CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Philippians 3:20. For our conversation is in heaven.—“Our” is emphatic, contrasting with the “earthly things” just named. “Conversation” is that to which we most readily turn, as the needle trembles to the pole. Our hearts are with our treasure, and that is far away from earthly things. “They that say such things declare plainly that they seek a city;” it is the soul’s “Heimweh,” the yearning for the homeland. We must not understand the words to mean “Our mode of speech is like that in heaven,” nor “Our habit of life is heavenly.” The word for “conversation” means “the commonwealth,” “the general assembly and Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven” (Hebrews 12:23). From whence also we look for the Saviour.—From that heaven, “whither the Forerunner is for us entered,” “He shall come in like manner.” Meanwhile we stand in readiness to receive Him. The word for “look for” (R.V. “wait for”) graphically depicts the attitude of waiting.
Philippians 3:21. Who shall change our vile body.—R.V. much better, “Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation.” We are not to consider the body as the cause of sin, as something outside the redemption wrought by Christ, “the Saviour of the body.” The fashioning anew will not lose any essential part of the body. As the colours in a kaleidoscope change form at each movement, but are yet always the same, so in the change of the body there will be “transition but no absolute solution of continuity.” The body of our humiliation is the frail tenement in which the exile spirit sojourns (2 Corinthians 5:1-8); it is the soon-wearied companion of an eager spirit (Matthew 26:41); it “returns to the dust as it was” (Ecclesiastes 12:7). That it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.—R.V. “that it may be conformed to the body of His glory,” as contrasted with the body of His humiliation (Philippians 2:8), the body in which He tabernacled amongst us (John 1:14). The power whereby He is able to subdue all things.—He has power, not only to raise and glorify the body, but to subdue and renovate all things.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Philippians 3:20-21
Christian Citizenship—
I. Has its centre of life and privileges in heaven.—“For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). To show the contrast between the earthly things which absorb the thought of the worldly, and the things of heaven, the apostle proceeds to indicate that the life of the believer, even on earth, is associated with the privileges and blessings of the heavenly commonwealth, of which he is a member. In this world the Christian is but a stranger—living in temporary exile. His city, his home, is in heaven. Longing to enter into possession of all the privileges of the heavenly franchise, earthly things have no attraction for him, and he seeks to act in harmony with his high destiny
II. Is assured of the deliverance of its members from the perils and hardships of earth.—“From whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). The apostle characterises Jesus as Saviour, or as expected in the character of Saviour, and thus suggests an awful contrast, in point of destiny, between himself and those like-minded with him, and the party reprobated by him in the two preceding verses. Their end is destruction, but ours is salvation; to the one He descends as Judge, but to us as Saviour. If there be such visible difference in present character, there is a more awful contrast in ultimate destiny—the two poles of humanity—everlasting punishment; eternal life (Eadie). The great Deliverer will emancipate us from the thraldom, suffering, and sorrow of the present world, and complete in its fulness the salvation which is now in process.
III. Has the confident hope of future dignity and blessedness.—
1. The body of humiliation shall be transformed into the likeness of Christ’s glorified body. “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). The body of our humiliation connects us with the soil, out of which it was formed, and by the products of which it is supported, on which it walks, and into which it falls at death. It keeps us in constant physical connection with earth, whatever be the progress of the spirit towards its high destiny—its commonwealth in heaven. It limits intellectual power and development, impedes spiritual growth and enjoyment, and is soon fatigued with the soul’s activity. In it are the seeds of disease and pain, from functional disorder and organic malady. It is an animal nature which, in spite of a careful and vigilant government, is prone to rebellious outbreaks. But this body is reserved to a high destiny: it shall be like Christ’s heavenly body. The brightness of heaven does not oppress Him, neither shall it dazzle us. Our humanity dies indeed, and is decomposed; but when He appears, it shall be raised and beautified. These bodies shall cease to be animal without ceasing to be human bodies, and they shall become spiritual bodies—etherealised vehicles for the pure spirit that shall be lodged within them (Eadie, passim).
2. This transformation shall be effected by the divine power that controls the universe.—“According to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself” (Philippians 3:21). While omniscience is the actual possession or exercise of all knowledge, omnipotence is universal ability, which may or may not yet have put forth all its energies, for what is possible to it may not have been effected by it. But Christ shall put forth His power, as we know from other sources, and death itself shall be swallowed up in victory—that which has swallowed up all humanity shall be surrounded by a wider vortex and be itself engulfed. This body of our humiliation has some surviving element, or some indissoluble link, which warrants the notion and shall secure the consciousness of identity, in whatever that identity may consist (Eadie). If man’s art and device can produce so pure and white a fabric as paper from filthy rags, what shall hinder God by His mighty power to raise the vile body from the grave and refine and fashion it like unto the glorious body of Christ? “Not a resurrection,” says Neander, “as a restoration merely of the same earthly body in the same earthly form; but a glorious transformation, proceeding from the divine, the all-subduing power of Christ; so that believers, free from all the defects of the earthly existence, released from all its barriers, may reflect the full image of the heavenly Christ in their whole glorified personality, in the soul pervaded by the divine life and its now perfectly assimilated glorified organ.”
Lessons.—
1. The Christian citizen is but a sojourner on earth.
2. His conduct on earth is regulated by a heavenly life.
3. He looks for his highest honours and enjoyments in the future.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Philippians 3:20. Christian Citizenship.
I. The heavenly citizenship of Christians.—
1. The city to which they belong—heaven.
2. When are true Christians made citizens of this heavenly state? When they are pardoned.
3. What are the privileges connected with this state of relation to the heavenly city?
(1) Freedom.
(2) Admits to honourable employment and office.
(3) Fellowship and communion with the whole body of Israel.
4. A right to the common property—the inheritance of the saints in light.
II. The conduct manifested by true Christians, and corresponding with their privilege.—
1. Holiness.
2. Boast of the institutions of the heavenly city.
3. Are bold and courageous.
4. It will be seen in our spirit.
5. Our affections are in heaven.—R. Watson.
Philippians 3:21. The Resurrection of the Human Body.
I. We must be reminded of our sinful condition.—
1. Our body is called a body of humiliation, because it, as well as the spirit, is the seat of sin.
2. If we consider the immense labour necessary to provide for its wants.
3. If we consider it as a clog to our devotion.
4. It must be still further humbled by death.
II. The transformation of this humbled body.—
1. There can be no deformity.
2. The excessive care necessary for the support of the body shall exist no more.
3. It shall be an assistant and no longer a hindrance to the operations of the deathless spirit.
III. The means by which the transformation will be effected.—The power of God answers all objections, removes all difficulties.
Lessons.—
1. It becomes us to aspire to as much of the glory of the future state as can be attained.
2. This subject affords encouragement to us on the loss of our friends.
3. Ought to fortify our minds against the fear of death.—Ibid.
The Glorious Destiny of the Human Body.—If we are in Christ, He will gather up what is left, He will transfigure it with the splendour of a new life, He will change our body of humiliation that it may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory. Sown in the very extreme of physical weakness, it will be raised in a strictly superhuman power; sown a natural body controlled on every side by physical law, it will be a true body still, but a body that belongs to the sphere of spirit. Most difficult indeed it is even to the imagination to understand how this poor body, our companion for so many years—part of our very selves—is to be first wrenched from us at death and then restored to us if we will, transfigured by the majestic glory of the Son of God. Little can we understand this inaccessibility to disease, the radiant beauty, the superiority to material obstacles in moving through space, the spirituality, in short, which awaits without destroying it.
“Heavy and dull this frame of limbs and heart.
Whether slow creeping on cold earth, or borne
On lofty steed
Or loftier prow, we dart
O’er wave or field,
Yet breezes laugh to scorn
Our puny speed,
And birds, and clouds in heaven,
And fish like living shafts that pierce the main,
And stars that shoot through freezing air at even.
Who would not follow, might he break his chain?
And thou shalt break it soon.
The grovelling worm
Shall find his wings, and soar as fast and free
As his transfigured Lord, with lightning form
And snowy vest. Such grace He won for thee
When from the grave He sprang at dawn of morn,
And led, through boundless air, thy conquering road,
Leaving a glorious track where saints newborn
Might fearless follow to their blest abode.”
—H. P. Liddon.