SEV Biblia, Chapter 3:21
el cual transformar el cuerpo de nuestra bajeza, para ser semejante al cuerpo de su gloria, por la operacin con la cual puede tambin sujetar a sí todas las cosas.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Philippians 3:21
Verse 21. Who shall change our vile body] Ov metaschmatisei to swma thv tapeinwsev hmwn? Who will refashion, or alter the fashion and condition of, the body of our humiliation; this body that is dead - adjudged to death because of sin, and must be putrefied, dissolved, and decomposed. That it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body] eiv to genesqai auto summorfon tw swmati thv doxhv autou? That it may bear a similar form to the body of his glory. That is: the bodies of true believers shall be raised up at the great day in the same likeness, immortality, and glory, of the glorified humanity of Jesus Christ; and be so thoroughly changed, as to be not only capable through their immortality of eternally existing, but also of the infinite spiritual enjoyments at the right hand of God.
According to the working] kata thn energeian? According to that energy, by which he can bring all things under subjection to himself. Thus we find that the resurrection of the body is attributed to that power which governs and subdues all things, for nothing less than the energy that produced the human body at the beginning, can restore it from its lapsed and degraded state into that state of glory which it had at its creation, and render it capable of enjoying God throughout eternity. The thought of this glorious consummation was a subject of the highest joy and confidence amongst the primitive Christian. This earth was not their home; and they passed through things temporal so as not to lose those which were eternal.
1. THE preceding chapter, to which the first verse of the succeeding should be joined, contains a fund of matter the most interesting that can well be conceived. The apostle seems to stand on the verge of eternity, and to have both worlds opened to his view. The one he sees to be the place in which a preparation for the other is to be attained. In the one he sees the starting place, where the Christian is to commence his race; in the other the goal at which his course terminates, and the prize which he is there to obtain. One is the place from and over which the Christian is to run; the other is that to which he is to direct his course, and in which he is to receive infinite blessedness. In the one he sees all manner of temptations and hinderances, and dangers standing thick through all the ground; in the other he sees the forerunner, the Lord Jesus, who has entered into the heaven of heavens for him, through whom God calls him from above, thv anw klhsewv tou qeon, Phil. iii. 14: for what he hears in the Gospel, and what he sees by faith, is the calling of God from above; and therefore he departs from this, for this is not his rest.
2. The nearer a faithful soul comes to the verge of eternity, the more the light and influence of heaven are poured out upon it: time and life are fast sinking away into the shades of death and darkness; and the effulgence of the dawning glory of the eternal world is beginning to illustrate the blessed state of the genuine Christian, and to render clear and intelligible those counsels of God, partly displayed in various inextricable providences, and partly revealed and seen as through a glass darkly in his own sacred word.
Unutterable glories now begin to burst forth; pains, afflictions, persecutions, wants, distresses, sickness, and death, in any or all of its forms, are exhibited as the way to the kingdom, and as having in the order of God an ineffable glory for their result. Here are the wisdom, power, and mercy of God! Here, the patience, perseverance, and glory of the saints! Reader, is not earth and its concerns lost in the effulgence of this glory? Arise and depart, for this is not thy rest.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 21. Who shall change our vile body , etc.] Which is defiled with sin, attended with frailty, and is mortal; and being dead, is sown and laid in the grave in corruption, weakness, and dishonour: in the Greek text it is, the body of our humility; sin has subjected the body to weakness, mortality, and death; and death brings it into a very low estate indeed, which is very humbling and mortifying to the pride and vanity man: now this vile body, in the resurrection morn, shall be stripped of all its vileness, baseness, and meanness; and be changed, not as to its substance, nor as to its form and figure, which shall always remain same, as did the substance and form of our Lord's body after his resurrection; but as to its qualities, it shall be changed from corruption to incorruption, ( 1 Corinthians 15:42), from mortality to immortality, from weakness to power, from dishonour to glory, and be free from all sin: so the Jews say , that the evil imagination, or corruption of nature, goes along with man in the hour of death, but does not return with him when the dead arise: and this change will be made by the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he shall descend from heaven; who as he is the pledge, the first fruits, the exemplar, and meritorious cause, so he will be the efficient cause of the resurrection of the saints; who will be raised and changed by him, by his power, and by virtue of union to him: that it might be fashioned like unto his glorious body ; or the body of his glory, as it is now in heaven, and of which his transfiguration on the mount was an emblem and pledge; for glory, power, incorruption, and immortality, the bodies of the saints in the resurrection shall be like to Christ's, though not equal to it, and shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The Jews have a notion, that the holy blessed God will beautify the bodies of the righteous in future time, like the beauty of the first Adam: but their beauty and glory will be greater than that, it will be like the glory of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, whose image they shall then bear: and whereas this requires almighty power, of which Christ is possessed, it will be done according to the working , the energy of his power and might; or as the Syriac version renders it, according to his great power; which was put forth in raising himself from the dead, and whereby he was declared to be the Son of God: and whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself ; not only sin, Satan, and the world, but death and the grave; and so consequently able to raise the dead bodies of his saints, and to change the qualities of them, and make them like unto his own: and now who would but follow such persons, who are citizens of heaven, have their conversation there, look for Christ the Saviour from thence, ( Philippians 3:20), who when he comes will raise the dead in Christ first, put such a glory on their bodies as is on his own, ( 1 Thessalonians 4:16), and take them to himself, that where he is they may be also? see ( John 14:3 Hebrews 6:12).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 12-21 - This simple dependence and earnestness of soul, were not mentioned a if the apostle had gained the prize, or were already made perfect in the Saviour's likeness. He forgot the things which were behind, so a not to be content with past labours or present measures of grace. He reached forth, stretched himself forward towards his point; expression showing great concern to become more and more like unto Christ. He wh runs a race, must never stop short of the end, but press forward a fast as he can; so those who have heaven in their view, must stil press forward to it, in holy desires and hopes, and constan endeavours. Eternal life is the gift of God, but it is in Christ Jesus through his hand it must come to us, as it is procured for us by him There is no getting to heaven as our home, but by Christ as our Way True believers, in seeking this assurance, as well as to glorify him will seek more nearly to resemble his sufferings and death, by dying to sin, and by crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts. I these things there is a great difference among real Christians, but all know something of them. Believers make Christ all in all, and set their hearts upon another world. If they differ from one another, and are no of the same judgment in lesser matters, yet they must not judge on another; while they all meet now in Christ, and hope to meet shortly in heaven. Let them join in all the great things in which they are agreed and wait for further light as to lesser things wherein they differ. The enemies of the cross of Christ mind nothing but their sensua appetites. Sin is the sinner's shame, especially when gloried in. The way of those who mind earthly things, may seem pleasant, but death an hell are at the end of it. If we choose their way, we shall share their end. The life of a Christian is in heaven, where his Head and his hom are, and where he hopes to be shortly; he sets his affections upo things above; and where his heart is, there will his conversation be There is glory kept for the bodies of the saints, in which they wil appear at the resurrection. Then the body will be made glorious; no only raised again to life, but raised to great advantage. Observe the power by which this change will be wrought. May we be always prepare for the coming of our Judge; looking to have our vile bodies changed by his Almighty power, and applying to him daily to new-create our soul unto holiness; to deliver us from our enemies, and to employ our bodie and souls as instruments of righteousness in his service __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
ος 3739 μετασχηματισει 3345 5692 το 3588 σωμα 4983 της 3588 ταπεινωσεως 5014 ημων 2257 εις 1519 το 3588 γενεσθαι 1096 5635 αυτο 846 συμμορφον 4832 τω 3588 σωματι 4983 της 3588 δοξης 1391 αυτου 846 κατα 2596 την 3588 ενεργειαν 1753 του 3588 δυνασθαι 1410 5738 αυτον 846 και 2532 υποταξαι 5293 5658 εαυτω 1438 τα 3588 παντα 3956
Vincent's NT Word Studies
21. Shall change (metaschmatisei). See on Matt. xvii. 2; 1 Corinthians iv. 6; xi. 13. Also on from, ch. ii. 6; and fashion, ch. ii. 8. The word thus indicates a change in what is outward and shifting - the body. Rev., correctly, shall fashion anew. Refashion(?).
Our vile body (to swma thv tapeinwsewv hmwn). Wrong. Render, as Rev., the body of our humiliation. See, for the vicious use of hendiadys in A.V., on Eph. i. 19. Lightfoot observes that the A.V. seems to countenance the stoic contempt of the body. Compare Col. i. 22. The biographer of Archbishop Whately relates that, during his last illness, one of his chaplains, watching, during the night at his bedside, in making some remark expressive of sympathy for his sufferings, quoted these words: "Who shall change our vile body." The Archbishop interrupted him with the request "Read the words." The chaplain read them from the English Bible; but he reiterated, "Read his own words." The chaplain gave the literal translation, "this body of our humiliation." "That's right, interrupted the Archbishop, "not vile - nothing that He made is vile." That it may be fashioned like (eiv to genesqai auto summorfon). The words that it may be, or become, are omitted from the correct Greek text, so that the strict rendering is the body of our humiliation conformed, etc. The words are, however, properly inserted in A.V. and Rev. for the sake of perspicuity. Rev., correctly, conformed for fashioned like. Fashion belongs to the preceding verb. See on shall change The adjective conformed is compounded with morfh form (see on ch. ii. 6, and made conformable, ch. iii. 10). As the body of Christ's glory is a spiritual body, this word is appropriate to describe a conformation to what is more essential, permanent, and characteristic. See 1 Cor. xv. 35-53. His glorious body (tw swmati thv doxhv autou). Wrong. Rev., correctly, the body of His glory. The body in which He appears in His present glorified state. See on Col. ii. 9.
The working whereby He is able (thn energeian tou dunasqai). Lit., the energy of His being able. Dunasqai expresses ability, faculty, natural ability, not necessarily manifest. Energeia is power in exercise, used only of superhuman power. See on John i. 12; 2 Pet. ii. 11. Hence, as Calvin remarks, "Paul notes not only the power of God as it resides in Him, but the power as it puts itself into act." See Eph. i. 19, where four of the six words for power are used.
Subdue (upotaxai). Rev., subject. See on Jas. iv. 7. It is more than merely subdue. It is to bring all things within His divine economy; to marshal them all under Himself in the new heaven and the new earth in which shall dwell righteousness. Hence the perfected heavenly state as depicted by John is thrown into the figure of a city, an organized commonwealth. The verb is thus in harmony with ver. 20. The work of God in Christ is therefore not only to transform, but to subject, and that not only the body, but all things. See 1 Cor. xv. 25-27; Romans viii. 19, 20; Eph. i. 10, 21, 22; iv. 10.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
3:21 {Shall fashion anew} (metaschmatisei). Future active indicative of metascematizw for which see #1Co 4:6; 2Co 11:13ff. {Conformed to} (summorphon). For which (sun, morfe) see #Ro 8:29, only N.T. examples. With associative instrumental case. The body of our state of humiliation will be made suitable to associate with the body of Christ's glory (#1Co 15:54f.). {According to the working} (kata tn energeian). "According to the energy." If any one doubts the power of Christ to do this transformation, Paul replies that he has power "even to subject all things unto himself."
