Bodies Shall Be Changed

Philippians 3:20‑21  •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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It is important to see the correct translation of part of this verse; it is "shall transform our body of humiliation," not "vile body." The body is not looked at in Scripture as vile. Our bodies are fitted through grace to be presented to God as living sacrifices. They are bodies of humiliation because they are marked with weakness and infirmity, with the possibility of dissolution and death. But the body in Scripture is not regarded as vile.
This is the reason the monkish idea of punishing the body as something vile is all wrong. When Paul speaks about buffeting his body and keeping it under, he is not speaking of the physical frame, but the lusts that are in the flesh. The human body is not regarded as vile and may be the temple of the Holy Spirit.
With the Christian, that body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are to glorify God in it. This body may finally break up and go to pieces, but by-and-by it is going to be changed for one that will never break up or go to pieces — a body that is fitted for glory. When God gave us a body and put us in this world, He gave us a body that was fitted for this world. When He takes us to glory, He will give us a body that is fitted for glory.
C. H. Brown