John Calvin Commentary Luke 24:39

"See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold me having." — Luke 24:39 (ASV)

Look at my hands and my feet. He calls upon their bodily senses as witnesses, so that they may not suppose that a shadow is presented to them instead of a body. And, first, he distinguishes between a corporeal man and a spirit; as if he had said, “Sight and touch will prove that I am a real man, who have formerly conversed with you; for I am clothed with that flesh which was crucified, and which still bears the marks of it.”

Again, when Christ declares that his body may be touched and that it has solid bones, this passage is justly and appropriately brought forward by those who agree with us, for the purpose of refuting the gross error about the transubstantiation of bread into the body, or about the local presence of the body, which people foolishly imagine to exist in the Holy Supper. For they would have us believe that the body of Christ is in a place where no mark of a body can be seen; and in this way, it will follow that it has changed its nature, so that it has ceased to be what it was, and from which Christ proves it to be a real body.

If it is objected, on the other hand, that his side was then pierced, and that his feet and hands were pierced and wounded by the nails, but that now Christ is in heaven without any trace of wound or injury, it is easy to address this objection. For the present question is not merely in what form Christ appeared, but what he declares as to the real nature of his flesh. Now he pronounces it to be, as it were, a distinguishing characteristic of his body that he may be handled, and therefore differs from a spirit. We must therefore hold that the distinction between flesh and spirit, which the words of Christ authorize us to regard as perpetual, exists in the present day.

As to the wounds, we ought to look upon this as a proof by which it was intended to prove to us all that Christ rose for us rather than for himself. Since, after having vanquished death and obtained a blessed and heavenly immortality, yet, on our account, he continued for a time to bear some remaining marks of the cross. It certainly was an astonishing act of condescension towards the disciples that he chose rather to lack something that was necessary to make perfect the glory of the resurrection, than to deprive their faith of such a support.

But it was a foolish and an old wife’s dream to imagine that he will still continue to bear the marks of the wounds when he shall come to judge the world.