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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 ties the ungodly; and it is
increased and strengthened by good habits from day to day, as the inner
man is renewed more and more. 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. But now, so long as the corruptible body presseth
down the soul, and human life upon earth is all temptation, in His
sight shall no man living be justified, 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"? 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." And there
is a death which the apostle denounces, saying of the widow, "But
she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." 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." Now this life is wrought by faith,
"since the just shall live by faith," 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."
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?" 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 tuner 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. Because, if even the inner man certainly is
renewed day by day, 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."
But where is lying put away, unless inwardly, that he who speaketh
the truth from his heart may inhabit the holy hill of God? 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;" 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 on things above." For not to touch Christ, unless when He
had ascended to the Father, means not to have thoughts 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.
Wherefore the apostle says, "That I may fill up that which is
behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh." 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." And one of the disciples also, handling His scars,
exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" 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." For how comes it that first is said, "Touch me
not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father;" 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." 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." 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.
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