Funeral Sermon on Dr John Owen

Phil. iii. 21. “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.”

The occasion why I pitch upon these words at this time, you are not unacquainted with. The apostle in the beginning of this chapter, warns the Philippians to beware of false teachers; he enforceth this with several arguments, the principal of which are drawn from his own example, in the body of the chapter; and then he concludes it with an elegant antithesis, opposing them to himself, and those that faithfully follow Christ with him: he makes use of this to enforce the dissuasive [from an evil conversation,] in a subserviency to his main scope, ver. 19–21, “Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things. But our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” You may observe an antithesis in all this; they mind earthly things, but our conversation is in heaven; their God is their belly, but we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; their end is destruction, but our end is glory; their glory is shameful, they glory in their shame, but our glory shall be like that of our Lord Jesus Christ; that which they count most glorious, is shameful; but that which is vilest amongst us, shall be glorious: “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.”