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| Sundry Other Passages of St. Paul Explained in a Sentence Confirmatory of Our Doctrine.
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Chapter XLIV.—Sundry
Other Passages of St. Paul Explained in a Sentence Confirmatory of Our
Doctrine.
Now, if you will examine the words which precede
the passage where mention is made of the outward and the inward man,
will you not discover the whole truth, both of the dignity and the hope
of the flesh? For, when he speaks of the “light which God hath
commanded to shine in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of the Lord in the person of Jesus Christ,”7572
and says that “we have this treasure
in earthen vessels,”7573
meaning of course
the flesh, which is meant—that the flesh shall be destroyed,
because it is “an earthen vessel,” deriving its origin from
clay; or that it is to be glorified, as being the receptacle of a
divine treasure? Now if that true light, which is in the person of
Christ, contains in itself life, and that life with its light is
committed to the flesh, is that destined to perish which has life
entrusted to it? Then, of course, the treasure will perish also; for
perishable things are entrusted to things which are themselves
perishable, which is like putting new wine into old bottles. When also
he adds, “Always bearing about in our body the dying of the
Lord Jesus Christ,”7574
what sort of
substance is that which, after (being called) the temple of God, can
now be also designated the tomb of Christ? But why do we bear
about in the body the dying of the Lord? In order, as he says,
“that His life also may be manifested.”7575
Where? “In the body.” In
what body? “In our mortal body.”7576
Therefore in the flesh, which is mortal indeed through sin, but living
through grace—how great a grace you may see when the purpose is,
“that the life of Christ may be manifested in it.” Is it
then in a thing which is a stranger to salvation, in a substance which
is perpetually dissolved, that the life of Christ will be manifested,
which is eternal, continuous, incorruptible, and already the life of
God? Else to what epoch belongs that life of the Lord which is to be
manifested in our body? It surely is the life which He lived up to His
passion, which was not only openly shown among the Jews, but has now
been displayed even to all nations. Therefore that life is meant which
“has broken the adamantine gates of death and the brazen bars of
the lower world,”7577
—a life which
thenceforth has been and will be ours. Lastly, it is to be manifested
in the body. When? After death. How? By rising in our body, as
Christ also rose in His. But lest any one should here object,
that the life of Jesus has even now to be manifested in our body by the
discipline of holiness, and patience, and righteousness, and wisdom, in
which the Lord’s life abounded, the most provident wisdom of the
apostle inserts this purpose: “For we which live are alway
delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that His life may be
manifested in our mortal body.”7578
In
us, therefore, even when dead, does he say that this is to take place
in us. And if so, how is this possible except in our body after its
resurrection? Therefore he adds in the concluding sentence:
“Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall
raise up us also with Him,”7579
risen as He is
already from the dead. But perhaps “with Him”
means “like Him:” well then, if it be like
Him, it is not of course without the flesh.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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