Chapter XVI. Christ's Execution Of The Office Of A Redeemer To Procure Our Salvation. His Death, Resurrection, And Ascension To Heaven (3)

XI. In this sense Peter says, that “God raised him up, having loosed the pains of death; because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”1295 He does not say simply “death;” but tells us, that the Son of God was involved in “the pains of death,” which proceed from the Divine wrath and malediction, which is the origin of death. For what a little thing it would have been for Christ to appear in order to suffer death, without any distress or perplexity, and even with pleasure! But this was a true specimen of his infinite mercy, not to evade that death which he so much dreaded. Nor can it be doubted, but the apostle means to suggest the same in the Epistle to the Hebrews, when he says, that Christ “was heard in that he feared.”1296 Some, instead of fear, translate it reverence or piety; but how improperly, is evident from the subject itself, and also from the form of expression. Christ, therefore, “when he offered up prayers with strong crying and tears, was heard in that he feared;” not that he might obtain an exemption from death, but that he might not be swallowed up by it as a sinner; for he was then sustaining our character. And it is certainly impossible to imagine any more formidable abyss, than to perceive ourselves forsaken and abandoned by God, and not to be heard when we call upon him, as though he had conspired to destroy us. Now, we see Christ was so deeply dejected, that in the urgency of distress, he was constrained to exclaim, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”1297 For the idea of some, that he spoke rather according to the opinion of others than from his own feelings, is utterly improbable; since he evidently appears to have spoken from the anguish of his inmost soul. We do not admit that God was ever hostile to him, or angry with him. For how could he be angry with his beloved Son, “in whom his soul delighted?”1298 or how could Christ, by his intercession, appease the Father for others, if the Father were incensed against him? But we affirm, that he sustained the weight of the Divine severity; since, being “smitten and afflicted of God,”1299 he experienced from God all the tokens of wrath and vengeance. Wherefore, Hilary argues, that by this descent we have obtained the destruction of death. And in other places he accords with our opinion; as when he says, “The cross, death, and hell, are our life.” Again, in another place, “The Son of God is in hell, but man is raised to heaven.” But why do I cite the testimony of a private person, when the apostle asserts the same thing, mentioning, as the reward of Christ's victory, the deliverance of them “who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage?”1300 It was necessary, therefore, that he should overcome that fear, which naturally and incessantly harasses all men; which he could not do without contending with it. Now, that his was not a common or trivial sorrow, will soon be more clearly evinced. Thus, by contending with the power of the devil, with the dread of death, and with the pains of hell, he obtained the victory, and triumphed over them, that in death we may no longer dread those things which our Prince has destroyed.

XII. Here some contentious, though illiterate men, impelled rather by malice than by ignorance, exclaim against me, that I am guilty of an atrocious injury to Christ; because it is utterly unreasonable that he should have any fear concerning the salvation of his soul. And then they aggravate the cavil, by pretending that I attribute despair to the Son of God, which is contrary to faith. In the first place, it is presumptuous in them to raise a controversy concerning the fear and consternation of Christ, which is so expressly asserted by the evangelists. For, before the approach of his death, he experienced a perturbation of spirit and depression of mind; but, in the actual struggle with it, he began to feel a greater degree of consternation. If they say that this was only pretence, it is a most paltry subterfuge. We ought, therefore, as Ambrose justly advises, fearlessly to acknowledge the sorrow of Christ, unless we are ashamed of his cross. And, indeed, if his soul had experienced no punishment, he would have been only a Redeemer for the body. It was necessary for him to combat, in order to raise up those who lay prostrate on the earth; and his heavenly glory is so far from being diminished by this, that his goodness, which is never sufficiently celebrated, is conspicuous in his voluntary and unreluctant assumption of our infirmities. Hence that consolation which the apostle offers us under our anxieties and sorrows, that this Mediator has experienced our infirmities, in order that he might be the more ready to succour the wretched.1301 They pretend, that what is intrinsically bad cannot be justly attributed to Christ; as though they were wiser than the Spirit of God, who connects these two things together, that Christ “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” We have no reason, therefore, to be alarmed by the infirmity of Christ, to which he was not compelled by violence or necessity, but induced merely by his mercy and love for us voluntarily to submit himself. But none of his voluntary sufferings for us have been any diminution of his power. These captious objectors, however, are deceived in one point; they do not perceive that this infirmity in Christ was perfectly free from every stain of guilt, because he always kept himself within the limits of obedience. For, because no moderation can be discovered in the corruption of our nature, where all our passions transgress all bounds with impetuous violence, they erroneously measure the Son of God by this standard. But he being innocent, and free from every defect, all his affections were governed by a moderation which admitted of no excess. Whence it was very possible for him to resemble us in sorrow, fear, and dread, and yet, in this respect, to be very different from us. Refuted here, they proceed to another cavil; that, although Christ was afraid of death, yet he was not afraid of the malediction and wrath of God, from which he knew himself to be safe. But let the pious reader consider how much honour it reflects on Christ, that he was more delicate and timorous than the generality of mankind. Robbers and other malefactors obstinately rush forward to death; many men nobly despise it; others calmly submit to it. But what constancy or magnanimity would the Son of God have discovered, in being astonished and almost struck dead with the fear of it? For it is related of him, what might generally be accounted a prodigy, that through the vehemence of his agonies, drops of blood flowed from his face. Nor did he exhibit this spectacle to the eyes of others; he sent up his groans to his Father, in the secrecy of retirement. And every doubt is removed by the necessity that there was for angels to descend from heaven, to support him with unusual consolation. What disgraceful effeminacy, as I have suggested, would this have been, to be so distressed by the fear of a common death, as to be in a bloody sweat, and incapable of being comforted without the presence of angels! What! does not this prayer, which he repeated three times, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,”1302 proceeding from an incredible bitterness of soul, demonstrate that Christ had a more severe and arduous conflict than with a common death? Whence it appears, that those triflers, with whom I am now disputing, presumptuously chatter about things which they know not; because they never seriously considered the nature or the importance of our redemption from the Divine judgment. But it is our wisdom to have a clear understanding how much our salvation cost the Son of God. If any one inquire whether Christ was then descending to hell, when he deprecated death, I reply, that this was the prelude to it; whence we may conclude what dreadful and horrible agonies he must have suffered, while he was conscious of standing at the tribunal of God accused as a criminal on our account. But, although the Divine power of the Spirit concealed itself for a moment, to give place to the infirmity of the flesh, yet we know, that the temptation arising from a sense of grief and fear was such as was not repugnant to faith. And thus was fulfilled what we find in the sermon of Peter, “that it was not possible that he should be holden of the pains of death;”1303 because, when he perceived himself, as it were, deserted by God, still he relaxed not in the least from his confidence in his Father's goodness. This is evident from his celebrated invocation, when, through the vehemence of grief, he exclaimed, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”1304 For notwithstanding his extreme agony, yet he continues to call God his God, even when he complains that he is forsaken by him. Now, this serves to refute the error of Apollinaris, and also of those who were called Monothelites. Apollinaris pretended that the eternal Spirit supplied the place of a soul in Christ, so that he was but half a man, as though he could expiate our sins without obedience to the Father. But where was the disposition or will, requisite to obedience, but in his soul? which we know was “troubled,”1305 in order to dissipate all our fears, and obtain peace and rest for ours. Moreover, in opposition to the Monothelites, we see, that what was contrary to his will as man, was agreeable to his will as God. I say nothing of his overcoming the fear of which we have spoken, by a contrary disposition. For there is a manifest appearance of contrariety when he says, “Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.”1306 Yet, in this perplexity, there is no such want of moderation as is evident in us, even while we are exerting our most strenuous endeavours to conquer ourselves.

XIII. Next follows his resurrection from the dead, without which all that we have said would be incomplete. For, since there appears nothing but infirmity in the cross, death, and burial of Christ, faith must proceed beyond all these things, to be furnished with sufficient strength. Wherefore, although our salvation is perfectly accomplished by his death, because by that we are reconciled to God, a satisfaction is given to his righteous judgment, the curse is removed, and the punishment sustained, yet we are said to have been “begotten again to a lively hope,” not by his death, but “by his resurrection from the dead.”1307 For as at his resurrection he appeared the conqueror of death, so it is on his resurrection that our faith principally rests. This is better expressed in the words of Paul, when he says, that Christ “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification;”1308 as though he had said, that sin was removed by his death, and righteousness renewed and restored by his resurrection. For how was it possible for him by dying to liberate us from death, if he had himself remained under its power? how could he have obtained the victory for us, if he had been vanquished in the contest? Wherefore we ascribe our salvation partly to the death of Christ, and partly to his resurrection; we believe that sin was abolished, and death destroyed, by the former; that righteousness was restored, and life established, by the latter; yet so that the former discovers its power and efficacy in us by means of the latter. Therefore Paul asserts that he was “declared to be the Son of God, by the resurrection from the dead;”1309 because he then displayed his heavenly power, which is both a lucid mirror of his Divinity, and a firm support of our faith. So, in another place, he says, that “he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God.”1310 In the same sense, in another place, treating of perfection, he says, “that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection.”1311 Yet, immediately after, he adds, “the fellowship of his sufferings, and conformity to his death.” In perfect harmony with this, is the following declaration of Peter: “God raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God:”1312 not that faith totters when it rests on his death; but because “the power of God,” which “keeps us through faith,”1313 chiefly discovers itself in his resurrection. Let us remember, therefore, that whenever mention is made of his death alone, it comprehends also what strictly belongs to his resurrection; and that the same figure of speech is applied to the word resurrection, whenever it is used without any mention of his death, so that it connects with it what is peculiarly applicable to his death. But since it was by rising from the dead that he obtained the palm of victory, to become the resurrection and the life, Paul justly contends, that, “if Christ be not risen, then is” the “preaching” of the gospel “vain, and” our “faith is also vain.”1314 Therefore, in another place, after having gloried in the death of Christ in opposition to all the fears of condemnation, he adds, by way of amplification, “Yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”1315 Besides, as we have before stated, that the mortification of our flesh depends on communion with his cross, so it must also be understood, that we obtain another benefit, corresponding to that, from his resurrection. The apostle says, “If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: even so we also should walk in newness of life.”1316 Therefore, in another place, as, from our being dead with Christ, he deduces an argument for the mortification of our members which are upon the earth,1317 so also, because we are risen with Christ, he thence infers that we should seek those things which are above, and not those which are on the earth.1318 By which expressions we are not only invited to walk in newness of life, after the example of Christ raised from the dead, but are taught that our regeneration to righteousness is effected by his power. We derive also a third benefit from his resurrection, having received, as it were, a pledge to assure us of our own resurrection, of which his clearly affords the most solid foundation and evidence. This subject the apostle discusses more at large in the First Epistle to the Corinthians.1319 But it must be remarked by the way, that when he is said to have “risen from the dead,” this phrase expresses the reality both of his death and of his resurrection; as though it were said, that he died the same death as other men naturally die, and received immortality in the same body which he had assumed in a mortal state.