Ver. 49.-" The image of the heavenly." According to the reading of the original which is adoptecl, this passage bears an indicative or an imperative meaning. If imperative, then it is an admonition to cultivate and perfect in our character and life, even now upon C'arth, the moral and spiritual image of the Divine Lord. If imlicative and future, then it is an assertion that, in the coming time, the time of celestial glory, Christians shall bear the image of the heavenly. I. WnosE IMAGE 1s THIS? 'l'he answer to this question cannot be doubtful. The heavenly Ooe, whose image Christians are to reflect, can be none other than the Divine Lord himself. 'l'here is a measure in which this resemblance is attainell even upon earth, ancl many admonitions are addressed to Christians, to cultivate moral resemblance to their great and glorious Head. But in the future state hindrances to assimilation shall be removed; and "we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John iii. 2). As St. Paul expresses it elsewhere, we shall be" changed into the same <image." So that the apostles agree as to what shall constitute the peculiar privilege and glory of the coming state of felicity. II. IN WHAT DOES THIS IMAGE CONSIST? 1. It is a spiritual likeness, consisting not in the similarity of form or feature, but in that of character, of moral life. 2. It is a likeness in true holiness. God's holy Child or Servant, Jesus, is the ruodel of all purity and perfection, and to be like Christ is to be hol_y even as he is holy. 3. It corresponds to God's original intention as to what man should be. He at first created I. CORINTHIANS. 2 M 530 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO 'l'HE CORINTHIANS. [cu. xv. 1-68.
man in his own image; and although that image was marred by sin, grace restores it; and the great Father and Lord of all beholds his orio-inal 0 conception realized in tho regenerated and glorified humanity. III. lh_ WHOM IS THIS IMAGE_ ~ARTICIPATED? 1. Properly spealcing, it will be nppare1;1t _m all those who b)'. p1vmo gr>1ce are brought upon earth to the enjoyment of Clmstmn character and privilege, and who are led safely home to glory. It is the family likeness by which the spiritual children are identified. 2. 'l'hero is a wider sense in which all the holy intelligences who people heaven may be considered as bearing this )mage.. There arc th~s~ who have not borne the image of the earthly~ who from then· creat10n have been c1t1zcns of the heavenly Jerusalem, in whom appear the spiritual lineaments which are the mark of a Divine parentaoe and the earnest of a blessed immortality. c- .A.PPLICATIOX. Tha_t this imag~ may be borne in all its brightness and beauty hereafter and above, its first rudiments must be traced here. The life of faith . obedience, and aspiration is the divinely appointed preparation for the olories and felicities of heaven. Aud no religion is of worth which does not form and ~herish the spiritual likeness which alone can qualify for the employments and the society of heaven.-T.
Vers. 54-57.-The victory of immortality. In this, as in some other passages of St. Paul's writings, logic breaks into rhetoric, prose into poetry, reasoning into fervid exclamation. Anxious to convince, the apostle was nevertheless of a temperament too fervid to be restrained within the boundaries of argument. And when his soul was lifted up above the level of human thought, when inspiration eanied him into the third heaven, then he could 1no longer discourse; but discourse kindled into song. If there is any passage in his wntings titted to fan the burning fire of feeling into the flame of enthusiasm, it is the sublime argument by which he seeks to give definiteness, point, certainty, and attractiveness to the life to come. I. THE GREAT CHANGE TO BE EXPERIENCED. Our earthly state is characterized by corruptibility and immortality. That this is so is indeed a rebuke to human vanity,. yet it is unquestionable. .An apostle terms our earthly vesture, "this body of our humiliation," and the designation is just. We live a dying life, carrying within us the seeds of our mortality. Vast and wonderful to contemplate is the change which shall take place in the passage from time to eternity. Incorruption and immortality shall. be the vesture of the saved and glorified. The apostle, hearing about in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus, must have anticipated with joy the promised release from. earthly infirmities and sufferings, from all the troubles to which the burden of the body exposes the servant of Christ. IL THE GREAT VICTORY TO BE WON. According to the view of St. Paul, there are three great enemies with whom the Christian has to contend, and conflict with whom. mars the happiness and breaks the peace of this earthly condition. 'l'hey are the Law, sin, and death. Sin is the goad with which death makes a thrust at the Christian soldier, and it is the Law which makes sin so sharp, powerful, and formidable a weapon. Over all these the glorified Christian h!ll! obtained a victory, in the might and by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. .Anticipating the conquest, the Christian, even here and now,. rejoices in the assured defeat and discomfiture of his formidable foes. He seems already to drag them in triumph at his chariot-wheels, already to be more than conqueror through Christ who loved him. III. THE GREAT THANKSGIVING TO DE CELEBRATED. 1. The Source ::mcl Author of victory is God himself. No power but his could have defeated foes so mighty, so malicious and so crafty. 2. The Me:liator of victory is the Lord Jesus Christ, who first conquered for us, and then conquers in and with us. His crucifixion, followed by his re~urrection, gave the death-blow to our enemy. This conviction may well give IIB· courage in carrying on the spiritual war, and in looking forwarcl to its issue with con- tidence and hope. "Hell uud thy sins resist thy course, Dut hell and sin are vanquished foes; Thy Jesus nailed them to the cross, Aud sang the triumph when he rose." T. ou. xv. 1-58.) 'l'HE FIRS'l' EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIAKS. 531