Jesus' Earthly Body

“A body thou hast prepared me…Lo, I come to do thy will, O God...I delight to do thy will, O my God.” Nowhere will you find Jesus complaining about the body God gave Him to inhabit while on this earth. Being born into the Jewish race, it is very probable, and safe to assume, He possessed most, if not all, the physical traits of that people. This being the case, then we would expect Him to have been dark skinned, of a shorter stature, with black hair and a hook-like nose. He recognized His body was given Him of the LORD; and it was in this body He lived for God all His life.

We are all fashioned by God’s own hand. Bible saints accepted the fact that their individual bodies were of God’s own choosing and making. Isaiah said, “We all are the work of thy hand”; David records, “It is [God] that hath made us, and not we ourselves”; and Job tells us, “Thine hands have made me and fashioned me.” And for what purpose did God give us these bodies? “Every one that is called by my name: I have created for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” Is it any wonder then that Paul admonishes, “Glorify God in your body…which are [His].”

Peter’s sacrifice of his body (Jn. 21:19) must have been what the old divine had in mind when he wrote the prayer, “God glorify thyself, and do it at my expense.” Christ most certainly fulfilled this petition when He offered unto God His beaten, bruised, and bleeding body. The presentation of His mangled, torn body, though a mystery to us, pleased God (Isa. 53:10).

And although we do not understand it now, so also does every suffering saint, whose bodies have been offered up to Him in their affliction. “For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased.”

by an Old Disciple of Jesus Christ

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