Chapter 3.—The One Death and Resurrection of The Body
of Christ Harmonizes with Our Double Death and Resurrection of Body
and Soul, to the Effect of Salvation. In What Way the Single Death
of Christ is Bestowed Upon Our Double Death.
5. But for our present need we must
discuss, so far as God gives us power, in what manner the single of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ answers to, and is, so to say, in
harmony with our double to the effect of salvation. We certainly,
as no Christian doubts, are dead both in soul and body: in soul,
because of sin; in body, because of the punishment of sin, and
through this also in body because of sin. And to both these parts
of ourselves, that is, both to soul and to body, there was need
both of a medicine and of resurrection, that what had been changed
for the worse might be renewed for the better. Now the death of the
soul is ungodliness, and the death of the body is corruptibility,
through which comes also a departure of the soul from the body. For
as the soul dies when God leaves it, so the body dies when the soul
leaves it; whereby the former becomes foolish, the latter lifeless.
For the soul is raised up again by repentance, and the renewing of
life is begun in the body still mortal by faith, by which men
believe on Him who justi
fies the ungodly;
450
and it is
increased and strengthened by good habits from day to day, as the
inner man is renewed more and more.
451
But the body, being as it were the
outward man, the longer this life lasts is so much the more
corrupted, either by age or by disease, or by various afflictions,
until it come to that last affliction which all call death. And its
resurrection is delayed until the end; when also our justification
itself shall be perfected ineffably. For then we shall be like Him,
for we shall see Him as He is.
452
But now, so long as the corruptible
body presseth down the soul,
453
and human life upon earth is all
temptation,
454
in His sight
shall no man living be justified,
455
in comparison of the righteousness
in which we shall be made equal with the angels, and of the glory
which shall be revealed in us. But why mention more proofs
respecting the difference between the death of the soul and the
death of the body, when the Lord in one sentence of the Gospel has
made either death easily distinguishable by any one from the other,
where He says, “Let the dead bury their dead”?
456
For burial
was the fitting disposal of a dead body. But by those who were to
bury it He meant those who were dead in soul by the impiety of
unbelief, such, namely, as are awakened when it is said, “Awake
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light.”
457
And there is
a death which the apostle denounces, saying of the widow, “But
she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.”
458
Therefore
the soul, which was before ungodly and is now godly, is said to
have come alive again from the dead and to live, on account of the
righteousness of faith. But the body is not only said to be about
to die, on account of that departure of the soul which will be; but
on account of the great infirmity of flesh and blood it is even
said to be now dead, in a certain place in the Scriptures, namely,
where the apostle says, that “the body is dead because of sin,
but the spirit is life because of righteousness.”
459
Now this
life is wrought by faith, “since the just shall live by
faith.”
460
But what
follows? “But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the
dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall
also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit which dwelleth in
you.”
461
6. Therefore on this double death
of ours our Saviour bestowed His own single death; and to cause
both our resurrections, He appointed beforehand and set forth in
mystery and type His own one resurrection. For He was not a sinner
or ungodly, that, as though dead in spirit, He should need to be
renewed in the inner man, and to be recalled as it were to the life
of righteousness by repentance; but being clothed in mortal flesh,
and in that alone dying, in that alone rising again, in that alone
did He answer to both for us; since in it was wrought a mystery as
regards the inner man, and a type as regards the outer. For it was
in a mystery as regards our inner man, so as to signify the death
of our soul, that those words were uttered, not only in the Psalm,
but also on the cross: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken
me?”
462
To which
words the apostle agrees, saying, “Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin;” since by the
crucifixion of the inner man are understood the pains of
repentance, and a certain wholesome agony of self-control, by which
death the death of ungodliness is destroyed, and in which death God
has left us. And so the body of sin is destroyed through such a
cross, that now we should not yield our members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin.
463
Because, if even the inner man
certainly is renewed day by day,
464
yet undoubtedly it is old before it
is renewed. For that is done inwardly of which the same apostle
speaks: “Put off the old man, and put on the new;” which he
goes on to explain by saying, “Wherefore, putting away lying,
speak every man truth.”
465
But where is lying put away, unless
inwardly, that he who speaketh the truth from his heart may inhabit
the holy hill of God?
466
But the resurrection of the body of
the Lord is shown to belong to the mystery of our own inner
resurrection, where, after He had risen, He says to the woman,
“Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father;”
467
with which
mystery the apostle’s words agree, where he says, “If ye then
be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God; set your thoughts
468
on things
above.”
469
For not to
touch Christ, unless when He had ascended to the Father, means not
to have thoughts
470
of Christ
after a fleshly manner. Again, the death of the flesh of our Lord
contains a type of the death of our outer man, since it is by such
suffering most of all that He exhorts
His servants that they
should not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill
the soul.
471
Wherefore
the apostle says, “That I may fill up that which is behind of the
afflictions of Christ in my flesh.”
472
And the resurrection of the body of
the Lord is found to contain a type of the resurrection of our
outward man, because He says to His disciples, “Handle me, and
see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”
473
And one of
the disciples also, handling His scars, exclaimed, “My Lord and
my God!”
474
And whereas
the entire integrity of that flesh was apparent, this was shown in
that which He had said when exhorting His disciples: “There shall
not a hair of your head perish.”
475
For how comes it that first is
said, “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father;”
476
and how
comes it that before He ascends to the Father, He actually is
touched by the disciples: unless because in the former the mystery
of the inner man was intimated, in the latter a type was given of
the outer man? Or can any one possibly be so without understanding,
and so turned away from the truth, as to dare to say that He was
touched by men before He ascended, but by women when He had
ascended? It was on account of this type, which went before in the
Lord, of our future resurrection in the body, that the apostle
says, “Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are
Christ’s.”
477
For it was
the resurrection of the body to which this place refers, on account
of which he also says, “Who has changed our vile body, that it
may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.”
478
The one death therefore of our
Saviour brought salvation to our double death, and His one
resurrection wrought for us two resurrections; since His body in
both cases, that is, both in His death and in His resurrection, was
ministered to us by a kind of healing suitableness, both as a
mystery of the inner man, and as a type of the outer.
450
Rom. iv. 5
451
2 Cor. iv. 16
452
1 John iii. 1
453
Wisd. ix. 15
454
Job. vii. 1
455
Ps. cxliii. 2
456
Matt. viii. 22
457
Eph. v. 14
458
1 Tim. v. 6
459
Rom. viii. 10
460
Rom. i. 17
461
Rom. viii. 10, 11
462
Ps. xxii. 1
, and
Matt.
xxvii. 46
463
Rom. vi. 6, 13
464
2 Cor. iv. 16
465
Eph. iv. 22–25
466
Ps. xv. 1, 3
467
John xx. 17
468
Sapite
469
Col. iii. 1, 2
470
Sapere
471
Matt. x. 28
472
Col. i. 24
473
Luke xxiv. 39
474
John xx. 28
475
Luke xxi. 18
476
John xx. 17
477
1 Cor. xv. 23
478
Phil. iii. 21