Albert Barnes Commentary Philippians 3:21

"who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, [that it may be] conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself." — Philippians 3:21 (ASV)

Who shall change our vile body. (Compare to 1 Corinthians 5:1 and following). The original words, which are here translated "vile body," properly mean "the body of humiliation;" that is, our humble body. It refers to the body as it is in its present state, subject to its infirmities, disease, and death. It is far different from what it was when man was created, and from what it will be in the future world. Paul says that it is one of the objects of the Christian hope and expectation that this body, so subject to infirmities and sicknesses, will be changed.

That it may be fashioned like to his glorious body. Greek: "The body of his glory;" that is, the body which he has in his glorified state. What change the body of the Redeemer underwent when he ascended to heaven we are not told; nor do we know what is the nature, size, appearance, or form of the body which he now has.

It is certain that it is adapted to the glorious world where he dwells; that it has none of the infirmities to which it was liable when here; that it is not subject, as here, to pain or death; that it is not sustained in the same manner. The body of Christ in heaven is of the same nature as the bodies of the saints will be in the resurrection, and which the apostle calls "spiritual bodies" (Compare to 1 Corinthians 15:44); and it is doubtless accompanied with all the circumstances of splendour and glory which are appropriate to the Son of God.

The idea here is that it is the object of the desire and anticipation of the Christian to be made just like Christ in all things. He desires to resemble him in moral character here, and to be like him in heaven. Nothing else will satisfy him but such conformity to the Son of God; and when he shall resemble him in all things, the wishes of his soul will all be met and fulfilled.

According to the working, etc. That is, such a change demands the exertion of vast power. No creature can do it. But there is One who has power entrusted to him over all things, and he can effect this great transformation in the bodies of men (Compare 1 Corinthians 15:26–27). He can mold the mind and the heart to conformity to his own image, and thus also he can transform the body so that it shall resemble his. Everything he can make subject to his will (John 17:2).

And he who has this power can change our humbled and debased bodies, so that they will put on the glorious appearance and form of that of the Son of God himself. What a contrast between our bodies here—frail, feeble, subject to sickness, decay, and corruption—and the body as it will be in heaven! And what glorious prospect awaits the weak and dying believer in the future world!

REMARKS.

1. It is a privilege of the Christian to rejoice (Philippians 3:1). He has more sources of real joy than any other persons. (See 1 Thessalonians 5:16). He has a Savior in whom he may always find peace; a God whose character he can always contemplate with pleasure; a heaven to look forward to where there is nothing but happiness; a Bible that is full of precious promises; and at all times the opportunity of prayer, in which he may roll all his sorrows on the arms of an unchanging Friend. If there is any one on earth who ought to be happy, it is the Christian.

2. The Christian should so live as to leave on others the impression that religion produces happiness. In our interactions with our friends we should show them that religion does not cause sadness or gloom, sourness or misanthropy, but that it produces cheerfulness, contentment, and peace. This may be shown by the countenance, and by the whole demeanor—by a calm brow, a kind eye, and a cheerful aspect. The internal peace of the soul should be shown by every proper external expression. A Christian may thus be always doing good—for he is always doing good who leaves the impression on others that religion makes its possessors happy.

3. The nature of religion is almost always mistaken by the world. They suppose that it makes its possessors melancholy and sad. The reason is, not that they are told so by those who are religious, and not that even they can see anything in religion to produce misery, but because they have fixed their affections on certain things which they suppose to be essential to happiness, and which they suppose religion would require them to give up without substituting anything in their place.

   But never was there a greater mistake. Let them go and ask Christians, and they will obtain but one answer from them. It is, that they never knew what true happiness was until they found it in the Savior. This question may be proposed to a Christian of any denomination, or in any land, and the answer will be uniformly the same.

   Why is it, then, that most people regard religion as adapted only to make them unhappy? Why will they not take the testimony of their friends in the case, and believe those whom they would believe on any other subject, when they declare that it is only true religion that ever gives them solid peace?

4. We cannot depend on any external advantages of birth or blood for salvation (Philippians 3:4–6). Few or no persons have as much in this respect to rely on as Paul had. Indeed, if salvation were to be obtained at all by such external advantages, it is impossible to conceive that more could have been united in one case than there was in his.

   He had not only the advantage of having been born a Hebrew; of having been early trained in the Jewish religion; of being instructed in the ablest manner, but also the advantage of entire blamelessness in his moral deportment. He had shown, in every way possible, that he was heartily attached to the religion of his fathers, and he began life with a zeal in the cause which seemed to justify the warmest expectations of his friends.

   But all this was renounced, when he came to see the true method of salvation, and saw the better way by which eternal life is to be obtained. And if Paul could not depend on this, we cannot safely do it. It will not save us that we have been born in the church; that we have had pious parents; that we were early baptized and consecrated to God; that we were trained in the Sabbath school.

   Nor will it save us that we attend regularly on the place of worship, or that we are amiable, correct, honest, and upright in our lives. We can no more depend on these things than Saul of Tarsus could; and if all his eminent advantages failed to give him a solid ground of hope, our advantages will be equally vain in regard to our salvation.

   It almost seems as if God designed, in the case of Saul of Tarsus, that there should be one instance where every possible external advantage for salvation should be found, and there should be everything that people ever could rely on in moral character, in order to show that no such things could be sufficient to save the soul. All these may exist, and yet there may not be a particle of love to God, and the heart may be full of selfishness, pride, and ambition, as it was in his case.

5. Religion demands humility (Philippians 3:7–8). It requires us to renounce all dependence on our own merits, and to rely simply on the merits of another—the Lord Jesus Christ. If we are ever saved, we must be brought to esteem all the advantages which birth and blood and our own righteousness can bestow as worthless, and even vile, in the matter of justification.

   We will not despise these things in themselves, nor will we consider that vice is as desirable as virtue, nor that a bad temper is to be sought rather than an amiable disposition, nor that dishonesty is as commendable as honesty; but we will feel that in comparison with the merits of the Redeemer all these are worthless.

   But the mind is not brought to this condition without great humiliation. Nothing but the power of God can bring a proud and haughty and self-righteous sinner to this state, where he is willing to renounce all dependence on his own merits, and to be saved in the same way as the vilest of people.

6. Let us seek to obtain an interest in the righteousness of the Redeemer (Philippians 3:9). Our own righteousness cannot save us. But in him there is enough. There is all that we want, and if we have that righteousness which is by faith, we have all that is necessary to render us accepted with God, and to prepare us for heaven. When there is such a way of salvation—so easy, so free, so glorious, so ample for all—how unwise is any one to rest on his own works, and to expect to be saved by what he has done! The highest honor of humanity is to be saved by the merits of the Son of God; and the person who has the most certain hope of salvation through him has reached the most elevated rank in the human condition.

7. There is enough to be gained to excite us to the utmost diligence and effort in the Christian life (Philippians 3:10–14). If people can be excited to effort by the prospect of an earthly crown in a race or a game, how much more should we be urged forward by the prospect of the eternal prize?

   To seek to know the Redeemer; to be raised up from the degradation of sin; to have part in the resurrection of the just; to obtain the prize of the high calling in heaven; to be made everlastingly happy and glorious there—what object was ever placed before the mind like this?

   What ardour should it excite that we may gain it? Surely, the hope of obtaining such a prize as is before the Christian should call forth all our powers. The struggle will not be long. The race will soon be won. The victory will be glorious; the defeat would be overwhelming and awful. No one need fear that he can put forth too much effort to obtain the prize. It is worth every exertion, and we should never relax our efforts, or give up in despair.

8. Let us, like Paul, ever cherish a humble sense of our attainments in religion (Philippians 3:12–13). If Paul had not reached the point of perfection, it should not be presumed that we have; if he could not say that he had "attained," it is presumption in us to suppose that we have; if he had occasion for humiliation, we have more; if he felt that he was far short of the object which he sought, and was pressed down with the consciousness of imperfection, such a feeling is fitting for us also.

   Yet let us not sink down in despondency and inaction. Like him, let us strain every nerve that we may overcome our imperfections and win the prize. That prize is before us. It is glorious. We may be sensible that we, as yet, have not reached it, but if we will strive to obtain it, it will soon be certainly ours.

   We may feel that we are far distant from it now in the degree of our attainments, but we are not far from it in fact. It will be but a short period before the Christian will take hold of that immortal crown, and before his brow will be encircled with the diadem of glory.

   For the race of life, whether we win or lose, is soon run; and when a Christian begins a day, he does not know but that he may end it in heaven; when he lies down on his bed at night, he does not know but that he may awake with the "prize" in his hand, and with the diadem of glory sparkling on his brow.

9. Our thoughts should be much in heaven (Philippians 3:20). Our home is there; our citizenship is there. Here we are strangers and pilgrims. We are away from home, in a cold and unfriendly world. Our great interests are in the skies; our eternal dwelling is to be there; our best friends are already there. There is our glorious Savior, with a body adapted to those pure dwellings, and there are many whom we have loved on earth already with him. They are happy now, and we should not love them less because they are in heaven. Since, therefore, our great interests are there, and our best friends there; and since we ourselves are citizens of that heavenly world, our best affections should be there.

10. We look for the Savior (Philippians 3:20–21). He will return to our world. He will change our vile bodies, and make them like his own glorious body. And since this is so, let us:

    1. Bear with patience the trials and infirmities to which our bodies here are subject. These trials will be short, and we may well bear them for a few days, knowing that soon all pain will cease, and that all that is humiliating in the body will be exchanged for glory.
    2. Not think too highly or too much of our bodies here. They may be now beautiful and attractive, but they are "vile" and degraded, compared with what they will soon be. They are subject to infirmity, and to numerous pains and sicknesses. Soon the most beautiful body may become loathsome to our best friends. Soon, too offensive to be looked upon, it will be hidden in the grave. Why, then, should we seek to pamper and adorn these mortal frames? Why live only to decorate them? Why should we idolize a mass of molded and animated clay?

    3. Yet learn to honor the body in a true sense. It is soon to be changed. It will be made like the glorified body of Christ. Yes, this frail, diseased, corruptible, and humbled body; this body, that is soon to be laid in the grave, and to return to the dust, is soon to put on a new form, and to be clothed with immortality.

       It will be what the body of Christ now is—glorious and immortal. What a change! Christian, go and look on the creeping caterpillar, and see it changed to the gay and gilded butterfly—yesterday, a crawling and offensive insect; today, with gaudy colors, an inhabitant of the air, and a dweller amidst flowers; and see an image of what your body will be, and of the mighty transformation which you will soon undergo. See the change from the cold death of winter to the fragrance and life of spring, and behold an image of the change which you yourself will before long experience, and a proof that some such change awaits you.

11. Let us look for the coming of the Lord (Philippians 3:21). All that we hope for depends on his reappearing. Our day of triumph, and of the fullness of our joy, is to be when he will return. Then we will be raised from the grave; then our vile bodies will be changed; then we will be acknowledged as his friends; then we will go to be forever with him.

    The earth is not our home; nor is the grave to be our everlasting bed of rest. Our home is heaven—and the Savior will come, that he may raise us up to that blessed dwelling. And who knows when he may appear? He himself commanded us to be ready, for he said he would come at an hour when we do not expect. We should so desire his coming, that the hours of his delay would seem to be heavy and long; and should so live that we can breathe forth with sincerity, at all times, the fervent prayer of the beloved disciple, "Come, Lord Jesus, COME QUICKLY!" (Revelation 22:20).

"Shall spring the faded world revive?
Shall waning moons their light renew?
Again shall setting suns ascend,
And chase the darkness from our view!
Shall life revisit dying worms,
And spread the joyful insect's wing?
And oh! shall man awake no more,
To see thy face, thy name to sing?

"Faith sees the bright, eternal doors
Unfold to make her children way:
They shall be clothed with endless life,
And shine in everlasting day."
DWIGHT.

"My faith shall triumph o'er the grave,
And trample on the tombs;
My Jesus, my Redeemer lives,
My God, my Saviour comes.
Ere long I know he shall appear,
In power and glory great;
And death, the last of all his foes,
Lie vanquished at his feet.

"Then, though the worms my flesh devour,
And make my form their prey,
I know I shall arise with power,
On the last judgment-day.
When God shall stand upon the earth,
Him then mine eyes shall see;
My flesh shall feel a sacred birth,
And ever with him be.

"Then his own hand shall wipe the tears
From every weeping eye;
And pains, and groans, and griefs, and fears,
Shall cease eternally.
How long, dear Saviour! oh, how long
Shall this bright hour delay?
Fly swift around, ye wheels of time,
And bring the welcome day."
WATTS.