{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030629.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030629.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030629.htm","text":"Chapter XLVII.\u2014St. Paul, All Through, Promises Eternal Life to the Body.\nFor that must be living after the world, p. 580 which, as the old man, he declares to be \u201ccrucified with Christ,\u201d 7602 not as a bodily structure, but as moral behaviour. Besides, if we do not understand it in this sense, it is not our bodily frame which has been transfixed (at all events), nor has our flesh endured the cross of Christ; but the sense is that which he has subjoined, \u201cthat the body of sin might be made void,\u201d 7603 by an amendment of life, not by a destruction of the substance, as he goes on to say, \u201cthat henceforth we should not serve sin;\u201d 7604 and that we should believe ourselves to be \u201cdead with Christ,\u201d in such a manner as that \u201cwe shall also live with Him.\u201d 7605 On the same principle he says: \u201cLikewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed.\u201d 7606 To what? To the flesh? No, but \u201cunto sin.\u201d 7607 Accordingly as to the flesh they will be saved\u2014\u201calive unto God in Christ Jesus,\u201d 7608 through the flesh of course, to which they will not be dead; since it is \u201cunto sin,\u201d and not to the flesh, that they are dead. For he pursues the point still further: \u201cLet not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it, and that ye should yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield ye yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead\u201d\u2014not simply alive, but as alive from the dead\u2014\u201cand your members as instruments of righteousness.\u201d 7609 And again: \u201cAs ye have yielded your members servants of uncleanness, and of iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants of righteousness unto holiness; for whilst ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things of which ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.\u201d 7610 Thus throughout this series of passages, whilst withdrawing our members from unrighteousness and sin, and applying them to righteousness and holiness, and transferring the same from the wages of death to the donative of eternal life, he undoubtedly promises to the flesh the recompense of salvation. Now it would not at all have been consistent that any rule of holiness and righteousness should be especially enjoined for the flesh, if the reward of such a discipline were not also within its reach; nor could even baptism be properly ordered for the flesh, if by its regeneration a course were not inaugurated tending to its restitution; the apostle himself suggesting this idea: \u201cKnow ye not, that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ, are baptized into His death? We are therefore buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised up from the dead, even so we also should walk in newness of life.\u201d 7611 And that you may not suppose that this is said merely of that life which we have to walk in the newness of, through baptism, by faith, the apostle with superlative forethought adds: \u201cFor if we have been planted together in the likeness of Christ\u2019s death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.\u201d 7612 By a figure we die in our baptism, but in a reality we rise again in the flesh, even as Christ did, \u201cthat, as sin has reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness unto life eternal, through Jesus Christ our Lord.\u201d 7613 But how so, unless equally in the flesh? For where the death is, there too must be the life after the death, because also the life was first there, where the death subsequently was. Now, if the dominion of death operates only in the dissolution of the flesh, in like manner death\u2019s contrary, life, ought to produce the contrary effect, even the restoration of the flesh; so that, just as death had swallowed it up in its strength, it also, after this mortal was swallowed up of immortality, may hear the challenge pronounced against it: \u201cO death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?\u201d 7614 For in this way \u201cgrace shall there much more abound, where sin once abounded.\u201d 7615 In this way also \u201cshall strength be made perfect in weakness,\u201d 7616 \u2014saving what is lost, reviving what is dead, healing what is stricken, curing what is faint, redeeming what is lost, freeing what is enslaved, recalling what has strayed, raising what is fallen; and this from earth to heaven, where, as the apostle teaches the Philippians, \u201cwe have our citizenship, 7617 from whence also we look for our Saviour Jesus Christ, who shall change our body of humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body\u201d 7618 \u2014of course after the resurrection, because Christ Himself was not glorified before He suffered. These must be \u201cthe bodies\u201d which he \u201cbeseeches\u201d the Romans p. 581 to \u201cpresent\u201d as \u201ca living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.\u201d 7619 But how a living sacrifice, if these bodies are to perish? How a holy one, if they are profanely soiled? How acceptable to God, if they are condemned? Come, now, tell me how that passage (in the Epistle) to the Thessalonians\u2014which, because of its clearness, I should suppose to have been written with a sunbeam\u2014is understood by our heretics, who shun the light of Scripture: \u201cAnd the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.\u201d And as if this were not plain enough, it goes on to say: \u201cAnd may your whole body, and soul, and spirit be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord.\u201d 7620 Here you have the entire substance of man destined to salvation, and that at no other time than at the coming of the Lord, which is the key of the resurrection. 7621\nEvacuetur: \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03c1\u03b3\u03b7\u03b8\u1fc3. A.V. destroyed, i.e. deprived of all activity, Rom. vi. 6.\n580:7604\nRom. vi. 6. Tertullian\u2019s reading literally is, \u201cthat thus far (and no further) we should be servants of sin.\u201d\n580:7605 580:7606 580:7607 580:7608 580:7609 580:7610 580:7611 580:7612 580:7613 580:7614 580:7615 580:7616 580:7617 580:7618\nPhil. 3:20, 21.\n581:7619 581:7620 581:7621\n[Note Tertullian\u2019s summary of the text, in harmony with the Tripartite philosophy of humanity.]","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part II: St. Pa...","type":"page"}