Incorporeality

Incorporeality is one of the attributes of God in terms of his personhood.

It is the idea that God does not have a body. He does not have a corpus. Incorporeality would mean God does not have a body. He is pure spirit. Humans, according to the Bible, are a composite of body and soul. But if their body were to die and be laid in the ground their soul would become a disembodied spiritual substance. That is what God is. He is an unembodied spiritual substance.

Scriptural Interpretation
The scriptural data surveyed demand that people should think of God as incorporeal, as immaterial, non-physical. There is simply no way of getting around those clear biblical passages that indicate that God transcends matter and energy and has created all the material things there are. So he is not himself a material object that has a body. How to understand then these anthropomorphic descriptions of God and these theophanies of God in corporeal terms? The corporeal descriptions of God in the Bible are metaphorical, not literal. They are metaphors. They are not to be taken literally. Two arguments can be given in support of this interpretation.

These Descriptions Serve a Clear Literary Purpose
For example, when the Scriptures speak of the arm of the Lord, they are talking about God’s power. When they speak of God’s eyes, they are talking about God’s being all-knowing. When the Scriptures speak of God’s ears, it is talking about his attentiveness to certain persons. All of these corporeal descriptions have a literary purpose. In the New Bible Dictionary article on the word “face” this is especially well-described. This is how the New Bible Dictionary treats the term “face” when it is ascribed to God.

''The Hebrew word is used in many English senses. The face of a person became synonymous with his presence.''

So it did not necessarily mean the physical face – the nose, and the lips, and the eyes. Rather, it became synonymous with that person’s presence.

Metaphorically, determination could be shown by “setting one’s face.” Determined opposition was made by “withstanding someone to his face.” Intimacy and understanding were conveyed by the phrase “face-to-face.” This phrase has, of course, passed into English, as has also the expression “his face fell.”

Obviously, such expressions are not to be understood literally. It would be inept to think that the expression “his face fell” meant that his face dropped to the ground somehow. Rather, it expressed his being disheartened or disappointed in something.

The Unger’s Bible Dictionary also says with respect to God’s face:

''Applied to God, it denotes his presence. In such phrases as “seeing the face of the Lord” or “the face of the Lord is set against them that do evil” or “their cry came before the face of the Lord” it is evidently all one with God’s manifested presence.''

So a correct reading of the Scriptures to understand these expressions makes clear their literary purpose and hence there metaphorical rather than literal nature.

A good example of this is in 1 Peter 3:12: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those that do evil.” Clearly, it would be inept to try to interpret those passages literally; that somehow the eyeballs of God are sitting on top of the righteous people or that the face of the Lord is up against those that do evil. Clearly the eyes and the ears and the face of the Lord here are meant as literary figures of speech.

If You Take Them Literally Then They Would Be Inconsistent With Each Other
The second reason these expressions should be understood metaphorically because God is differently described in these anthropomorphic categories. In some passages, God would be a fire-breathing winged monster which is surely not the way God is to be understood.

Moreover, someone could ask the question, if we take them literally, then where is God? If God is a physical body, where is he? According to the Scriptures God fills heaven and Earth. Therefore he cannot be in any physical place. He cannot be somewhere. He cannot be a physical body.

Therefore it is obvious that these anthropomorphic descriptions of God should be understood in a metaphorical way rather than a literal way.

What then about the theophanies – the visions of God in corporeal terms? These visions should be understood to be mental projections of the percipient’s mind. It is not as though he is seeing something external to his mind. Rather, God, in giving him a vision, has caused him to project a mental image. It is a projection of his own mind and therefore not something that is to be taken literally as real.

Visions of this sort are very common in the Bible. The book of Acts can be looked at to see several examples of New Testament visions of this sort. First, Acts 10:10-16. What is described here is Peter’s vision of a sheet being lowered from heaven that is filled with various kinds of animals. It says in Acts 10:10:

''And he became hungry and desired something to eat; but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance [so this was an entranced state] and saw the heaven opened, and something descending, like a great sheet, let down by four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “No, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has cleansed, you must not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.''

Here it is very evident again that this is not a literal seeing of a sheet full of animals in the external world that other people passing by Peter’s house would have seen coming down from heaven. Peter was in a trance, it says, when he saw this. Therefore, it should not be thought that this is a huge tarpaulin of some sort filled with all of these clean and unclean animals bumping into each other and trying to maintain their balance in this sheet being raised up and down. This is a mental projection that God has caused Peter to have to teach him a lesson about clean and unclean, preparing him for proclaiming the Gospel to Cornelius and his household who would be regarded as unclean (as non-Jewish, as Gentile) and therefore not worthy to receive the Gospel. So God is giving him this vision to prepare for his proclamation of the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Acts 7 has another example. Acts 7:55-57. This is Stephen’s vision of the exalted Christ as the Son of Man at his stoning. It says in Acts 7:55:

''But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him. [And he was stoned.]''

This was a purely private vision that Stephen alone had. The people standing around saw nothing. Stephen had this himself. Its non-literal nature is also evident in that he sees the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, which is itself an anthropomorphic description of God that serves a literary purpose. That is why this vision is not counted among the resurrection appearances of Christ. This was not a resurrection appearance story. This was a visionary story. It was a vision of the exalted Christ that Stephen had that God caused Stephen to project.

Another example in the book of Acts comes in chapter 16. Acts 16:9-10. This is Paul’s famous Macedonian call to come and preach the Gospel in Macedonia. It says in Acts 16:9:

And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing beseeching him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Here God causes Paul to have this vision of a man in Macedonia inviting them to come and preach the Gospel there. It is a visionary seeing.

Finally, Acts 22:17-18. Here Paul is recounting his experience of coming to faith in Christ. After his baptism he says in Acts 22:17: “When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get quickly out of Jerusalem, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’” Here Paul is, again, in an entranced state, and he has a vision of Jesus warning him to get out of the city. This is not a resurrection appearance again. This is not a bodily corporeal appearance of Christ. This is an entranced vision of Christ which Paul has that serves the purpose of warning him to get out of Jerusalem.

These kinds of visions are well known in the Bible. These stories of theophanies – seeing God – are visionary experiences, mental projections of the percipient, that God causes them to have in order to teach them some significant lesson.

These theophanies of God serve the purpose of manifesting God’s glory. Exodus 33:18 is the story of Moses’ asking to see God and God granting him a sort of diminished vision of God’s glory and goodness. This is in Exodus 33:18: “Moses said, ‘I pray thee, show me thy glory.’” Then God says, I will do so but you shall not see my face; you will only see my back. And he gives him a diminished vision of the glory of God. This serves the purpose of manifesting God’s glory to the percipient. Compare what the author of the book of Hebrews says about Moses’ experience in Hebrews 11:27. Speaking of Moses it says, “By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king; for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.” That is an interesting expression, is it not? God is invisible, the author of Hebrews affirms. He cannot be seen. But Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible. He had had this vision of God. He was strengthened and was therefore able to endure as though he had seen God himself who cannot be seen because he is invisible.

Another example would be Isaiah 6:1-3 where Isaiah sees God in his glory in the temple:

''In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”''

Here God’s holiness is manifested in this corporeal vision of God upon a throne that Isaiah receives. It is a manifestation of God’s holiness that causes then, of course, Isaiah to feel conviction of his own sin and inadequacy.

Finally, for a New Testament example, there is Revelation 4. The whole chapter is a vivid vision of God in the throne room. Looking at Revelation 4, there is a description by John of seeing a throne in heaven and he seeing someone sitting on the throne. This person, he says, appeared like jasper and carnelian and around the throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald. So this person looked like a sort of mineral object as though it were a person that was made out of some kind of precious mineral that reflected the light. “From the throne issue flashes of lightning, and voices and peals of thunder” and so forth. Then around the throne are these creatures full of eyes in front and behind. They had these strange appearances. These living creatures then fall down before the throne and they cry “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” Then it is described how the elders cast their crowns before the throne singing “Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created.” Here you have a vision that John has of God on his throne described in corporeal terms, very vivid with all of these strange creatures and so forth. This serves to declare the glory of God – his holiness and his greatness as the creator of all things. These theophanies serve the purpose of manifesting God’s glory and holiness and greatness to those who receive them.

So these visions are not to be understood literally. The whole book of Revelation in particular is just full of these sorts of images. For example, the lamb that is full of eyes all over him slain before the foundation of the world, and these other sorts of creatures and monsters and so forth. The whole book is just replete with rich imagery that should not be understood in a literal way. Particularly, the idea of God’s throne is not something that should be thought of as a physical object upon which a humanoid being sits. The New Bible Dictionary says that the throne of God symbolizes dignity and authority. The one who sits upon the throne is the one who is invested with dignity and divine authority. Similarly, to be at the right hand of the person on the throne does not mean to be seated literally at this person’s hand, but that is a position also of authority and dignity. The literary purpose that is served in these visions of God can be seen.

Scriptural Data
On the one hand the scriptural data has the clear prohibitions against any kind of images of God, and also the affirmation that God is omnipresent, that he is spirit – not of the order of material or physical things. Yet it also has these descriptions of God in very graphic bodily terms and these theophanies – these visions of God – in terms of bodily images.

Here are some scriptural data pertinent to incorporeality.

God Is A Spiritual Being
1 John 4:24. Jesus says, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” So God is a spiritual being. He is not a physical being. He is a being which is spirit.

God Is Omnipresent
God is not spatially located in the way that a physical object is. Rather, God is omnipresent. That will entail his incorporeality.

God Is Indiscernible To The Five Senses
He cannot be perceived by the five senses. 1 Timothy 6:16, speaking of Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords, “who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” Here God is said to be invisible. He cannot be seen and never has been seen. Also 1 Timothy 1:17 says, “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be power and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” So God is said by the Scriptures to be invisible. That would encompass not merely eyesight, but also being able to feel God or smell God or use any of the other five senses to apprehend God. God is not a physical object that is discernible by the five senses.

The Old Testament Forbids Making Images of God
Exodus 20:4-5a, “You shall not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them and serve them.” Here it is prohibited to make images of God that would be used in worship.

Deuteronomy 4:15-16:

''Therefore take good heed to yourselves. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female.''

So God is not to be portrayed in paintings, in statuary, in any sort of visual image. Any sort of image, however beautiful, however artistically inspiring, will diminish who God is by portraying him in some necessarily finite, limited, corporeal way. God is not to be pictured in any sort of way, according to the Scriptures.

The Bible Often Describes God In Bodily Terms
Psalms 18:6-10 gives an example:

''In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens, and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub, and flew; he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind.''

Here God is described by the psalmist in very graphic bodily terms. He has ears. He has nostrils. He is like a fire-breathing monster who rides the heavens – rides on the cherubs through the clouds. At the same time that Israel is commanded not to make images of God yet there are these very physicalistic descriptions of God in the Psalms. People might well wonder what is going on here.

Descriptions of Visions of God Seen By People
There are, in the Old Testament and throughout the Scriptures, visions of God described – so-called theophanies – where people see God. These are often in bodily terms. For example, Exodus 33:20-23. Here Moses is asking to see the glory of God. God says to him that he will show Moses his glory, but he says,

“But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”

Here God describes himself as having a face and hands and even a back that Moses can look at! God is described in very human terms here as having some sort of a body that Moses is allowed to glimpse. But Moses cannot see God's face.

Which Is Ultimate Is Not Material
The importance of this is hard to overestimate. That which is ultimate in life is not material. Rather, ultimate reality is spiritual, specifically personal. God is a personal spiritual being. So ultimate reality is personal and spiritual.

What that implies therefore is that the locus of value is persons. Value is invested principally in persons, whether these be divine persons of the Godhead or human persons created in his image. By contrast, things have value only in relationship to persons. This is the distinction between something’s having intrinsic versus extrinsic value. Persons have intrinsic value. That is to say, they are ends in themselves. They are intrinsically valuable in and of themselves. Things have only extrinsic value insofar as they serve the ends of persons. So, for example, a person is intrinsically valuable created in God’s image – a person. It does not matter how gifted that person is, how useful he is to society. That person is intrinsically valuable simply because he is a person. By contrast a material thing like a whiteboard or a podium or a hammer has extrinsic value in that they serve purposes of human beings and therefore have a value insofar as they serve us. But if there were no human persons in existence these things would have no value. Their extrinsic value would simply evaporate. Therefore, persons are the locus of value. They have intrinsic value as opposed to mere extrinsic value.

That means that one person is worth more than the entire material universe put together. A person is worth more in God’s sight than the rest of the entire material universe taken together.

It means that we need to love people and use things, not vice versa. Of course the temptation for sinful persons is to love things and use people. That is an utter inversion of the proper order of things. Rather, people ought to love persons as intrinsically valuable and use things which have extrinsic value, but not to use people for their ends and to devote their lives to loving things. The two greatest commandments that God has given in are to love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your might, and to love your neighbor as yourself. It is loving persons (whether divine or human) that comprise the whole moral duty of man.

This fact that God is incorporeal, that ultimate reality is spiritual, is revolutionary and ought to affect the way people live in a very fundamental way. That leads to the second point of application.

People Ought To Have a Spiritual Focus In Life And Not a Material Focus
The focus in life should be spiritual rather than material. Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:19-21 ought to be the theme for all persons as Christians. Jesus says,

''Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.''

People’s focus should not be on material things but rather on spiritual things. That will then guide their lives. So in Matthew 6:33 Jesus sums it up by saying, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things shall be yours as well.” The primary focus in life should be on seeking the Kingdom of God and the righteousness that belongs to it, and then to trust God for material needs.

The author C. P. Snow once remarked that the worst thing that could happen in the world would not be worldwide famine. He said the worst thing that could happen in the world would be there would be worldwide famine and people in the West would watch it on television. That remark is very convicting. When thinking of the material prosperity that people enjoy, they need to ask themselves, “Are we focusing on material prosperity and accumulating goods, or are we doing what Jesus said – laying up treasures in heaven rather than these transitory things?” Where are their hearts? They need to be not on material things but on spiritual things and on the Kingdom of God.

The Most Important Needs Are Not Physical But Rather Are Spiritual
Paul gave the following advice to his disciple Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:7b-8. He said to Timothy, “Train yourself in godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” Here Paul does not say that bodily exercise has no value, but what he does say is that compared to godliness bodily exercise or bodily training is of secondary importance. Bodily exercise, being fit and healthy, holds promise for this life, but godliness, he says, has promise not only for this life but for the life to come which will be everlasting life. So people need to train themselves in godliness.

Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 9:25 Paul makes this athletic comparison: “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath [an Olympic wreath, a garland], but we an imperishable.” People train themselves in godliness because they have an imperishable reward in the life to come. Now think of how much time people lavish upon their physical bodies. Working out. Trying to eat right. The whole cosmetics industry – millions and millions of dollars invested in cosmetics. Hair salons and hair treatment. People do so much to try to make their physical body in appearance to be all that they would like it to be. But how much time by comparison do people spend on their soul? On nurturing their spiritual self, their spiritual lives? Do people exercise this same sort of rigor and discipline that the athlete does in his bodily training when it comes to training their souls in Bible study, in prayer, in corporate worship, in other spiritual disciplines? People need to remind themselves that ultimately their most important needs are not their physical needs. They should not neglect those, but nevertheless they need to attend to their spiritual needs and the nurture and care of their souls because this is going to have promise for the life to come.

So God being spirit and not corporeal is a fundamental factor in the Christian world and life view and ought to impact how people live.