4. If, therefore, flesh and blood are the things which procure for us life, it has not been declared of flesh and blood, in the literal meaning (proprie) of the terms, that they cannot inherit the kingdom of God; but [these words apply] to those carnal deeds already mentioned, which, perverting man to sin, deprive him of life. And for this reason he says, in the Epistle to the Romans: "Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, to be under its control: neither yield ye your members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves to God, as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."[1] In these same members, therefore, in which we used to serve sin, and bring forth fruit unto death, does He wish us to [be obedient] unto righteousness, that we may bring forth fruit unto life. Remember, therefore, my beloved friend, that thou hast been redeemed by the flesh of our Lord, re-established[2] by His blood; and "holding the Head, from which the whole body of the church, having been fitted together, takes increase"[3]—that is, acknowledging the advent in the flesh of the Son of God, and [His] divinity (deum), and looking forward with constancy to His human nature[4] (hominem), availing thyself also of these proofs drawn from Scripture—thou dost easily overthrow, as I have pointed out, all those notions of the heretics which were concocted afterwards.
Chap. xv.—Proofs of the resurrection from Isaiah and Ezekiel; the same God who created us will also raise us up.
1. Now, that He who at the beginning created man, did promise him a second birth after his dissolution into earth,
- ↑ Rom. vi. 12, etc.
- ↑ "Et sanguine ejus redhibitus," corresponding to the Greek term ἀποκατασταθείς. "Redhibere" is properly a forensic term, meaning to cause any article to be restored to the vendor.
- ↑ Col. ii. 19.
- ↑ Harvey restores the Greek thus, καὶ τὸν αὐτοῦ ἄνθρωπον βεβαίως ἐκδεχόμενος, which he thinks has a reference to the patient waiting for "Christ's second advent to judge the world." The phrase might also be translated, "and receiving stedfastly His human nature."
