Philippians 3:21; Transformed and Conformed

PastorRodney’s Weblog

07/28 Philippians 3:21; Transformed and Conformed; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20240728_philippians-3_21.mp3

Paul holds himself up as a life shaped by the cross; according to religiosity he had it all, but he counted his every gain a loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. He holds up those we should imitate, and contrasts them with those who are enemies of the cross.

Philippians 3:17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. 18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Here in verses 20 and 21, he holds up the character of the true believer, and the hope that we have in Jesus.

Contrast Destruction/Transformation

Notice some of the contrasts in this passage. He warns of those who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. He said back in verse 10 that knowing Christ means knowing the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death. We as followers of Jesus become friends of the cross, communing with Jesus through suffering, being conformed to his selfless sacrifice for others.

He says that their end is destruction, but our end is not only salvation but transformation; these humble bodies being transformed to be like his glorious body, when one day all things will be subjected to Jesus.

Their God is their belly, fleshly desires, instant gratification of this fallen corpse; but we are waiting, eagerly anticipating our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is our Lord and our God, and he is the one who rescues us from our slavery to ourselves and transforms our desires to want what is truly good and beautiful.

They glory in their shame, boast in disgraceful humiliating things, things we are embarrassed of when they are brought out into the light. But our glory is coming. These lowly bodies will be conformed to his glorious body by the outworking of his resurrection power.

Their minds are set on earthly things, but our citizenship is in the heavenlies, where Jesus is seated at the right hand of his Father. Our minds are being conformed to the mind of Jesus, his heart, his attitude.

Who Not What

It boils down to a person; our relationship to a person. They are enemies of the cross, because their god is self, their minds are fixed on things, things of this earth. Our hope is a ‘who’, not a ‘what’. We are waiting for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s all about him. He is the one who will change everything.

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Our Lowly Body; Humility Before Glory

Paul calls it ‘our lowly body’. How do we think about the body? It matters what we think about our bodies, how we view the body. Clearly our body is not to be our god, but neither does Paul call our bodies ‘evil’. He calls the body ‘humble’ or ‘lowly’, but he also affirms that our bodies have a glorious destiny.

This word ‘lowly’ is the same word that is used of Jesus in 2:8 where he ‘humbled himself’ by his obedience to death. These bodies are humble or lowly in that they are earthly, subject to death because of the fall. All the way back to the beginning, in Genesis

Genesis 2:7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Then in Genesis 3:

Genesis 3:17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The Lord formed man from dust, and when he rebelled against his Creator, God condemned man to return to dust. In 1 Corinthians 15:47-49 Paul calls the first man Adam ‘the man of dust’.

This is in contrast to the last Adam, the man from heaven. Jesus made this same contrast in John 3:

John 3:31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.

Jesus is the only one from above, the man from heaven, the one who is above all. We are of the earth, earthly, of dust, and to dust we will return.

Bodily Hope, Bodily Resurrection

But salvation is not limited to the immaterial part of us, as the Gnostic philosophers taught. The body is not evil, and release from the body is not the ultimate Christian hope. The Son of God humbled himself by taking on a real physical human body, so that as a real human, he could redeem mankind, body and soul. His physical human body was crucified, died, was buried, and that same physical human body was raised up on the third day. It was in that physical body that Jesus appeared for 40 days to his disciples, and it was that physical body that ascended into heaven and is now seated at the right hand of his Father in glory.

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

What Transformation Looks Like

This lowly body is the very same body that will be transformed to be like Jesus’ glorious body.

What does this look like? Paul attempts to describe it in 1 Corinthians 15:

1 Corinthians 15:35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Paul uses the analogy of a seed, the analogy of different kinds of flesh, the analogy of differing glories of heavenly bodies. There is continuity and discontinuity. In Philippians Paul points us to the resurrection of Jesus as an example. Jesus was sometimes recognized by his disciples, sometimes not. He ate with them, his body was able to be touched and the scars of crucifixion examined, and yet he could show up in a locked room without opening the door.

Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians 15:

1 Corinthians 15:45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

There is transformation coming for the follower of Jesus! Mankind was created in the image of God, but when we rebelled, that image was distorted, and now we bear the image of the man of dust. But we will bear the image of the man of heaven. There is transformation coming for the believer in Jesus!

Verbal Connections With Jesus

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

The language of these verses link us back to Philippians 2. Our citizenship is or exists in heaven. That is the same word in 2:6 of Jesus being or existing in the form of God. Our lowly or humble body is the word that describes Jesus in 2:8 humbling himself by becoming obedient to death. The root of the word ‘transform’ is the word ‘form’ that we saw in 2:8 being found in human form. The root of the word ‘conform’ is a different word for ‘form’ that we saw in 2:6-7 where Jesus existed in the form of God, and took on the form of a slave. The power to subject all things to himself parallels the idea of 2:9-11 where the Father super-exalts Jesus so that every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior we eagerly anticipate from heaven.

Jesus existed in the form of God, and humbled himself by taking on the form of a slave. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who will transform our humble bodies to be conformed to the pattern of his glorious body. The one who eternally existed in the very form or outward appearance of God now gives us citizenship that exists in heaven.

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

The language here also links us back to Philippians 3:10; this power to subject all things to himself is the resurrection power Paul longs to experience in his pursuit of knowing Jesus. Being conformed or being like his glorious body is necessarily preceded by knowing him in being conformed to or becoming like him in his death.

Philippians 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

Our aim is to be like Jesus, to have the mind of Jesus, to participate in his sufferings, to be conformed to his humble sacrifice for the good of others. To look not only to our own interests, but also the interests of others. We are not to be characterized by selfish ambition or conceit, but humbly count others more significant than ourselves.

Subjecting All Things To Himself

In chapter 2, it was the Father who highly exalted Jesus, who causes every knee to bow to Jesus, and every tongue to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Philippians 3 takes this a step further. 3:21 tells us that it is the working of Jesus’ own power that subjects all things to himself. This is yet another pointer to the total God-ness, the full deity of Jesus.

Jesus said in John 10:

John 10:17 ​For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 ​No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

We can be confident that he who began a good work in us will be able to bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus, because his own resurrection power, the working of power that sovereignly subjects all things to himself is the power that will be at work to transform out lowly bodies to be like his glorious body.

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org