Chapter XLVII.—St. Paul, All Through, Promises Eternal Life to the Body.

For that must be living after the world, which, as the old man, he declares to be “crucified with Christ,”318    Rom. vi. 6. 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, “that the body of sin might be made void,”319    Evacuetur: καταργηθῃ. A.V. destroyed, i.e. deprived of all activity, Rom. vi. 6. by an amendment of life, not by a destruction of the substance, as he goes on to say, “that henceforth we should not serve sin;”320    Rom. vi. 6. Tertullian’s reading literally is, “that thus far (and no further) we should be servants of sin.” and that we should believe ourselves to be “dead with Christ,” in such a manner as that “we shall also live with Him.”321    Ver. 8. On the same principle he says: “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed.”322    Ver. 11. To what?  To the flesh? No, but “unto sin.”323    Ver. 11. Accordingly as to the flesh they will be saved—“alive unto God in Christ Jesus,”324    Ver. 11. through the flesh of course, to which they will not be dead; since it is “unto sin,” and not to the flesh, that they are dead.  For he pursues the point still further:  “Let 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”—not simply alive, but as alive from the dead—“and your members as instruments of righteousness.”325    Vers. 12, 13. And again:  “As 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.”326    Vers. 19–23. 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: “Know 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.”327    Rom. vi. 3, 4. 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: “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of Christ’s death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.”328    Ver. 5. By a figure we die in our baptism, but in a reality we rise again in the flesh, even as Christ did, “that, as sin has reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness unto life eternal, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”329    Rom. v. 21. 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’s 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: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”330    1 Cor. xv. 55. For in this way “grace shall there much more abound, where sin once abounded.”331    Rom. v. 20. In this way also “shall strength be made perfect in weakness,”332    2 Cor. xii. 9.—saving 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, “we have our citizenship,333    Municipatum. 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”334    Phil. iii. 20, 21.—of course after the resurrection, because Christ Himself was not glorified before He suffered. These must be “the bodies” which he “beseeches” the Romans to “present” as “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.”335    Rom. xii. 1. 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—which, because of its clearness, I should suppose to have been written with a sunbeam—is understood by our heretics, who shun the light of Scripture:  “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.” And as if this were not plain enough, it goes on to say: “And may your whole body, and soul, and spirit be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord.”336    1 Thess. v. 23. 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.337    [Note Tertullian’s summary of the text, in harmony with the Tripartite philosophy of humanity.]

CAPUT XLVII.

Haec enim erit vita mundialis, qua veterem hominem dixit confixum esse Christo, non corporalitatem, sed moralitatem . Caeterum, si non ita accipimus, non est corporalitas nostra confixa, nec crucem Christi caro nostra perpessa est; sed quemadmodum 0861B adjecit: Uti evacuetur corpus delinquentiae: per emendationem vitae, non per interitum substantiae; sicut ait: Uti hactenus delinquentiae serviamus, et ut, hac ratione commortui Christo, credamus quod etiam convivamus illi. Sic enim, inquit, et vos reputate mortuos quidem vos; cuinam? carni? Non, sed delinquentiae. Ergo salvi erunt carni; viventes autem Deo in Christo Jesu; per carnem utique, cui mortui non erunt; delinquentiae scilicet mortui, non carni. Nam et adhuc ingerit: Ne ergo regnaverit in corpore vestro mortali delinquentia, ad obaudiendum illi, et ad exhibendum membra vestra arma injustitiae, delinquentiae: sed exhibete vosmetipsos Deo, velut ex mortuis vivos; non velut vivos, sed velut ex mortuis vivos; et membra vestra, arma justitiae. Et rursus: Sicut exhibuistis 0861C membra vestra famula immunditiae et iniquitatis ad iniquitatem; ita et nunc exhibete membra vestra famula justitiae, in sanctificium . Cum enim servi essetis delinquentiae, liberi eratis justitiae. Quem ergo fructum habebatis super his, de quibus nunc confundimini? finis enim illorum mors. Nunc vero 0862A liberi facti a delinquentia, famulati autem Deo, habetis fructum vestrum in sanctificium ; finem autem, vitam aeternam. Stipendia enim delinquentiae, mors; donativum autem Dei, vita aeterna in Christo Jesu Domino nostro. Ita, per totam hanc sensuum seriem, ab injustitia et delinquentia membra nostra divellens, et justitiae et sanctimoniae adjungens, et transferens eadem a stipendio mortis ad donativum vitae aeternae, carni utique compensationem salutis repromittit, cui nullam omnino competisset imperari propriam sanctimoniae et justitiae disciplinam, si non ipsius esset et praemium disciplinae: sed nec ipsum baptisma committi, si per regenerationem, non etiam restitutioni inauguraretur, hoc quoque Apostolo ingerente: An ignoratis, quod quicumque in Christum 0862B Jesum tincti sumus, in mortem ejus tincti sumus? Consepulti ergo illi sumus per baptisma in mortem, uti quemadmodum surrexit Christus a mortuis, ita et nos in novitate vitae incedamus. Ac ne de ista tantum vita putes dictum, quae ex fide per baptisma in novitate vivenda est, providentissime adstruit: Si enim complantati fuerimus simulacro mortis Christi, ita et resurrectionis erimus. Per simulacrum enim morimur in baptismate, sed per veritatem resurgimus in carne, sicut et Christus: Ut, sicut regnavit in morte delictum, ita et gratia regnet per justitiam in vitam sempiternam per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Quomodo ita , si non aeque in carne? Ubi enim mors, ibi et vita post mortem; quia et vita ibi ante, ubi postea mors. Nam si regnum mortis 0862C nihil operatur, quam carnis dissolutionem; proinde vitam, contrariam morti, contrarium oportet operari, id est, carnis redintegrationem; uti sicut devoraverat mors invalescendo, ita et mortali devorato ab immortalitate, audire possit: Ubi est, mors, aculeus tuus? ubi est, mors, contentio tua? Sic enim et gratia 0863A illic superabundabit , ubi et iniquitas abundavit . Sic et virtus in infirmitate perficietur, quod periit salvum faciens, quod mortuum est vivificans, quod percussum est sanans, quod languit medicans, quod ereptum est redimens, quod famulatum est liberans, quod seductum est revocans, quod elisum est suscitans; et quidem de terra in coelum, ubi nostrum municipatum Philippenses quoque ab Apostolo discunt: Unde et solutificatorem nostrum exspectamus Jesum Christum, qui transfigurabit corpus nostrae humilitatis, conformale corpori gloriae suae; sine dubio post resurrectionem, quia nec ipse Christus glorificatus est ante passionem. Haec erunt corpora nostra, quae Romanos obsecrat exhibere hostiam vivam, sanctam, placibilem Deo. Quomodo 0863B vivam, si peritura sunt? quomodo sanctam, si prophana sunt? quomodo placibilem , si damnata sunt? Age jam, quod ad Thessalonicenses ipsius solis radio putem scriptum, ita claret, qualiter accipient lucifugae isti Scripturarum? Ipse autem Deus pacis sanctificet vos totos. Non sufficit, sed sequitur: Et integrum corpus vestrum, et anima, et spiritus sine querela conserventur in praesentia Domini. Habes omnem substantiam hominis saluti destinatam, nec alio tempore quam in adventu Domini qui clavis est resurrectionis.