John asked this excellent question:
This question just popped into my cold-soaked brain. I think you’ve said that our glorified bodies in the millennium will make us appear as we were at age 33 (as Jesus’ body appeared to people after His resurrection.) If so, what will the glorified bodies look like for those believers who were under 33 when they died or were raptured? A corollary. I have no idea what my great grandparents looked like at age 33. How will I recognize them in the millennium? Maybe we’ll be issued holy nametags. 😊
I have to say at the outset that Scripture does not give a definitive answer to this question. In other words, I will need to speculate.
Here are several pieces of evidence to help us speculate:
- Our glorified bodies will be like His glorified body. Paul said, “the Lord Jesus Christ…will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body” (Phil 3:20-21). He was around 37 when He died (since He was likely born in 4 BC on our calendar). That may suggest that all who died at an older age than His age at death will be resurrected to look as they did when they were that age—except without any scars, blemishes, or handicaps.
- Samuel appeared to King Saul when called up from Sheol by the witch at Endor. He looked like an old man: “So he [King Saul] said to her, ‘What is his form?’ And she said, ‘An old man is coming up, and he is covered with a mantle.’ And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed down” (1 Sam 28:14). Of course, this was not Samuel’s glorified body. Since Samuel was dead, this was some intermediate body. However, it could suggest that believers will have the appearance of their age at death, but with the strength and vitality they had in their prime.
- Moses appeared at the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt 17:3-4). We are not told how old he appeared or how Peter recognized him. We can only speculate that he looked like an old man. There is not much help here, other than he still looked like himself.
- The rich man, Lazarus, and Abraham all looked like themselves in Sheol (Luke 16:19-31). While we might speculate that all three looked their respective ages at death, we don’t know that. Again, there is no help here other than knowing they were recognizable as themselves.
I will now give you my sanctified guesses.
For the sake of argument, let’s say the prime of life is age thirty.
Most Evangelicals speculate that their glorified bodies will look as they would have looked in the prime of life had they had no scars, blemishes, or handicaps. If people are in their prime of life at age 30, then the Lord Jesus would appear slightly older than everyone.
However, I have an alternate guess.
God loves variety. Believers today range from young to old. I think it likely that He would also love variety in the apparent ages of glorified believers.
I’d say it’s quite possible that we will look the age we were at death, except that we would be in the prime of life in terms of our physical and mental abilities. Today, a person who is eighty might look great with lots of plastic surgery. Look at some of the Hollywood stars. But God could tighten the skin and muscles better than any plastic surgeon.
Remember that Caleb was eighty-five when the time of the conquest came. Yet he said he had the strength (and appearance?) that he had had at forty:
And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the LORD spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in (Joshua 14:10-11).
Anyone who saw the movie Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan saw a fictional version of something like this. Kahn, played by Ricardo Montalban, was supposed to be over 300 years old, but he appeared to be in his late forties or early fifties, had the strength of ten men, and was a genius.
Of course, it would not shock me if we all looked the same age. But I suspect variation.
Now what about believers who died before age thirty?
For believers who died between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine, I think they would likely look that age forever. I see no reason that the Lord would age them.
For believers who died under age twenty, I think it likely that they will be raised but not glorified, and will then live out their natural life during the Millennium. That would give them the opportunity to lay up eternal rewards. If so, I think they would be glorified after the Millennium and probably look like their age at death, or the standard age, if that is what God does.
John, you won’t need a holy nametag to recognize your grandparents. You will surely be pleasantly surprised at how good they will look, regardless of what age they appear.
This is merely one of thousands of unanswered questions we have about the life to come. We know it will be glorious, and that it will be more glorious for overcoming believers than for non-overcoming believers. But we don’t know many details yet. We do know this: The best is yet to come.
Keep grace in focus and you’ll rejoice knowing that you will look great in your glorified body.
