Conformity unto His death will be that of the cross, in contrast with which the apostle

speaks of those whose God is their belly, who mind earthly things, and so constitute

themselves the enemies of the cross (Phil. 3: 18, 19). Have all believers the body of

humiliation? If we take into account the scope of Phil. 2: & 3: and the evident

association of the example of Christ's sufferings and humbling with the apostle's

voluntary fellowship therewith, we are led to doubt whether it can be true of all believers.

Just as the prize, though open to all, is attained only by those who follow the example of

Paul here set forth, so the words of Phil. 3: 21 are to interpreted, in their first and fullest

sense, not of all members of the body, but of those in view in this epistle, viz., those who

leave all and press on, who not only have died with Christ, but who have had fellowship

with His sufferings and who have been so conformed to His death that they have shared

the likeness of the body of humiliation that was His.

Paul uses this same word "humiliation" in Phil. 4: 12: "I know both how to be

abased, tapeinoo" (same word in 2: 8). Whatever our view may be as to the applicability

of this term to all believers, one thing is beyond argument and that is, that the body of the

believer here and the body of resurrection glory are intimately connected. We are too

fully aware of the apostle's rejoinder in I Cor. 15: 36 to speculate here, and as we know

that in the resurrection God giveth a body as it pleases Him, we are not justified in

speaking slightingly of the body or of adopting the language of spiritism in our zeal. The

Corinthians to whom I Cor. 15: was written were also told that their body was the

temple of the Holy Ghost, and that in those very bodies they might glorify God.

We may come nearer to Phil. 3: than that, for in Phil. 1: Paul says: "Christ shall be

magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death" (Phil. 1: 20).

Anastasis never means translation, and even when qualified by ex remains a

resurrection still. The theme of Philippians is not the basic teaching of the church which

is His body, where the standing is all of grace, but rather is it an exhortation to the

members of the body to run with patience the race set before them, with fellowship in the

humiliation of Christ here, and the transfiguring of the body of humiliation when the

out-resurrection or the blessed change is experienced and the prize of the high calling is