Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Philippians 3:21

Philippians 3:21. who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation. When He appears as our Saviour, He shall change our body in all those points specified by the apostle (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). Its corruption shall become incorruption; its dishonour, glory; its weakness, power, and from natural it shall become spiritual. It is not said that the body shall be done away, but only what is fleeting and liable to decay and sin shall be transformed to the undying and pure and real. The body is called ‘the body of our humiliation,' because while in it we have so much to humiliate us, so much to mourn over, from which we cannot get free, till we be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. The rendering of the Authorised Version, ‘our vile body,' is often understood as disparaging the body, whereas that which makes the body of man a body of humiliation is the sin which has entered into the world and brought death in its train. The body of man was at first, like the rest of God's creation, made very good, and by the change, the new fashioning, of the Saviour, we look for God's image to be restored in it.

that it may be conformed to the body of his glory. The fleeting fashion of the body shall be done away, its essential form shall remain, and be like unto Christ in His glory.

according to the working. Sometimes rendered ‘effectual working,' and applied chiefly to the manifestation of the resistless powers of nature and of God, and especially to the mighty power of God shown in the resurrection of Jesus. Hence the definition of it which follows immediately.

whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself. Not man's body only, but all rule, all authority and power. The time and manner in which this shall be completed is set forth by the apostle, 1 Corinthians 15:24-28.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Philippians 3:21

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