| HIS BODY GLORIOUS! Of all phrases filled with precious meaning for the believer, this is an outstanding one. Soiled by the dust of conflict, and weakened by the trials of the way, we find in the associated words a prospect to meet our case. An overwhelming grandeur is borne in upon us by the forcefulness of contrast. The body of our humiliation, asleep or awake, is to be so transfigured as to conform to His body glorious. And how crystal clear the picture presented! Our citizenship, our true activity, belongs to the heavens. We belong there, not here. And so we await Him, the great Transfigurer, Whose wonderful presence will effect the marvelous change. The body of our humiliation. Humiliation, indeed! whispers the world spirit. And yet, time was, when in that spirit we had confidence in the flesh, when pride, in one or more of its insidious forms, ruled will and way. Then was there much that appeared as gain, and we little thought of the depths of truth involved by such a precious Scripture. The world has no prize for humiliation, even as it had no place for the One Who humbled Himself. It hugs to itself the reputations of its great ones, and renders homage to all but the Prince of Life. Body of humiliation! Broadcast it not in the halls of learning, and in the professions breathe it not. Thus, the world. But how much for the believer the expression holds! The measure of our understanding is determined by the knowledge of our limitations, by the realization of imperfection and frailty of frame. And as we walk in the light, so are we more and more conscious of the missing of the mark, the coming short of His glory Who created us for sublime uses. Yet in the very acceptance of this estimate of self lies the sweetness of our redemption, both now and hereafter. And so, unmindful of the world's judgment, and unblinded by its flaming colors of self advertisement, the child of God knows only too well the immensity of meaning in the phrase. How ruled is this body of ours by its five senses, so prone to fall beneath the lure of the world and the adversary! O for the full stature of Christ, below which we so often come! Yet even He knew those deprivations of that body, which have made Him the illustrious sharer of a frame and form which is now His body glorious. Identified with us in the past, that in the future we may be identified with Him in all that pertains to glory. Weakness and defeat mar the body now. And the consciousness of it grows with the passing of the years. The exercise of gift and of various activities, is circumscribed with such a body, and in such a world. Could we but live in even a more natural atmosphere, we should have more time and taste for the spiritual. But we are surrounded by artificialities, by false standards and values that rob us daily of that superabundance of life we should enjoy. The world is taken up with its two great questions. What shall we eat? What shall we wear? And it is as if these and other elements of life were part of that gigantic brickmaking system which, Pharaoh-like, would encroach on the hours of worship and that higher service we would render the Lord Christ. But, thanks be to God, we are to be snatched away from this feverish imperfect scene, with all its inadequacy to meet the wants of real spiritual life. And what then? We are to be transfigured. For, in harmony with the life celestial, a spiritual body is necessary. Now, our bodies are soulish and of the soil, and the spirit is hampered thereby, as we daily prove. The senses are paramount, calling for curb and mortification that we may apprehend and enjoy things spiritual. In the words of the apostle, "flesh and blood is not able to enjoy an allotment in the kingdom of God." Therefore, "we shall be changed." Asleep or awake, we are waiting for this. And for some of us there will be no need for the last tender ministry of loved ones, no call for the solemn cortege to the cemetery where the words "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust" so pierce our sorrowing hearts. Straight from toil or leisure we shall be snatched away, but how gloriously, and to what high purpose! As for those who are reposing, it will be just as glorious, for there will be one grand simultaneous movement "in accord with the operation which enables Him to subject even the universe to Himself." And for all the members of His body it means the entrance upon a great, great splendor of life, to which, in earnest expectation, God turned our wayward hearts. It is good at times to think of the nature and marvel of such a change. For we may engage in a train of thought quite within the range of Scripture and the limits of wise imagination. The change is so wonderfully comprehensive, and the contrasts so clean cut as portrayed for us in the Corinthian epistle. Now, a soulish body, soilish, corruptible, mortal. Then, a spiritual body, celestial, incorruptible, immortal. Here is a strong fourfold fact to go upon. This soulish body, so easily a prey to the senses, of the earth, earthy, liable to corruption and mortal, is to be transfigured for life in a new sphere. And how much this will mean! Service then will be marked with unswerving constancy, unbroken joy, and with an intensity that feels no weariness when even ages have rolled away. With such thoughts in mind Paul writes of our "momentary light affliction" as "producing for us a transcendently transcendent eonian burden of glory. "And truly, for such glory language cannot be too superlative. Here, our approaches to God are so dependent on feeling and need. The fetters of circumstance so bind us, while unlifted cares and temperamental depressions disturb and afflict the mind. And although we soar at times, it is but to descend again, for after all, "we are but little children, weak." But then we shall be in our true element with faculties new, vigorous, strong and immortal. Moreover, all these faculties will be resident in, and will emanate from a real spiritual body. And such a sane and Scriptural thought is so thoroughly satisfying, as compared with the fantastic ideas of evolution and spiritism. There is no need for us to indulge in the anticipation of spiritual employment on the gross, elusive lines depicted by these religious evolutionists. Ours will be no Dantesque existence, but calm, God-worshiping, God-serving life in celestial realms. Life, pulsating permanently in a spiritual body fashioned for all its purposes, just because it conforms to His body glorious. A spiritual body. Body it will be, and fashioned as God wills. And as, in our present body "we wear the image of the soilish," so then shall we "be wearing the image of the celestial." This body has a high destiny because Christ has dwelt in it, even as this earth has a high destiny, because Christ walked upon it. Therefore, in a body sublimated and changed for life and action in a new environment, there will most surely be a sweet and exalted consciousness of the equipments of that fair realm. Shall we not see all that is beautiful in form and structure, beautiful to the praise of God, and to the ecstasy of His own? Feelings then unwearied, find their true expression, thought and speech a joy profound. And so many will be the impressions of His beauty and grace, that voice and vision will most happily unite as we move to the majestic rhythm of God's will. Again, can we not truly think that life in a spiritual body will mean the consummation of the ideal in concrete forms of the true, the dignified, the just, the pure, the agreeable and the renowned? In a flash as it were, we step right into perfection, undimmed, and unalloyed. Down here, in spite of the findings of science, and the results of invention and research, this world gives but little and takes too much. It uses bit and spur, giving but little time for the pasture lands. And, with all its variety, and changing scenes, its impotence and inadequacy does but give force and point to the grandeur of our theme. His body glorious. We rest in the thought of all that this must mean. At the very center of our expectation is our glorious Lord Himself, in all the wealth of His wondrous personality. And even as now our faith is concerned with Him, so then it will be from Him that these bodies of humiliation will receive the marvelous change. Not in evolution, back of which is an elusive, impersonal, and so-called "Higher Power," do we find our joy and strength. An eminent scientist recently gave his views on the future life, but there was no mention of Christ or God. An intangible, hazy philosophy, circling round an exalted self, was its essence. He remarked that "the destiny of the individual depends largely on himself. We sit at the helm and can choose our path. Already mankind has thrown up Plato and Shakespeare and Newton, like mountain peaks which catch the rising sun before the valleys and the plain; and when the average man has reached this altitude, what will the peaks be then?" How much more heartening, because real and true, is our great stimulus! Looking for and loving His advent is the most cleansing and refreshing nerve tonic we can have. The "I" and "we" are swallowed up in "Him" and "His." For the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is our Expectation, so that we have no need to share the vague ideas of survival after death, common to the cultured scientist and the savage he despises. And so, as the members of His body we invest the central words of our theme with the fullest meaning they can hold for heart and mind. They are charged with a grandeur worldly wisdom could never conceive, for they breathe of grace the world has never known. In action the most joy-thrilling we can know, physical and mental disabilities will vanish forever. Gladsome life of perfect and highest order will pulsate in forms of beauty and grace. All that we now lament, gone. All that we can sincerely crave, for His glory and our good, a blessed possession. Transfiguration. What heights of superabounding life! What vivid impressions of illustrious power and grace, impressions continually experienced, gathered from the marvels of His administration. The church, His body, will have come to its own, truly wearing the purple of His Kingship. Right will win at once, eliciting, not only our service, but our profound appreciation of the worth and wisdom of His royal way. Now, we are but at the portal of His grace, gaining glimpses. But then it will be a grand Stepping forth on the broad avenues of God's true world, with powers unhampered and unwearied. May we so anticipate these things as to be refreshed, and graced with the spiritual insignia of our high inheritance! The night is far spent, but its song is of Him.
|