God has form.

In Christ,

Bob

 

[JFox1]

That is very interesting I did not think about that. Do you think Jesus is saying He is there, because the Holy Spirit is there and they are one. OR is all three members of the Trinity here in the same space. If that is the case how are they seperate. This is hard to think about:flower:

Thanks JFox.

All three members of the Trinity are everywhere at once. They are separate Persons but are of the same divine substance. raise:

 

[BobRyan]

God is infinite - the one who thinks he must fully fathom God or else be "troubled" - is biting off more than he can chew in all eternity.

But God DOES have form "LET us make MAN IN OUR OWN IMAGE".

And God makes it clear to Moses (pre-incarnation) that Moses CAN NOT LOOK upon His form and live!

In Christ,

Bob

 

[xdisciplex]

Yes, maybe you're right, Bob.

I'm simply asking myself is wether we look the way we look because Jesus looked like us before. I mean is Jesus the prototype after which Adam was created? Or did God come up with the human form and simply invent it?

 

[Marcia]

Being made in God's image does not mean we have a form/body like God the Father.

Jesus said God is spirit (John 4) and the Bible says no one has seen the Father except Jesus. To ascribe a body to God the Father is heresy. This is done by the Mormons and the Word Faithers.

Being made in the image of God means we have the intelligence, will, ability to understand ideas, and sense of morality.

 

[xdisciplex]

But Jesus is also God. If Jesus had always had the shape of a human then this would mean that we look the way we do because Jesus looked like this before. If Jesus has always had the shape of a human then this would explain why Adam looked the way he looked.

 

[Marcia]

But Jesus is also God. If Jesus had always had the shape of a human then this would mean that we look the way we do because Jesus looked like this before. If Jesus has always had the shape of a human then this would explain why Adam looked the way he looked.

Jesus was not human before the incarnation. Jesus is God but he is not God the Father. The incarnation was when the "Word became flesh."

The Bible does not tell us why God made us the way he did, physically speaking.

 

[BobRyan]

Yes, maybe you're right, Bob.

I'm simply asking myself is wether we look the way we look because Jesus looked like us before. I mean is Jesus the prototype after which Adam was created? Or did God come up with the human form and simply invent it?

In the ten commandments graven images made in the "likeness" of God or anything in heaven are forbidden. God said that man is made in HIS image. It refers to character, and to physical form. Which is why even now that our physical form is so far degraded below that of Adam we still may dishonor God by misshaping character and defiling our body.

I don't think that God "is human" or that God the Son "used to be Human" before becoming incarnate - but I think we share significant physical features with the very image of God that it dishonors him for us to defile our bodies.

In Christ,

Bob