{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050169.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050169.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050169.htm","text":"Chapter 20.\u2014The Sting of Death, What?\nBut even in the passage to the Corinthians, where he had been treating fully of the resurrection, the apostle concludes his statement in such a way as not to permit us to doubt that the death of the body is the result of sin. For after he had said, \u201cThis corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality: so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality, then,\u201d he added, \u201cshall be brought to pass the saying which is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?\u201d and at last he subjoined these words: \u201cThe sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.\u201d 694 Now, because (as the apostle\u2019s words most plainly declare) death shall then be swallowed up in victory when this corruptible and mortal shall have put on incorruption and immortality,\u2014that is, when \u201cGod shall quicken even our mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in us,\u201d\u2014it manifestly follows that the sting of the body of this death, which is the contrary of the resurp. 77 rection of the body, is sin. The sting, however, is that by which death was made, and not that which death made, since it is by sin that we die, and not by death that we sin. It is therefore called \u201cthe sting of death\u201d on the principle which originated the phrase \u201cthe tree of life,\u201d\u2014not because the life of man produced it, but because by it the life of man was made. In like manner \u201cthe tree of knowledge\u201d was that whereby man\u2019s knowledge was made, not that which man made by his knowledge. So also \u201cthe sting of death\u201d is that by which death was produced, not that which death made. We similarly use the expression \u201cthe cup of death,\u201d since by it some one has died, or might die,\u2014not meaning, of course, a cup made by a dying or dead man. 695 The sting of death is therefore sin, because by the puncture of sin the human race has been slain. Why ask further: the death of what,\u2014whether of the soul, or of the body? Whether the first which we are all of us now dying, or the second which the wicked hereafter shall die? There is no occasion for plying the question so curiously; there is no room for subterfuge. The words in which the apostle expresses the case answer the questions: \u201cWhen this mortal,\u201d says he, \u201cshall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying which is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.\u201d He was treating of the resurrection of the body, wherein death shall be swallowed up in victory, when this mortal shall have put on immortality. Then over death itself shall be raised the shout of triumph, when at the resurrection of the body it shall be swallowed up in victory; then shall be said to it, \u201cO death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?\u201d To the death of the body, therefore, is this said. For victorious immortality shall swallow it up, when this mortal shall put on immortality. I repeat it, to the death of the body shall it be said, \u201cWhere is thy victory?\u201d\u2014that victory in which thou didst conquer all, so that even the Son of God engaged in conflict with thee, and by not shrinking but grappling with thee overcame. In these that die thou hast conquered; but thou art thyself conquered in these that rise again. Thy victory was but temporal, in which thou didst swallow up the bodies of them that die. Our victory will abide eternal, in which thou art swallowed up in the bodies of them that rise again. \u201cWhere is thy sting?\u201d\u2014that is, the sin wherewithal we are punctured and poisoned, so that thou didst fix thyself in our very bodies, and for so long a time didst hold them in possession. \u201cThe sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.\u201d We all sinned in one, so that we all die in one; we received the law, not by amendment according to its precepts to put an end to sin, but by transgression to increase it. For \u201cthe law entered that sin might abound;\u201d 696 and \u201cthe Scripture hath concluded all under sin;\u201d 697 but \u201cthanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,\u201d 698 in order that \u201cwhere sin abounded, grace might much more abound;\u201d 699 and \u201cthat the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe;\u201d 700 and that we might overcome death by a deathless resurrection, and sin, \u201cthe sting\u201d thereof, by a free justification.\n[This is only one of many examples of the care with which Augustin, writing for the popular eye, illustrates his exegetical points. \u201cOf death\u201d he thus shows is genitive of the object, not of the subject; giving to the phrase the meaning of \u201cthe sting which slays man.\u201d\u2014W.]\n77:696 77:697 77:698 77:699 77:700","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on the...","type":"page"}