Does God have a physical body?
God's nature is one of the first things Scripture settles, and it settles it against every attempt to picture Him. The question matters practically: if God is not a body, then how has anyone ever seen Him, and how should He be worshipped?
Spirit in essence, not in shape
When Jesus told the Samaritan woman that God is spirit, He was describing what God is, not merely how He acts. One writer presses the wording closely:
William J Hocking"God is a spirit." He is the Being who is spirit in essence. It is not merely that this is His character, as would be expressed if the phrase were "God is spirit." But God is a spirit. It refers to His being, to the Person. He has no bodily shape. He is not limited by place as we are, and He is an omnipresent spirit, so although He is in heaven, He is here, and we, being spirit, are in His presence.
Commentators differ on the shade of the phrase — others render it "God is spirit" and take it as describing His nature rather than singling out His Person — but the conclusion about a body is the same.
Invisible by nature, not merely hidden
Scripture does not say God happens to be out of sight. It says no one has seen Him or can see Him:
VariousOne of the essential attributes of God is His invisibility; He is aoratos: Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17, and others. When this is applied to Him in His essence it must mean not only that He cannot be seen, but that He may not be seen — "whom no man has seen, nor can see" (1 Timothy 6:16). Not even Moses could have looked on the face of God and lived. If God is to reveal Himself to the creature, it must be through an interpreting medium.
Why the Bible speaks of God's hand, eyes and soul
Scripture does use body language about God, and writers here treat it as God stooping to how we talk. The difference shows up in what Scripture never does:
Frederick William GrantAnd if God speaks of His "soul," condescending as He does to our familiar human speech, He is never called a soul as He is a spirit.
The empty mercy seat
Israel's most holy object made the point by what it lacked. Surrounding nations set an idol on the lid of their sacred chests; the ark of the covenant carried none.
Samuel RidoutBut on the mercy seat there was no representation of God. "God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). How completely in keeping with all His truth it is that, in those days of partial revelation, of type and shadow, God should have most jealously guarded the idea of His infinitely glorious being from any likeness or representation, such as was so common among the nations around.
When God appeared in human form
The Old Testament does record appearances — most famously to Abraham, who saw three men standing near him. Writers are careful about what such a visit does and does not prove:
L. M. GrantNow, in Genesis 18 we are faced with what is called a "theophany," for the Lord Himself appears in the form of a man, and two angels accompany Him, also appearing as men… In what body He came remains a mystery: we do not know, though it was certainly miraculous.
The Son took a real body
The one place where God and a body genuinely meet is the incarnation — the Son becoming man. That body is not a costume or an appearance:
J. N. DarbyAnd first, all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. Instead of the misty speculations of men and their imagined beings, we have the fulness of God bodily, in a real human body, and so effectively for us, in the Person of Jesus Christ.
And the One seen is no different from the One unseen:
William J HockingThe One who became visible is the same as He who was invisible, for there is no change in Him personally when He is manifested. The "Infinite Unseen" became visible when He was manifested in flesh.
What follows for worship
The reason Jesus raised God's nature at all was to redirect a conversation about holy sites:
C CrainHe is emphasizing the fact that God is of a spirit substance, and so it is unsuitable to worship Him with material things — with shadows. He should be worshipped in spirit and reality.
Summary
- Spirit. God is spirit in His very being — He has no bodily shape and is not confined to any place, so He is present here while being in heaven.
- Invisible. His invisibility is not shyness but essence: no one has seen Him or can see Him, so any self-revelation must come through a medium He provides.
- Unpicturable. Because of this, no image of God was permitted; even the mercy seat, unlike the idols of the nations, carried no likeness of Him.
- Manifested. In the Son the invisible One became visible — the fulness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in a real human body, the same Person unchanged.
- Worshipped. Since God is spirit, material things and shadows cannot serve as worship; He is worshipped in spirit and in truth.