Conformity with (conformed) (4832) summorphos

Conformity with (4832) (summorphos from sun [click discussion of sun] = together with + morphe [word study] = form, regarded as the distinctive nature and character of the object, contrast with schema = the outward, changeable fashion) means to have the same form or nature as another In this context Paul refers to the conformity of children of God "to the image of His Son", of their physical conformity to His body of glory, the body in which He appears in His present glorified state. Our glorified/transformed bodies will finally permit us to be the creations God intended for us to be so that we might enjoy perfect fellowship with Him forever. Vincent commenting on Philippians 3:21 writes that... As the body of Christ’s glory is a spiritual body, this word (summorphos) is appropriate to describe a conformation to what is more essential, permanent, and characteristic. Paul is saying that our outward and inner man will be brought into conformity with Christ John writing in a parallel passage... Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. (1John 3:2-notes) Although, this process will not be consummated until Christ's return, it is going on now , Paul explaining that... we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are (continually = present tense) being transformed (metamorphoo = a continual change of our form proceeding from and being truly representative of one’s inward character and nature = Christ in us the hope [absolute assurance of] of glory [glorification]) into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2Cor 3:18) The related verb morphoo does not refer to what is outward and transient, but to what is inward and real. Hence on the Mount of Transfiguration that glory which was Christ's own, His essential and eternal inner divine nature, shone outward, for a brief time and to a limited degree, through the veil that concealed it during the days of His flesh. Our inner redeemed nature also is one day to be manifested outwardly, marking a change on the outside that comes from the inside (an "inside job" so to speak). Paul is describing "future tense salvation" or glorification. (Click discussion of the three tenses of salvation). Paul used the verb form summorphoo earlier in this chapter writing... that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed (present tense -continually) to His death (Php 3:10-note) The only other use of summorphos in the NT is also by Paul who writes... For whom He (God) foreknew, He also predestined [to become] (words in brackets added for flow) conformed (summorphos) to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren (Ro 8:29- note) Paul teaches the same truth in Colossians and When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. (see note Colossians 3:4) John Eadie writes of The adjective summorphon expresses a conformity which is the result of the change, though it agrees with soma, the object acted on by the Lord Jesus. The term doxes (glory) characterizes Christ's soma, as containing or possessing it. For that body is enshrined in lustre, and occupies the highest position in the universe. We know not all the elements of its glory. But we know somewhat. The scene on the hill of transfiguration was an anticipative glimpse, when the face “marred more than any man's,” glowed with deeper than solar splendour, and the robes, soiled and tattered by frequent journeys, shone with a purer lustre than the snow. When He appeared at the arrest of Saul in the neighbourhood of Damascus, His glory dimmed the mid-day sun, and before the symbolical apparition in Patmos, the disciple who had lain in His bosom was so overpowered, that He “fell at his feet as dead.” After He rose, and even before He ascended, His body had lost all its previous sense of pain and fatigue, and possessed new and mysterious power of self-conveyance. Now it lives in heaven. Our body is therefore reserved to a high destiny—it shall be like His. The brightness of heaven does not oppress Him, neither shall it dazzle us. Our humanity dies, indeed, and is decomposed; but when He appears, it shall be raised and beautified, and fitted to dwell in a region which “flesh and blood cannot inherit.” Man has been made to dwell on earth, and on no other planet. If he is to spend a happy eternity in a distant sphere, his physical frame must be prepared for it. If he is to see God and yet live—to serve Him in a world where there is no night and no sleep—to worship Him in company with angels which have not the clog of an animal frame, and like them to adore with continuous anthem and without exhaustion — then, surely, his body must be changed, for otherwise it would soon be overpowered by such splendours, and would die of ecstasy amidst such enjoyments. The glory of heaven would speedily become a delicious agony. Therefore these bodies shall cease to be animal without ceasing to be human bodies, and they shall become “spiritual” bodies — etherealized vehicles for the pure spirit which shall be lodged within them. “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (The Epistle to the Philippians - online commentary at Google Books) Spurgeon in his sermon Power of Christ Illustrated writes the following concerning the "body of His glory"... When he shall come a second time he will change our vile body and fashion it like unto his glorious body. What a marvellous change! How great the transformation! How high the ascent! Our body in its present state is called in our translation a “vile body,” but if we translate the Greek more literally it is much more expressive, for there we find this corporeal frame called “the body of our humiliation.” Not “this humble body,” that is hardly the meaning, but the body in which our humiliation is manifested and enclosed. This body of our humiliation our Lord will transform until it is like unto his own. Here read not alone “his glorious body,” for that is not the most literal translation, but “the body of his glory;” the body in which he enjoys and reveals his glory. Our Savior had a body here in humiliation; that body was like ours in all respects except that it could see no corruption, for it was undefiled with sin; that body in which our Lord wept, and sweat great drops of blood, and yielded up his spirit, was the body of his humiliation. He rose again from the dead, and he rose in the same body which ascended up into heaven, but he concealed its glory to a very great extent, else had he been too bright to be seen of mortal eyes. Only when he passed the cloud, and was received out of sight, did the full glory of his body shine forth to ravish the eyes of angels and of glorified spirits. Then was it that his countenance became as the sun shining in its strength. Now, beloved, whatever the body of Jesus may be in his glory, our present body which is now in its humiliation is to be conformed unto it; Jesus is the standard of man in glory. “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Here we dwell in this body of our humiliation, but it shall undergo a change, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” Then shall we come into our glory, and our body being made suitable to the glory state, shall be fitly called the body of glory. We need not curiously pry into the details of the change, nor attempt to define all the differences between the two estates of our body; for “it doth not yet appear what we shall be,” and we may be content to leave much to be made known to us hereafter. Yet though we see through a glass darkly, we nevertheless do see something, and would not shut our eyes to that little. We know not yet as we are known, but we do know in part, and that part knowledge is precious. The gates have been ajar at times, and men have looked awhile, and beheld and wondered. Three times, at least, human eyes have seen something of the body of glory. The face of Moses, when he came down from the mount, shone so that those who gathered around him could not look thereon, and he had to cover it with a veil. In that lustrous face of the man who had been forty days in high communion with God, you behold some gleams of the brightness of glorified manhood. Our Lord made a yet clearer manifestation of the glorious body when he was transfigured in the presence of the three disciples. When his garments became bright and glistering, whiter than any fuller could make them, and he himself was all aglow with glory, his disciples sew end marvelled. The face of Stephen is a third window as it were through which we may look at the glory to be revealed, for even his enemies as they gazed upon the martyr in his confession of Christ, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Those three transient gleams of the morning light may serve as tokens to us to help us to form some faint idea of what the body of the glory of Christ and the body of our own glory will be. (read entire sermon ) The Christian who lives above the world draws closer to heaven. ><>><>><> Frozen Heads - A newspaper article told about a California mathematician with a life-threatening brain tumor who wants to have his head quick-frozen while he is still alive. The process is known as cryonic suspension. The man believes that scientists will discover a way to cure his tumor and attach his head to a healthy body. He is quoted as saying, "Everyone should be immortal. I am dying and want to continue to live." We can't fault that man for wanting to live forever in a healthy body. But we seriously question his method of fulfilling his desire. First, he has no assurance that this expensive procedure will work. Second, even if it did, its benefits would be only temporary. His new body and old head would die eventually. There is a way, however, to secure all the benefits that he desires. It is to receive Jesus as his Savior. When Christ returns to this earth, everyone who has trusted in Him will get a new body that will last forever and will never be subjected to disease or death. According to the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ "will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body" (Phil. 3:21). With a new, glorified body guaranteed to those in Christ, who would want a "frozen head"? -- R W De Haan (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved) He is coming! I shall know Him, Jesus, my beloved Lord! Changed forever to His likeness - Oh, what joy this will afford! - Dimmock Because Christ arose with a new body, We are guaranteed a new body. BY THE EXERTION OF THE POWER: kata ten energeian tou dunasthai (PPN) auton: (Isa 25:8; 26:19; Hos 13:14; Mt 22:29; 18" class="scriptRef">28:18; Jn 5:25, 26, 27, 28, 29; 11:24, 25, 26; 1Cor 15:25, 26, 27,53, 54, 55, 56; Eph 1:19,20; Rev 1:8,18; 20:11, 12, 13, 14, 15) Literally this verse reads "according to the energy of His being able". Not "out of" but "according to" as one who is incredibly wealthy gives generously. And this is the same "energy" that created the entire universe, so we can be sure He is able to complete that which He began in each and every believer. John Eadie comments that... The language implies that this change of our bodies is the special function which Christ shall discharge at His coming. We look for Him to do this—we anticipate it at His advent. (The Epistle to the Philippians - online commentary at Google Books) By (according to) (2596) (kata) means not out of, not just a portion of, but in proportion to His great mercy. If I am a billionaire and I give you ten dollars, I have given you out of my riches, but if I give you a million dollars, I have given to you according to my riches. The first is a portion, while the second is a proportion of. So in proportion to the energy presents a picture of indescribable power to accomplish the goal of glorification of our earthly bodies.

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Conformity with (conformed) (4832) summorphos

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