Chapter XX
We a,”e informed that both Moses and Elijah appeared also in glory! — a glory somewhat similar, vje may suppose, though far inferior, to that with -which Christ xvas invested. Like him, they were probably clothed in raiment of unusual whiteness ajid splendor; and the form of their countenances might also be changed to something brighter and more illustrious. No’lV this tvould be a Just representation of the glorified state of saints in heaven. Particular attestation was given on the mount to two of its principal doctrines: a general resurrection and a day of retribution. — Bishop Portkus.
The change will not be in material substance nor shape. Christ was of the same form, shape, and substance after his resurrection as before, but refined, glorified. Xhe marvelous change is based simply on the power of God, who, out of the same substance and material, can make so many diverse things. Many most serious, pernicious errors have had their origin in the failure to discriminate between the two — the resurrection of the body and its miraculous change. The error among some Corinthians about the doctrine of the resurrection seems to be the modern idea that this body, earthly, dull, low, and fleshly in its nature and appetences, was thereby unfitted for the heavenly life, and would not be raised. The Bible comes in and says it will be changed and refined in substance — not new, but changed to meet changed conditions. The husband builds a house ample and well fitted to his uses when first married, family small; but when the family enlarges and conditions change, with ample means he does not build a new house, but out of the substance and material of the old he changes his home.
Paul avers God’s ability to change the body by referring to nature in seed-sowing. The farmer in his wheat sows a bare grain; God is able to take that grain of wheat and so alter it that it comes out in a blade and stalk — the body that God chooses to give it. Then God takes the substance — flesh, mere flesh — and he changes some of it into the highest order of flesh, flesh of men; then he changes the same substance into a coarser fabric, flesh of beasts, another flesh of fishes, and another part he fashions flesh of birds — showing God’s power to endlessly diversify the same substance. Then God’s ability extends to make out of the same material heavenly bodies for heavenly uses, and earthly bodies for earthly uses. Not only does God’s illimitable power extend to diversifying the same flesh into various kinds, not only does his power enable him to make out of the same substance bodies for low earthly uses and also for high heavenly uses; but the power by which he can diversify and make the same substance diverse in its glory, like the sun, moon, and stars, all the same in substance and form but different in glory by God’s power. So the argument that God can change the elements and material of this body make it all glorious. So he replies to the heterodox Corinthian who in the spirit of unfaith asked: “How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?” Raised up, says Paul, by the power of God, and changed, J 54 says Paul, to fit the demands of the resurrection life.
We have the distinct and luminous statement in Philippians: “For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may he conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself.”
The time of the change will be at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” And he (the Lord Jesus Christ) will fashion anew this body of our humiliation — the old body. The pattern of new fashioning of our bodies will be his own glorious body, nothing higher, nothing richer, nothing diviner, nothing more beautiful than the glorified body of Jesus. We have in the transfiguration of Jesus a glance at his glorious body. As
Trench says: “The transfiguration has ever been contemplated in the Church as a prophecy of the glory which the saints shall have in the resurrection. As was the body of Christ on the mount, so hereafter shall their bodies be. In passages out of number we have hints of the luminous character of the future glorified bodies of the redeemed. All these scriptures pointing to the glorious conformity of their bodies then, with all which his body at this time was, who now showed in himself as the first fruits of the new creation what hereafter he would show in all them that were his.” How luminous his body the night of the transfiguration! They describe it: “His face did shine as the sun, his garments became white as the light.” “His garments became glistering, exceeding white; so as no fuller on earth can whiten them.” “And as he was praying, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became white and dazzling.” Glory was there! Moses and Elijah appeared in glory.
The pattern after which our resurrection will be found is the glorified body of Christ This is not only hinted at, but distinctly asserted in the Bible: “And so it is written, The first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterwards that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”