Philippians 3:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"Who," he says, "will transform our lowly body." Our body now suffers much. It is bound, beaten, and endures countless afflictions. But Christ's Body endured the same things. He hints at this when he says, "that it may be conformed to His glorious Body." Therefore, although the body is the same, it is clothed with immortality. "He will transform it," he says. Accordingly, it will have another form. Or else he called the change this by a non-literal usage. He said "our lowly body" because it is now humbled and subject to corruption and sickness. Now it appears insignificant and in no way better than other bodies. "That it may be conformed," he says, "to His glorious Body." Alas! This body will be conformed to that Body which sits at the right hand of the Father.

"Who will transform our lowly body." Now our body endures many things. It is bound, scourged, and subjected to countless calamities. Therefore it is called a lowly body because it is subject to corruption and dissolution. But it will be transformed. That is, while remaining the same, it will be clothed with incorruption. For transformation must be understood as deliverance from corruption. "So that it may be conformed to His glorious body." Since, he says, our body has become like Christ's Body through communion in sufferings, it will become like it also in His glory. Ah! What has he said? Our body will be conformed to that Body which the angels worship and which sits at the right hand of the Father. Our body will be like that all-glorious Body and will be glorified as it is.

He, on the day of our resurrection, will transform the body of our humiliation. Within the depths below, in the grave, it becomes worthless dust. He will make it conformed to the body of His glory, that is, to immortal life.

With this life He clothed it according to the power of His might, so that He could subject all things to Himself. That is, He acts according to the might of His power, which He manifested in His own body.

For as His body was renewed, so the renewed bodies of all men will be subject to Him.

Through the resurrection of the dead and their transformation into glory, the Lord's authority will reveal itself. He will subject to Himself every principality and power, and He will bear witness that He is God and Lord of all.

Thus they have clung to the earth, but we mind heaven and await the Master's coming from there. For the Lord, freeing our body from corruption, will adorn it with immortality. As a pledge of this hope, He has given us the fact that He raised His own body and filled it with glory. The Apostle used the word "transform" to signify not a change of form, but deliverance from corruption. He said that our body will become conformed to the body of His glory, not in the quantity of glory, but in its quality. For our body also will be light-bearing. The Lord will do this as the One who possesses ineffable power. He easily brings corruption and death to an end, changes our bodies into immortality, and brings all to lift their gaze to Him.

Such perfect subjection is possible after subjection to the faith. The Apostle bears witness to this when he says, "He will transform our lowly body to be conformed to His glorious body, by the power by which He works and subjects all things to Himself."

This subjection consists in the passage from one nature into another. While He ceases to be in the former nature, it is subjected to the new. The former does not cease to exist, but advances in existence.

In this change it is subjected to the new nature, according to its transition into the new state that it has received.

When we rise and are changed, becoming spiritual in soul, body, and spirit, our lowly body will rise. These three elements are united in one man and are one spirit. It will be conformed, that is, it will have the appearance equal and identical to the image of Christ's glorious Body. And we shall become spirit, as He Himself is Spirit. In this place the mystery of the resurrection is contained. For what Christ accomplished in the flesh means that He must save souls and grant immortality to the body through the resurrection. This was accomplished by the power of the Cross.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Apostle says, "will transform the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory" (Phil 3:21). For now it sometimes happens that the human body is in humiliation and dishonor, enduring demonic assaults. Often, through the soul's own negligence, it falls into certain vices and defilements. Sometimes it is enslaved and deeply humbled by sin. At the very time of death and burial, it is dragged over the earth with humiliation and dishonor, and is given over to it in great poverty. For it is said, "It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory" (1 Cor 15:43). But at the resurrection of all mankind, our body will put off corruption and humiliation. It will rise adorned with the glory and majesty of Christ the Savior. It will no longer be led astray into sin and corruption. It will no longer be humbled by mortality, vanity, and sufferings. Rather, through endless ages it will remain incorruptible.

Thus Paul says that those are immortal who long to sin no more, for they delight in divine joy. Such is the commandment for the blessed, of whom it is said, "They abide as the angels of God in heaven" (Mt 22:30).

"He will transform the body of our humiliation." Developing his rebuking thought, the Apostle says that not only debauchery and gluttony are foreign to the future heavenly life. Even the ordinary life of the body with its needs is not suited to it. Therefore the body, the conditions of its existence, and everything that belongs to and marks human life on earth must be radically changed. Jesus Christ showed us the example of such a change in His body after the Resurrection. In other places the Apostle calls our future body spiritual, incorruptible, heavenly, and glorious (1 Cor 15:44, 53). Here he calls it conformed to Christ's glorious Body. In these words lies a profound basis and, at the same time, an explanation of why we die even after death has been destroyed by the victorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The opposite and destructive example of false teachers who forget the highest purpose of life. The Holy Apostle gives this example as a clear proof of the falsity of the teaching of fanatical zealots for Judaism, who tried to draw the Philippians after themselves. As a good tree is distinguished from a bad one by its fruits, so by one's life it is always possible to know who is a true teacher and who is a false teacher. Phil 3:17-4:1. Look at how these Judaizing false teachers live. They are those "of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears," as enemies of the Cross of Christ (Phil 3:18). "Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and their glory is in their shame. They mind earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ," and so forth. "Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved!" (Phil 3:19-20).

As the lot of those who err in their thoughts about life is destructive, so, by contrast, those who believe rightly and live holily will be saved. They will receive heavenly citizenship, for which they are partly prepared here. Christ entered in order to raise them to it, and He will come again. By His action our whole being will be completely transformed, so that it may be conformed to Christ's Body and capable of that spiritual life beyond the heavens. According to Bishop Theophan's explanation, here the Apostle "brings to its close the discourse begun at the start of this section, namely, that he desires to attain the glorious resurrection through communion in Christ's sufferings. He has explained from every side the necessity of this communion and stirs up zeal for it.

"Who will transform the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory." This is the aim of the whole discourse. Christ's Body is glorified, but first it suffered. Let us enter into suffering with it through voluntary ascetic labors and deprivations, and through involuntary sorrows. Then the Lord, when He comes, will transform our body. On earth it was made like His Body in sufferings, and He will make it a glorious body, as His glorified Body is glorious. He will transform it, not by giving it a new form, but by clothing it with new qualities. From corruptible He will make it incorruptible. From weak He will make it strong. From coarse and dark He will make it subtle and light-bearing. It will become such as the Body of the risen Lord is.

If Christ, having descended from heaven, will transform our lowly body to be conformed to His glorious body, then our body will rise again. It has been humbled by sufferings and cast down to earth by the very law of death.