Philippians 3:21

σύμμορφον (σύνμ -אD2*G). Before this word D2bK2L, 17 37 47 and the mass of cursives, syrr, Epiph Chrys Aug Jer read εἰς τὸ γενέσθαι αὐτό. The text is read by אObadiah 1:2*G2, vulg goth copt arm æth, Iren Euseb Ath Cyr Tert Cyp Hilar. All recent editors read text. The additional words are almost certainly a grammatical gloss.

αὐτῷ. So א*Obadiah 1:2*, many cursives, Eus Epiph Cyr Chrys (in one place]. אcD2cL, most cursives, Chrys (in two places) Hil Amb read ἑαυτῷ. So Wordsw alone of recent editors. WH αὑτῷ.

21. μετασχηματίσει. See the note on σχῆμα, above, Philippians 2:8. Cp. 2 Corinthians 11:13, μετασχηματιζόμενοι εἰς�: 14, μετασχηματίζεται εἰς ἄγγελον φωτός: 15, μ. ὡς διάκονοι δικαιοσύνης. There, obviously, superficial changes are in view, true to the distinctive meaning of σχῆμα. And so it is here, in a true sense. Already the essentials of the “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15), which is to be “manifested in glory” (Colossians 3:4), are present in the believer. Where the Holy Spirit “dwells,” there already, even for the body, resides the pledge and as it were germ of the heavenly state (Romans 8:11). Thus the final transfiguration will be, so to speak, rather of guise than of being; as with the Lord Himself on the mountaintop. (But observe that in Matthew 17:2; Mark 9:2, we have μετεμορφώθη.)

τὸ σῶμα τῆς ταπεινώσεως ἡμῶν. Cp. A.V., “our vile” (i.e. cheap, common) “body” (Beza’s corpus nostrum humile, and Luther’s unsern nichtigen Leib). This is a paraphrase of the Greek, involving the reader’s loss and possible serious misguidance. No contempt of the body is implied by the Greek; only the body is “connected with our humiliation” as being, in its present state, inseparably connected with the burthens and limitations of earth, and conditioned by mortality.

Observe this peculiar mystery and glory of the Gospel, a promise of heavenly perfectness for the body of the Christian. It is no mere prison of the spirit; it is its counterpart, destined to share with it, in deep harmony, the coming bliss. Its stricken condition, in the Fall, makes it often the load of the spirit now; hereafter it shall be its wings.

The bearing of all this on the libertine, who sinned εἰς τὸ ἴδιον σῶμα (1 Corinthians 6:18), is manifest.

σύμμορφον. “To be conformed,” R.V. See note on μορφή, above, Philippians 2:6. It is implied that the coming likeness to our Blessed Lord’s Body shall be in appearance (σχῆμα) because in reality; the glorious surface shall but express the glorious substance. Ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ ἐσόμεθα (1 John 3:2): to HIM, not only to His “guise.”

τῷ σώματι τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ. His sacred Body, as He resumed it in Resurrection, and carried it up in Ascension, and manifests Himself in it to the Blessed (ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ�, ἐκ δεξιῶν … τοῦ Θεοῦ, Acts 7:56). It is τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ, as answering perfectly to His personal Exaltation, and being, so far as He pleases, the vehicle of its display. Of it thus conditioned St Paul had a glimpse at his conversion (Acts 9:3; Acts 9:17; Acts 22:14); cp. 1 Corinthians 9:1, οὐχὶ Ἰησοῦν τὸν κ. ἡμῶν ἑώρακα; 1 Corinthians 15:8, ἔσχατον πάντων, ὤφθη κἀμοί.

Our future likeness in body to His body is alone in direct view here, because the Apostle is dealing with specially sensual forms of error. But it stands in profound implied connexion with moral and spiritual likeness.

From this passage, as from others (see esp. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, where σπείρεται and ἐγείρεται refer to the same thing), we gather that the Christian’s body here and hereafter is somehow continuous; not wholly a new thing in subsistence. But when we say this, we have said all we know; the mystery of the nature of matter falls upon our attempts to think the question out. The ἐπουράνιοι (1 Corinthians 15:48) will be “the same”; truly continuous, in their whole being, with the pilgrims of earth. But no one can say that therefore some particle of the body of humiliation must live on in the body of glory; any more than it is necessary to bodily identity now that constituent particles of the body of childhood should continue in the body of old age. However, the next words assure us that we may leave the matter in peace in the hands of “the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Somehow, in His will and power,

“Though changed and glorified each face,

Not unremembered [we shall] meet,

For endless ages to embrace.”

(The Christian Year, St Andrew’s Day.)

κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν τοῦ δύνασθαι αὐτὸν. Literally, “According to the working of His being able.” Secundum operationem qua possit, Vulg. The A.V., “mighty working,” aims to represent the special force of ἐνέργεια (see note on ἐνεργεῖν, Philippians 2:13); but it is too strong. The ἐνέργεια is just the putting forth of the δύνασθαι.

καὶ ὑποτάξαι αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα. Καὶ emphasizes the whole thought.—Elsewhere the FATHER appears as “subduing all things” to the Son, in the final victory. So 1 Corinthians 15:25 (Psalms 110:1), 27 (Psalms 8:6), δῆλον ὅτι ἐκτὸς τοῦ ὑποτάξαντος αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα. But the Father and the Son are One in will and power.—Cp. John 5:31, οὕτως καὶ ὁ υἱὸς οὒς θέλει ζωοποιεῖ.

αὐτῷ. On the reading, see critical note.—“To Himself”: so we must render, in common sense, whether we read αὐτῷ or αὑτῷ.—We too, in English, sometimes say “him” where “himself” is meant.—In such cases the thought is from the speaker’s or writer’s view-point, rather than from that of the subject of the words.

His “subjugation” is thus such that what He subdues shall somehow serve Him. His very enemies shall be “His footstool”; and in His glorified saints He shall be glorified (2 Thessalonians 1:10). Through this great conquest of the Son the Father will be supremely magnified; see 1 Corinthians 15:28, αὐτὸς ὁ υἱὸς ὑποταγήσεται, κτλ.; a prophecy beyond our full understanding, but pointing to an infinitely developed manifestation in eternity of the glory of the Father in the Son. But the immediate thought of this passage is the almighty grace and power of the incarnate, glorified, returning SAVIOUR of His people.

τὰ πάντα. The expression differs just so far from πάντα that it sums up “all things” and presents them together.