It will be noticed, by the reader, that the word _body_ is used in the
_singular_ number and not in the plural, as some have quoted it in
their writings. But if it refer to individual _forms_, it ought to be
rendered in the _plural_--"who shall change our vile _bodies."_ But it
means the whole church or body of believers--a collective body of
individuals. In this sense the Greek word, _soma_, here rendered
_body_ is frequently used in the New Testament. That the apostle does
not refer to all mankind is evident from the fact, that after the vile
body is changed according to the working, he adds--whereby he is able
_even_ to subdue all things unto himself--That is, able _even_ to
subdue all things as well as to change that body. If the passage refer
to an immortal and general resurrection, or rather to the change of
all the living into immortal beings, then there would be none to
subdue after that period. But if we apply it to the coming of Christ
in that generation, and to the change of the whole christian body,
then all is plain and in perfect agreement with the preceding and
succeeding context; also with 1 Cor. 15th chapter, and with the whole
tenor of revelation, which speaks of but _one coming_ of our Saviour
in his kingdom, and which shows that the work of subjection commenced
after the change of the living at the last trump, whose sound
announced the commencement of his reign. The word _kai_, rendered
_even_, should probably have been rendered _also_. "Who shall change
our lowly body--according to the working whereby he is able also to
subdue all things to himself." The whole context, however, justifies
the above exposition because the christians were looking for the
coming of Christ at the end of that age, and exclaimed, "the Lord is
at hand."
[To be continued.]
SERMON XXIII
"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 1
Cor. xv:20.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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