“Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

This familiar message of the angels to the disciples as they watched Christ ascend into heaven reveals three vital truths. First, the Lord Jesus retained His human body, though now immortalized and glorified, as He returned to heaven. Second, heaven is a real place in the physical universe, because Christ, in His physical body, is now dwelling there, at the right hand of the Father. Third, He is going to come again to Earth in the same body.

This means that there is, indeed, now a great Man in the glory! It is significant that no New Testament writer details the appearance of Christ’s physical human body here on the earth.

But we do have a detailed description of His present appearance in glory! John saw Him, there on the Isle of Patmos, and it was like this: “I saw . . . one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; And His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in His strength” (Revelation 1:12–16).

John, who saw Him in His glory, has also assured us that “when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (I John 3:2), and our present vile bodies shall be transformed “like unto His glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). HMM