20 Dec January 8th Daily Devotion

A SERIES OF DEVOTIONS BASED ON PAUL’S LETTER TO THE  CHURCH AT PHILIPPI

OUR CITIZENSHIP IS IN HEAVEN – Part II

Philippians 3:20-21 “ . . . we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.”

Transformers have been a popular toy and movie characters for a long time.  Young children, especially boys, are captivated by the way they can take what looks like a person and change it into something entirely different.  Hence the name transformers.

Today’s devotional verse uses the same word.  It says that Jesus will “transform your lowly body to become like His glorious body.”  No toy manufacturer is capable of creating such a transformation.  No individual person has the ability to transform themselves into something different than they currently are.  Only Jesus is able to transform your “lowly body,” the one your currently have into a complete new and different one.  All that is known about this transformed body is that it is “like His.”

1 Corinthians 15, starting at verse 43 tells you a bit about this new body:  “If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. . . flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable . . . We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed . . .  the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (verses 43-54)

This is the transformation Jesus will bring about with your current earthly body. He will transform it into one that is spiritual, imperishable, and immortal.

Prayer:  Come Lord Jesus!  I am ready! Come quickly!  Amen.

(This hymn is normally sung on Easter morning)

“Christ the Lord is ris’n today!” Saints on earth and angels say;

Raise your joys and triumphs high; Sing, ye heav’ns, and earth, reply.

Love’s redeeming work is done, Fought the fight, the battle won;

Lo! Our Sun’s eclipse is o’er; Lo! He sets in blood no more.

Vain the stone, the watch, the seal;

Christ hath burst the gates of hell

Death in vain forbids His rise; Christ has opened paradise.

Lives again our glorious King! Where, O death, is now thy sting?

Once He died our souls to save; Where thy victory, O grave?

Soar we now where Christ has led; foll’wing our exalted head.

Made like Him, like Him we rise;

Ours the cross, the grave, the skies.

Hail the Lord of earth and heav’n! Praise to Thee by both be giv’n!

Thee we greet triumphant now; Hail, the resurrection, Thou!

(LSB 469)