35. Ego, inquit, lux in saeculum veni, ut omnis qui crediderit in me, non maneat in tenebris
Chapter 19 [XI.]—Sin and Death in Adam, Righteousness and Life in Christ.
What the apostle says: “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so it passed upon all men, in which all have sinned;”484 Rom. v. 12. we must, however, for the present so accept as not to seem rashly and foolishly to oppose the many great passages of Holy Scripture, which teach us that no man can obtain eternal life without that union with Christ which is effected in Him and with Him, when we are imbued with His sacraments and incorporated with the members of His body. Now this statement which the apostle addresses to the Romans, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so it passed upon all men, in which all have sinned,” tallies in sense with his words to the Corinthians: “Since by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”485 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22. For nobody doubts that the subject here referred to is the death of the body, because the apostle was with much earnestness dwelling on the resurrection of the body; and he seems to be silent here about sin for this reason, namely, because the question was not about righteousness. Both points are mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans, and both points are, at very great length, insisted on by the apostle,—sin in Adam, righteousness in Christ; and death in Adam, life in Christ. However, as I have observed already, I have thoroughly examined and opened, in the first book of this treatise, all these words of the apostle’s argument, as far as I was able, and as much as seemed necessary.
CAPUT XI.
19. Aculeus mortis quis. Nunc tamen illud quod ait Apostolus, Per unum hominem peccatum intravit in mundum, et per peccatum mors; et ita in omnes homines pertransiit, in quo omnes peccaverunt; sic accipiamus, ne tot tantisque apertissimis divinarum Scripturarum testimoniis, quibus docemur praeter Christi societatem, quae in illo et cum illo fit, cum Sacramentis ejus imbuimur, et ejus membris incorporamur, vitam 0197 salutemque aeternam adipisci neminem posse, nimis insipienter atque infeliciter repugnare judicemur. Neque enim alio sensu dictum est ad Romanos, Per unum hominem peccatum in mundum intravit, et per peccatum mors; atque ita in omnes homines pertransiit: quam illo quo dictum est ad Corinthios, Per hominem mors, et per hominem resurrectio mortuorum: sicut enim in Adam omnes moriuntur, sic et in Christo omnes vivificabuntur. Nemo quippe ambigit, hoc ibi de corporis morte dictum, quoniam de resurrectione corporis magna Apostoli intentione quaestio versabatur: et ideo videtur ibi de peccato tacuisse, quia non erat quaestio de justitia. Hic autem ad Romanos utrumque posuit , et utrumque diutissime commendavit, peccatum in Adam, justitiam in Christo; et mortem in Adam, et vitam in Christo: quae omnia verba sermonis apostolici, quantum potui satisque visum est, in primo, ut jam dixi, duorum illorum libro perscrutatus aperui.