, 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.
In our last we noticed the context, and also taken into consideration
the language of Paul on the coming of Christ and the change of the
living in Phil. iii:20, 21. This, we have shown, has no reference to
the mortal bodies of men being changed to immortal bodies, so as to
resemble the personal form of Jesus Christ. If it refer to Jesus,
still the resemblance would be _moral, not personal_, for no where do
the scriptures teach, that we are in our personal appearance to be
like our Saviour. But in a _moral_ sense, "we shall be like him, for
we shall see him as he is." I do not say, that there will be no
_personal_ resemblance between immortal beings and Christ. I fully
believe there will be; but I mean that this personal resemblance is
more a matter of course, than a doctrine of divine revelation. I do
not read of the "glorious body" of Jesus in his immortal resurrection
state. But the scriptures do compare the moral body of Christians on
earth with the glorified body of holy beings in heaven, Heb. xii:22,
23--"But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an in-numerable company of angels
to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are
written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of
just men made made perfect." So far as the Christians were
"established unblamable in holiness before God even our Father at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints" so far as they
were elevated to "shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the
stars forever" so far as their moral condition and enjoyments were
improved and enlarged, thus far, of course, the _lowly body_ of the
church on earth would be changed into a moral resemblance of that
"glorious body" of Christ, who were praising him in heaven. In
_heaven_ the Christians had their conversation, from whence they were
looking for the Saviour, as shortly to come, and fashion them into a
moral resemblance of those sa
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