Still, Paul writes earlier in the same letter that it has not “entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). John writes later that we do not fully know “what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). New Testament scholar Johann Albrecht Bengel calls it a destiny “unspeakable, contained in the likeness of God” (Johann Albrecht Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament).

Fortunately, the Bible that promises a destiny so great also defines it—starting at the dawn of creation: “Then God [elohim] said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness’” (Genesis 1:26).

The God Elohim—a veiled reference to God and the Word—declares with descriptive purpose that they would create a living being distinct from all others with the capacity of mind and the bodily form to shadow what the original already is and does—a mortal copy of the heavenly original, like the tabernacle of the Old Testament was a physical copy of the heavenly original (Hebrews 8:5; 9:11, 23).

The mortal Adam that God created as a shadow of His being in mind and bodily form exhibits god-like characteristics unique to the human species. Man has a mind unlike any other species with the capacity to think, create and emulate, as well as a bodily shape that is the likeness of God giving him dominion over the rest of the created order. Stated simply, bodies have the capacity to act on their surroundings while mind has the capacity to influence.

Paul tackles these contrasts in his letter to the Corinthians where he makes the case for the resurrection from the dead. He describes different types of bodies from fleshly to the celestial. He contrasts the natural with the spiritual; the copy with the original; the first Adam with the last Adam; the living being with the life-giving spirit. In this context, Paul makes a statement about the natural and the spiritual body that forms the basis for the Bible’s definition of the “heavenly Man.”

“It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44). Did you catch that? Paul repeats the statement, “a spiritual body” twice in the same paragraph for emphasis. According to Paul, the heavenly Man is, or has, a spiritual body whose image and likeness we are destined to bear.

Paul did not learn this truth in philosophy school, or at the feet of Gamaliel. He learned this in his encounter with Christ on the Damascus road and when he was apparently taught by the risen Christ in Arabia (Acts 9:1-19; 22:6-21; 26:12-18; Galatians 1:11-12, 17-18).

The idea that God—in this case the Son—has a body with recognizable features and form went against conventional thinking then, as it does today. But the Bible, in the words of Paul, is clear: “There is a spiritual body,” which a few paragraphs identify with the heavenly Man.

That the risen Christ described by Paul as “the heavenly Man” has recognizable features and form is confirmed in numerous biblical passages—not the least of which is the testimony of Stephen the martyr. Stephen was granted the privilege to gaze into heaven where he “saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55).

The spiritual body of the risen Jesus, described by Paul as a life-giving Spirit, had personal, identifiable features that Stephen immediately recognized as the person of Jesus Christ. That His body also had form is implicit in the statement that He stood at the right hand of God.

What is here implied is explicitly stated in Paul’s letter to the Philippians: “Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God” (Philippians 2:5-6, emphasis added throughout).

This immediate context also describes the spiritual mind of the God who became man with the expectation that we shadow it—“Let this mind [of lowliness] be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

Now that the Bible has established that the heavenly Man has a spiritual body with recognizable features and form that can act on its surroundings and that this Being has a spiritual mind that we are expected to emulate, we turn to the most descriptive biblical definition of the heavenly Man.

John, the aged apostle, was on the Isle of Patmos when he had a personal post-resurrection encounter with the heavenly Man, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet” (Revelation 1:10).

Upon hearing the voice, John had a perfectly normal response, “Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band” (Revelation 1:12-13).

Then John writes a series of descriptive definitions about the “heavenly Man”—both comparative and definitive: “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow” (Revelation 1:14).

John definitively states that the spiritual body of the heavenly Man had both “head and hair” but when describing the characteristics of the head and hair his language becomes comparative. He does not say that the head and hair were wool and snow rather they were “like wool, as white as snow” (Revelation 1:14).

John continues the series, “His eyes [were] like a flame of fire” (Revelation 1:14). That the heavenly Man had eyes is definitive, while the description of those eyes is comparative—“like a flame of fire.”

John continues to describe what he saw, “His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace” (Revelation 1:15). That the Being he encounters had feet was both definitive and obvious—He stood upright on them. The description of the feet is comparative: “[they] were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace.”

Now John describes the voice (definitive) that he heard in comparative terms: “And His voice was like the sound of many waters” (Revelation 1:15).

“He had in His right hand seven stars” (Revelation 1:16). Here John not only states that the heavenly Man had a right hand, he shows that the spiritual body had the capacity to act on its surroundings by holding seven stars in His right hand. Verse 16 continues: “Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword (definitive), and His countenance (definitive) was like the sun shining in its strength (comparative).”

At this juncture, John’s response turns from the typical to the dramatic consistent with one who encounters the spiritual realm, “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead” (Revelation 1:17).

What follows provides an insightful perspective into the mind of Christ as well as a spiritual body’s capacity to act on physical and spiritual surroundings, “But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, ‘Do not be afraid’” (Revelation 1:17).

Not only did the One John encountered have a “right hand”—it had the capacity to reach into the physical realm and touch him—not to strike him, but to comfort and tell him, “Do not be afraid.”

Now the heavenly Man speaks with a remarkable disclosure of identity, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen” (Revelation 1:18).

“Amen.” So be it. The Bible does what men call “unspeakable”—it defines the image of the heavenly Man in terms that we can understand.

The final article in this series will focus on what it means to “bear the image of the heavenly Man” in both present and future realities.