R.C. Sproul

We're going to look at that.

But now I want to touch on one other thing and expand on it from what we talked about in our last session.

I just mentioned in passing that the Mormons believe that God has a physical body.

In fact, in some of the crasser views of it, they believe that Jesus was born out of a result of a sexual union between God and Mary, a physical union.

And the argument being, as I say, that since we're made in the image of God and we're physical, that must mean that God is physical.

Now over against that idea, historic Christianity, Catholic and Protestant alike, has insisted that God does not have a body, that God is a spirit, and so we must locate for the most part those aspects that distinguish us as being in the image of God as a resemblance to God in terms of His spiritual qualities.

Again, God can reflect, He can think, He can choose.

God is a moral being, and we are moral beings.

God is an intelligent being, we are intelligent beings.

God is a volitional being, we are volitional beings.

However, as important as those non-physical dimensions are to our understanding of what it means to be in the image of God,

we would be platonic rather than Hebrew to assume that our bodies have nothing whatsoever to do with being made in the image of God.

Because when God made us human, He didn't just make disembodied souls.

He didn't just set loose some minds or wills or feelings, but He made creatures

and fashioned them with bodies.

And if we look carefully at the biblical understanding of man from Genesis to Revelation, we see that the whole drama of redemption is not concerned in isolation simply with the soul.

If you say the Apostles' Creed, for example, in your church, you know that there's a statement in the Apostles' Creed that goes like this, I believe in the resurrection of the body.

How many of you have that in your creeds?

The old phrase was resurrectionis carnis.

I believe in the resurrection of the body.