Did Jesus Have a Perfect Body?

Now, Contending for the Faith. In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question: “Dear Dave and Tom, Was Jesus perfect physically? How could this have been if His genetic makeup was derived from Mary?”

Tom: What do you think, Dave?

Dave: His genetic makeup was not derived from Mary. “A body hast thou prepared me,” the scripture says. He was created in the womb of a virgin just as Adam was created out of the clay, out of the dust, fresh from the hand of God. Otherwise, “virgin birth” wouldn’t really be that meaningful, and He would just not partake of the genetics of a father but of a mother. And then you would have to fall back on the Catholic Church, Immaculate Conception, which some people think means virgin birth. No, it means that Mary had to be immaculately conceived in order to be the “mother of God,” as they say it, the mother of the body of Jesus. So, I would say that from the scriptures, nourishment from Mary, for the growth of Jesus in her womb. But genetics? No, He is the Second Man, 1 Corinthians 15 says; he’s the last Adam and he is exactly like Adam was, created by God miraculously. But not as a full-grown man but as a fetus in the womb of a virgin.

Tom: But Dave, there are some other scriptures—I don’t know how we come up with the idea except from the scriptures, or at least picking some things out that give us the idea that there has to be genetics involved. For example, what about the bloodline? And also, going back to Genesis:3:20And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
See All..., where it talks about the seed of a woman.

Dave: Right. Well, He is born of a woman—born of a virgin, but this is…all I can say is from the scriptures, this is the Second Man. There never was a human being that deserved to be called “man” since Adam’s fall until Jesus. This is man as God intended him to be, okay? Now, if you want to talk about blood? I’m not a medical doctor, but I understand that the blood is circulating, that he is—the babe is getting nourishment through the mother’s blood and the mother’s blood is circulating and so forth. But that’s not the genetics. The genetics, my understanding would be, the DNA has imprinted upon that single cell that we all are at the very beginning—it has the genetics on it, the instructions for manufacturing and operating the body, and so the genetics come from God anyway, in the first place. They have to. This is a language, a coded language.

So, the genetics would come directly from God for this man Christ Jesus. So, He is perfect, without flaw, without sin. Well then, how can you say that David is His father? Well, He was born of Mary, who is descended from David, and certainly there is something through the nourishment of her blood and nourishment of her body, and so forth. But as to His genetic makeup, that would come directly from God—the perfect Man, the sinless Man. So He doesn’t have a blemish on Him, He is the ultimate man, physically, mentally, you know, in every way.

So, I don’t know why this person would consider that He would partake of some defects or whatever. What the genetics had arrived at from the past—God is not going to allow the genetics in Mary’s ancestry to determine the composition or the characteristics or qualities of the body of Jesus Christ, born of a virgin.

So, this is why, I think—you know, you get this strange idea, and we’ve dealt with it in The Berean Call, because it says, “When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him,” and that maybe he was kind of deformed or…I’ve heard all kinds of things. No, it’s because from our perspective—we are evil, and we don’t recognize perfection. And He is so godly—He is God and He is so perfect and so humble and so gracious and so kind that He doesn’t appeal to human beings, just as David was the most perfect guy in Israel, the greatest warrior, and so forth, and they all despised him. And yet he was the best they had—the greatest harpist, he was handsome, he was the greatest warrior, and yet his father and his brothers despised him, Israel despised him, Saul didn’t have any confidence in him. When the war breaks out, he sends David home to go to his sheep. And David comes and says, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine to defy the armies of the living God? I’ll go out and fight him!” So, he’s a picture of Christ, and Jesus Christ was without blemish, and that’s why Pilate marveled that He was dead already. I mean, the guy must have been the perfect specimen of manhood. He shouldn’t be dead! And He said, “No man takes my life from me; I lay it down of myself.” And He cried in triumph in his face. So, that’s what I understand from the scriptures, Tom, and also from simple logic.

Tom: Well, Dave, I think it was an important question because, again, it speaks to the issue of whether or not Jesus was flawed or perfect, and He has to be a lamb without blemish in order to be our Savior.

Dave: Amen.