Mark 9:1-10 And he said to them, Truly I say to you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death… The transfiguration of our Lord admonishes us of a change which we are to undergo in this life. We must be conformed in our souls and spirits, and the use of our bodies, to the image of the Son of God (Romans 8:29), while we are here, so that we may be conformed to the body of His glory hereafter (Philippians 3:21). O, then, what a stake have we in our treatment of this body. We must keep it in all holiness, even on its own account, and not only because it ministers to soul and spirit. In this same body we are to meet the Lord, and upon the use of it depends the condition in which we shall meet Him, in glory or contempt. We must serve Him and do His work in it now, if we hope to serve Him in it in His heavenly and everlasting kingdom hereafter. But how can we serve Him in it, if we employ it in the service of a different and contrary master? And how can we keep it pure and undefiled as His peculiar vessel, if we be not watchful against the advances of that master, who has so many natural friends in its house? For has not Satan fast friends in its corrupt affections and sinful passions? Look at the man who has clouded his reason, palsied his limbs, by strong drink. See the disgusting, degrading spectacle of his helplessness; hear the revilings, the folly, the blasphemings of his imperfect speech. Can such a one entertain any serious thoughts about the body that shall be? Can he be living in the hope of being glorified together with Jesus Christ? See another man. His body is seen anywhere else but in this place, where is the assembling of the body of Christ in one body, one spirit, to give glory and worship to our great Head, with one mind, with one mouth; to stand before that throne where sits the Son of Man at the right hand of God, in that body which suffered and rose again. What can he care about the most precious privilege of the body that shall he; the standing face to face before his Saviour in a like body, amid the company of His saints in glorified bodies? In the same manner we may go on and deal with sins less open and gross than these, and show how inconsistent they all are with any hope of a joyful resurrection in a glorified body; and how necessary is the bath of tears of repentance to all who commit them, that so their sins may be washed out for the sake of Jesus Christ, and they may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless. Now, therefore, while yet it is the season, let us do the things which concern the body that shall be. Our present body is the seed of the body to come. It may be as unlike it, as the small black shapeless seed of the tulip is to that beautiful flower. Still it is the seed, and according as we sow it, we shall reap. If it go into the ground laden with sin, ignorant of God's service, the mere corrupt remains of what has been expended in folly, in idleness, in unprofitableness, in rebellion against the commandments of God, in neglect of duties, in abuse of privileges, then it will come out of it a vile and noxious weed, which shall be cast into the everlasting fire. But if the sinner shall turn away from his sin, and by a change of heart and life conform to the example of Christ; if he will take his body out of the service of sin, and conformity to the world, and use it in the service of righteousness; if he will thus, in this world, be transformed into the likeness of the body of Christ, in all temperance, in all purity, in all deeds of holy living, then he will have "sown to the Spirit"; and of the Spirit he shall, through the Lord and Giver of life, reap life everlasting. In a body, no longer of flesh and blood (which cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven), in a spiritual body, compared with the glory and powers of which the most beautiful body in the flesh is corruption, the strongest and most healthy is the impotence of death; he shall stand on the everlasting mount of heaven, transfigured from this mortal body in the raiment of a body shining as the sun, white as no fuller on earth can white, and gathered into the company of the sons of God, such as Moses and Elias, and beholding the Son of God in eternal glory face to face, shall say with the joyful cry of the song of the full sense of thankful blessedness, "Master, it is good for us to be here." (R. W. Evans.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. |
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