Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
συνετάφημεν οὖν αὐτῷ διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος εἰς τὸν θάνατον, ἵνα ὥσπερ ἠγέρθη Χριστὸς ἐκ νεκρῶν διὰ τῆς δόξης τοῦ πατρός, οὕτω καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐν καινότητι ζωῆς περιπατήσωμεν.
Спогребо́хомсѧ ᲂу҆̀бо є҆мꙋ̀ кр҃ще́нїемъ въ сме́рть, да ꙗ҆́коже воста̀ хрⷭ҇то́съ ѿ ме́ртвыхъ сла́вою ѻ҆́ч҃ею, та́кѡ и҆ мы̀ во ѡ҆бновле́нїи жи́зни ходи́ти на́чнемъ {да хо́димъ}.
So likewise in baptism, since it is a likeness of death, without a doubt, when you are immersed and rise again, it becomes a likeness of resurrection. Therefore, according to the interpretation of the apostle Peter, just as that resurrection was a regeneration, so is this resurrection a regeneration.
On the Sacraments, Book 3, Chapter 1First of all, this means that Christ raised his own body from the dead. For he is the power of God the Father, as he said: "Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days." He was saying this about the temple of his own body.… It also means that we now have a new way of life which has been given to us by Christ. For by baptism we have been buried together with Christ in order that we may henceforth live according to the life into which Christ rose from the dead. Therefore baptism is the sign and symbol of the resurrection, which means that we ought to abide in the commandments of Christ and not go back to what we were before. For the person who dies does not sin; death is the end of sin. This is symbolized by water, because just as water cleanses the dirt of the body, so we believe that we have been spiritually cleansed by baptism from every sin and renewed, for what is incorporeal is cleansed invisibly.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESWe therefore must also rise to a new life, so that, just as "Christ rose from the dead, so we too might walk in newness of life." Christ has freed us at this time from the hand of Pharaoh and has led us into the promised land; and as a sign of this the Passover is now eaten, because we have now been set free. We too must make the passage and begin a new life and not return to Egypt. Three things are necessary for any penitent, namely, that sin should displease him, and that he should be prepared to guard himself from sin with the help of God and the Holy Spirit, and that he should wish to make satisfaction according to the measure of his ability, and resolve never to repeat sin. And this is the consummation of these words: we must always be conformed to Christ and be refreshed with him, so that we may arrive at the eternal refreshment.
Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 7As we have been buried, so we must rise with Christ in a spiritual sense. For if to be buried together with Christ means dying to sin, then it is clear that rising with him means living in righteousness.
EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANSAs Jesus died in taking away the sins of the world, that, by doing sin to death, he might rise in righteousness, so too, when you go down into the water and are, in a fashion, entombed in the water as he was in the rock, you may rise again to walk "in newness of life."
Catechetical Lecture 3.12Here he hints, along with the duty of a careful walk, at the subject of the resurrection. In what way? Do you believe, he means, that Christ died, and that He was raised again? Believe then the same of thyself. For this is like to the other, since both Cross and Burial is thine. For if thou hast shared in Death and Burial, much more wilt thou in Resurrection and Life. For now the greater is done away with, the sin I mean, it is not right to doubt any longer about the lesser, the doing away of death.
But this he leaves for the present to the conscience of his hearers to reason out, but himself, after the resurrection to come had been set before us, demands of us another, even the new conversation, which is brought about in the present life by a change of habits. When then the fornicator becomes chaste, the covetous man merciful, the harsh subdued, even here a resurrection has taken place, the prelude to the other. And how is it a resurrection? Why, because sin is mortified, and righteousness hath risen again, and the old life hath been made to vanish, and this new and angelic one is being lived in. But when you hear of a new life, look for a great alteration, a wide change.
Homily on Romans 10For the soul is not corruptible or mortal; but this which is mortal and corrupting is of flesh, in order that, "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly? " For the image of the earthy which we have borne is this, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." But the image of the heavenly is the resurrection from the dead, and incorruption, in order that "as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life."
From the Discourse on the ResurrectionThis is what the Apostle writes. Perhaps in the present passage this too may still be asked: if we have died to sin, and have been buried together with Christ, and have risen again with him, it will seem necessary, according to this pattern, to show how we too have spent three days and three nights buried with him in the heart of the earth. And consider whether we may be able to spend three days buried together with Christ when we have begun to have the full knowledge of the Trinity: for the Father is light, and in his light, which is the Son, we see the light of the Holy Spirit. And we spend three nights also when we destroy the father of darkness and ignorance together with the lie that was born of him, and "he is a liar, as also is his father, and when he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own." But in the third place also we destroy the spirit of error, which inspires the false prophets to say, "Thus says the Lord," whom the Lord has not sent. We destroy these things and trample them down, if we have been buried together with Christ, according also to that which he himself says: "Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy." And these several things are so contrary to the Trinity as night is to day, and darkness to light, and falsehood to truth — these things, for the present, are what have been able to occur to us in this passage. But if anyone should have a better understanding, let him not be reluctant to set these aside and adopt those. Nevertheless, this is what is gathered from these words of the Apostle by the higher understanding: that just as no living person can be buried with a dead one, so no one who still lives to sin can be buried together in baptism with Christ, who died to sin; and therefore those who hasten to baptism ought first to take care of this, that they die beforehand to sin, and so may be able to be buried together with Christ through baptism, so that they too may say: "Always carrying about the death of Jesus Christ in our body, that the life of Jesus Christ also may be made manifest in our mortal flesh." But how the life of Jesus Christ is made manifest in the body, Paul himself shows when he says: "Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me." This is the same thing that the apostle John writes in his Epistle, when he says: "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God." In which, assuredly, it is not the one who has pronounced these syllables and uttered them in a common confession who will be seen to be moved by the Spirit of God, but the one who has so shaped his life, and so brought forth the fruits of work, that he has shown by the very religious quality of his deeds and thoughts that Christ has come in the flesh, and has died to sin, and lives to God. Now let us see, after we have opened up, so far as our strength allows, what it is to be buried together with Christ, this also which he says: "That as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life." If we have been buried together with Christ, according to what we have said above — that is, according as we have died to sin — then consequently, when Christ rises from the dead, we too shall rise together with him, and when he ascends to the heavens, we shall ascend together with him, and when he sits at the right hand of the Father, we shall be said to sit together with him in the heavenly places, according to what the same Apostle says elsewhere, that "he raised us up together with Christ, and made us sit together in the heavenly places." Christ rose through the glory of the Father; and we, if we have died to sin and been buried together with Christ, and all who see our good works glorify our Father who is in heaven, shall deservedly be said to have risen together with Christ through the glory of the Father, so that we may walk in newness of life. And newness of life is where we have put off "the old man with his deeds," and have put on "the new, who is created according to God," and "who is renewed in the knowledge" of God, "according to the image of him who created him." And do not suppose that the renewal of life, which is said to have been done once, is sufficient; but always, and daily, if it may be so said, that very newness must be renewed. For thus the Apostle says: "For even if our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward is renewed from day to day." For just as the old man always grows old, and from day to day becomes older, so also this new man is always renewed, and there is never a time when his renewal does not increase. Look, finally, at those who advance in faith and shine forth daily in the virtues, how they always add better things to good works, and seek out more honorable deeds than the honorable ones they have done, how they grow rich in understanding, in knowledge and wisdom, and how the things that before seemed less plain to the understanding they afterwards perceive as open and clear. And consider whether by these very facts you would not say that such a man is daily renewed; just as, on the contrary, as we have said, if anyone has begun to become old, he will advance for the worse, and will daily be found older and worse than himself. Let us therefore walk in newness of life, showing ourselves daily new to him who raised us up with Christ, and, so to speak, more beautiful, gathering the comeliness of our countenance in Christ as in a mirror, and beholding in him the glory of the Lord, let us be transformed into the same image, since Christ, rising from the dead, ascended from earthly lowliness to the glory of the Father's majesty. But further, as to what he said, "let us walk in newness of life," consider whether perhaps it points to this mystery: that so long as a person is making progress, he is said to walk. Yet it must not be thought that he is said to walk without end, but that those who walk in these advances come at some time to that place where they are to stand. Thus, in short, to Stephen, the first martyr, who had already come to the degree of perfection, Jesus Christ appeared standing at the right hand of the Power; and to Moses, who likewise, after many advances, had arrived at perfection, the Lord says: "But do you stand here with me." And Paul too, when he recognized in himself the consummation of perfection, says: "I have finished my course." But to those who think themselves perfect, and yet are not, he says: "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." To the imperfect, however, and to those who are still at the beginnings, it is said that they should walk after the Lord their God; and of others it is said: "I am unwilling to send them away fasting, lest perhaps they faint on the way."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSTherefore Matthew recorded that the tomb was new, and set forth plainly that it was hewn in the rock. And that it was new, free from every dead body, Luke and John made manifest, one of whom indeed said: "in which no one had yet been laid", and John: "in which no one had yet been laid"—clearly, if never had anyone been laid there, but afterward some were laid there; for what he says: "in which no one had yet been laid", is signified to those who consider this word carefully. We say then (lest perhaps we ought to understand this passage simply), that he who said: "we have been buried together with Christ through baptism" and have risen together with him, was himself also buried together, after Christ, with Christ in a new tomb and an intelligible one hewn in the rock, and all who have been buried together with Christ in baptism, that they may rise with him from the new tomb of the firstborn "from the dead and holding the primacy in all things".
COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 143Paul shows that we were baptized so that through the sacrament we are buried with Christ, dying to our sins and renouncing our former life. So just as the Father is glorified in the resurrection of the Son, so too on account of the newness of our lifestyle he is glorified by us all, as long as none of the signs of the old self is recognizable in us. For now we should no longer want or desire anything that those who are not yet baptized and are still trapped in the errors of their old life want or desire.
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSFor the dead sinner who hath gone down to baptism cometh up alive, even as Christ rose from the grave on the third day; but instead of becoming alive on the third day like our Lord, the sinner is renewed by three baptisms in three names. And as our Lord after His resurrection departed to a spiritual life from the corporeal life which He led before His crucifixion, so also the man, who hath been quickened into life by baptism as from the grave, walketh in a new life according to the doctrine of Paul.
13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 3 -- On Faith"Newness of life" means that we have put off the old life of sin and that our rebirth promises a new way of life.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHEvery soul, then, by reason of its birth, has its nature in Adam until it is born again in Christ; moreover, it is unclean all the while that it remains without this regeneration; and because unclean, it is actively sinful, and suffuses even the flesh (by reason of their conjunction) with its own shame. Now although the flesh is sinful, and we are forbidden to walk in accordance with it, and its works are condemned as lusting against the spirit, and men on its account are censured as carnal, yet the flesh has not such ignominy on its own account. For it is not of itself that it thinks anything or feels anything for the purpose of advising or commanding sin. How should it, indeed? It is only a ministering thing, and its ministration is not like that of a servant or familiar friend-animated and human beings; but rather that of a vessel, or something of that kind: it is body, not soul. Now a cup may minister to a thirsty man; and yet, if the thirsty man will not apply the cup to his mouth, the cup will yield no ministering service. Therefore the differentia, or distinguishing property, of man by no means lies in his earthy element; nor is the flesh the human person, as being some faculty of his soul, and a personal quality; but it is a thing of quite a different substance and different condition, although annexed to the soul as a chattel or as an instrument for the offices of life. Accordingly the flesh is blamed in the Scriptures, because nothing is done by the soul without the flesh in operations of concupiscence, appetite, drunkenness, cruelty, idolatry, and other works of the flesh,-operations, I mean, which are not confined to sensations, but result in effects. The emotions of sin, indeed, when not resulting in effects, are usually imputed to the soul: "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after, hath already in his heart committed adultery with her." But what has the flesh alone, without the soul, ever done in operations of virtue, righteousness, endurance, or chastity? What absurdity, however, it is to attribute sin and crime to that substance to which you do not assign any good actions or character of its own! Now the party which aids in the commission of a crime is brought to trial, only in such a way that the principal offender who actually committed the crime may bear the weight of the penalty, although the abettor too does not escape indictment. Greater is the odium which falls on the principal, when his officials are punished through his fault. He is beaten with more stripes who instigates and orders the crime, whilst at the same time he who obeys such an evil command is not acquitted.
A Treatise on the SoulThe sacrament of baptism itself teaches us to turn away from sin. For baptism is a type of the death of Christ. In it we have become participants in the death and resurrection of Christ. Therefore, because we have shared in Christ's resurrection, we ought to live a new life now.
INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANSChrist died and rose again in the flesh, while we die to sin and rise again to virtue, so that just as Christ rose from the dead in the flesh "by the glory of the Father," that is, by His own Divinity (for the glory of the Father is the Son), so we too rise by another resurrection, that is, by a new way of life. Thus, when a fornicator becomes chaste, he represents death and resurrection — the death of vice and the resurrection and revival of virtue in the person.
Commentary on RomansThen when he says, for we are buried together, he proves that we are all baptized in conformity with the death of Christ, saying, we are buried together with him by baptism into death. As if to say: burial is only for the dead. Let the dead bury their dead (Matt 18:22). By baptism, however, men are buried with Christ, i.e., conformed to his burial. For just as a buried man is put under the earth, so one being baptized is submerged under water. Hence, there are three immersions in baptism not only to indicate belief in the Trinity but also to represent the three days of Christ's burial. And just as the three days of burial were one burial, so the triple immersion constitutes one baptism. That is also why solemn baptism is celebrated in the Church on Holy Saturday, when the burial of Christ is commemorated and on the vigil of Pentecost in honor of the Holy Spirit, from whom the water of baptism derives its power to cleanse: unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven (John 3:5).
Yet it must be noted that in the body one dies before he is buried, but in the spiritual order the burial of baptism causes the death of sin, because the Sacraments of the new law bring about what they signify. Hence, since the burial which occurs through baptism is a sign of the death of sin, it produces such a death in the baptized. And this is what he says, namely, that we are buried . . . into death, so that in receiving in ourselves the sign of Christ's burial we might obtain death to sin.
Then when he says, that, as Christ, he infers the consequent, namely, that we should not live in sin. To this end he adduces a likeness to the resurrection of Christ, saying that, as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, i.e., by the Father's power, whereby the Father himself is glorified: let your glory be over all the earth (Ps 57:5), so we also may walk in newness of life, i.e., advance in the spiritual life through good works. For the life of sin carries with it the weakness of old age, because it leads to dissolution: what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away (Heb 8:13); hence it is said: why is it, O Israel, that you are in the land of your enemies (Bar 3:10); but whatever leads to restoration, i.e., to being without sin, is called newness of life: your youth is renewed like the eagle's (Ps 103:5); be renewed in the spirit of your minds (Eph 4:25).
Commentary on RomansFor if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
εἰ γὰρ σύμφυτοι γεγόναμεν τῷ ὁμοιώματι τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἐσόμεθα,
А҆́ще бо соѡбра́зни {снасажде́ни} бы́хомъ подо́бїю см҃рти є҆гѡ̀, то и҆ воскрⷭ҇нїю бꙋ́демъ,
Happily Paul says that we can rise again if we have been united with Christ in the likeness of his death, i.e., if we have laid aside all our wickedness in baptism and, having been transferred into a new life, no longer sin. In this way we shall be like him in his resurrection, because the likeness of his death presupposes a similar resurrection.… The likeness does not mean that there will be no difference at all between us, of course. We will be like him in the glory of his body, not in the nature of his divinity.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESLet him who lays his hands upon him adore God, the Lord of the whole world, and thank Him for His creation, for His sending Christ His only begotten Son, that He might save man by blotting out his transgressions, and that He might remit ungodliness and sins, and might "purify him from all filthiness of flesh and spirit," and sanctify man according to the good pleasure of His kindness, that He might inspire him with the knowledge of His will, and enlighten the eyes of his heart to consider of His wonderful works, and make known to him the judgments of righteousness, that so he might hate every way of iniquity, and walk in the way of truth, that he might be thought worthy of the layer of regeneration, to the adoption of sons, which is in Christ, that "being planted together in the likeness of the death of Christ," in hopes of a glorious communication, he may be mortified to sin, and may live to God, as to his mind, and word, and deed, and may be numbered together in the book of the living.
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 7The perfect surrender and humiliation were undergone by Christ: perfect because He was God, surrender and humiliation because He was man. Now the Christian belief is that if we somehow share the humility and suffering of Christ we shall also share in His conquest of death and find a new life after we have died and in it become perfect, and perfectly happy, creatures.
Mere Christianity, Book 2, Chapter 5: The Practical ConclusionAnd then, after being thus killed—killed every day in a sense—the human creature in Him, because it was united to the divine Son, came to life again. The Man in Christ rose again: not only the God. That is the whole point. For the first time we saw a real man. One tin soldier—real tin, just like the rest—had come fully and splendidly alive.
Mere Christianity, Book 4, Chapter 5: The Obstinate Toy SoldiersEmmanuel gave up his soul for us; he died in the flesh. We also were buried together with him when we were baptized. Does this mean that our flesh died in the same way as his did? Hardly. Come, let me explain in what sense we were buried with him in a death like his. Christ died in the flesh in order to remove the sin of the world, but we do not die to the flesh so much as to guilt, as it is written. Thus now we have to break down the power of sin within us by mortifying our earthly members.… As we have died a death like his, so we shall also be conformed to his resurrection, because we shall live in Christ. It is true that the flesh will come to life again, but still we shall live in another way, by dedicating our souls to him and by being transformed into holiness and a kind of glorious life in the Holy Spirit.
EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANSThose who have been validly baptized into Christ's death have been united to him by faith.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHChrist's baptism in the Jordan was a type of the mystery of his resurrection.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHPaul did not say "in death" but "in a death like his." For both the first and the second are death but not the death of the same thing. The first is the death of the body, the second is the death of sin.
BAPTISMAL INSTRUCTIONS 10.10What I had before occasion to remark, that I mention here too, that he continually digresseth into exhortation, without making any twofold division as he does in the other Epistles, and setting apart the former portion for doctrines, and the latter for the care of moral instruction. Here then he does not do so, but blends the latter with the subject throughout, so as to gain it an easy admission. Here then he says there are two mortifyings, and two deaths, and that one is done by Christ in Baptism, and the other it is our duty to effect by earnestness afterwards. For that our former sins were buried, came of His gift. But the remaining dead to sin after baptism must be the work of our own earnestness, however much we find God here also giving us large help. For this is not the only thing Baptism has the power to do, to obliterate our former transgressions; for it also secures against subsequent ones. As then in the case of the former, thy contribution was faith that they might be obliterated, so also in those subsequent to this, show thou forth the change in thine aims, that thou mayest not defile thyself again. For it is this and the like that he is counselling thee when he says, "for if we have been planted together in the likeness of His Death, we shall be also in the likeness of His Resurrection." Do you observe, how he rouses the hearer by leading him straightway up to his Master, and taking great pains to show the strong likeness? This is why he does not say "in death," lest you should gainsay it, but, "in the likeness of His Death." For our essence itself hath not died, but the man of sins, that is, wickedness. And he does not say, "for if we have been" partakers of "the likeness of His Death;" but what? "If we have been planted together," so, by the mention of planting, giving a hint of the fruit resulting to us from it. For as His Body, by being buried in the earth, brought forth as the fruit of it the salvation of the world; thus ours also, being buried in baptism, bore as fruit righteousness, sanctification, adoption, countless blessings. And it will bear also hereafter the gift of the resurrection. Since then we were buried in water, He in earth, and we in regard to sin, He in regard to His Body, this is why he did not say, "we were planted together in His Death," but "in the likeness of His Death." For both the one and the other is death, but not that of the same subject. If then he says, "we have been planted together in His Death, we shall be in that of His Resurrection," speaking here of the Resurrection which is to come. For since when he was upon the subject of the Death before, and said, "Know ye not, brethren, that so many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His Death?" he had not made any clear statement about the Resurrection, but only about the way of life after baptism, bidding men walk in newness of life; therefore he here resumes the same subject, and proceeds to foretell to us clearly that Resurrection.
Homily on Romans 11See the goodness of God. We have died Christ's death metaphorically, but we shall share his resurrection truly.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH"For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be [planted together in the likeness] of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified together with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, so that we should no longer serve sin. For he who has died has been justified from sin." All these things look back to that question, lest he should seem to have given occasion for sinning in what he said: "But where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more." For it is on this account that he says both that we are dead to sin, and that whoever of us have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into his death; and now he writes that we have been planted together into the likeness of his death, adding that if we bear the likeness of his death, by which he died to sin, we ought also to hope for the likeness of his resurrection. But he shows in what way this can come about, saying that our old man must be crucified together with Christ. And our old man is to be understood as the former life which we led in sins, of which we make an end and, as it were, a destruction when we receive within ourselves the faith of Christ's cross, through which the body of sin is so destroyed that our members, which used to serve sin, no longer serve it, but God. But now, taking up the discussion again, let us see what it is to be planted together in the likeness of Christ's death — in which phrase he presents Christ's death as, so to speak, the planting of some tree, with which he wishes us to be planted together, so that our root also, receiving from the sap of his root, may put forth branches of righteousness and bear the fruits of life. But if you wish to learn from the Scriptures what this plant is with which we ought to be planted together, and of what kind the tree is, hear what is written concerning Wisdom: "She is," he says, "a tree of life to all who hope in her; and those who trust in her are as in the Lord." Christ therefore, the power of God and the wisdom of God, is himself the tree of life, with which we ought to be planted together; and by a certain new and lovable gift of God his death becomes for us a tree of life. And the Apostle rightly, knowing that in the present passage he is treating not of this common death but of the death of sin, did not say, "For if we have been planted together" with his death, but "with the likeness of his death." For Christ so died once to sin that he committed no sin at all, nor was guile found in his mouth. And this can in no way be found in its entirety in any other human being. For "no one is clean from sin, not even if his life has been of a single day." Therefore, by that very death by which Jesus died to sin, so that he committed no sin at all, we cannot die in such a way that we know sin not at all; yet we can have the likeness of it, so that by imitating him and following his footsteps we may keep ourselves from sin. This, then, is what human nature is able to receive: that it should come to be in the likeness of his death, while by imitating him it does not sin. For to be altogether and entirely ignorant of sin belongs to Christ alone. But certain of the heretics, not understanding this, have tried to assert from this passage of the Apostle that Christ did not truly die, but had a likeness of death, and seemed to die rather than truly died. Since it is very easy to answer them, I do not think it necessary to bring to bear the weight of testimonies from the other sayings either of the Apostle or of the Gospels, where his death, and not a likeness of death, is written of plainly, since we can say to them: If it was a likeness of death, and not a true death, then there was a likeness of resurrection also, and not a true resurrection; and so we too shall seem to rise and shall not truly rise; and we shall seem to die to sin and shall not truly die. And so everything that has been done, and is being done, has seemed to be done but has not been done. It remains, then, that in the matter of our being saved also, we have seemed to be saved but have not truly been saved. Wherefore, since these things are so absurd that they need no proofs, let us turn to the explanation of what follows. He wishes us, therefore, to be planted together with the likeness of his death, by which he died once to sin, so that we may also be planted together with his resurrection — for "planted together" must be supplied with both. And see how fittingly he has taken up the figure of planting. For every plant, after the death of winter, awaits the resurrection of spring. If then we too have been planted together in Christ's death in the winter of this age and of the present life, we shall also be found, when the spring to come arrives, bringing forth fruits of righteousness from his root; and if we have been planted together with him, it is necessary that the Father, the husbandman, prune us as branches of the true vine, that we may bear much fruit, as he himself also says in the Gospels: "I am the true vine, you are the branches, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch that does not abide in me, my Father will cut it off. But him who abides in me, he will prune, that he may bear much fruit." In this way, therefore, we have been planted together with the likeness of his death, so that we may also be planted together with the likeness of his resurrection. And what it is to be planted together with the likeness of his resurrection, the apostle John teaches: "Little children, we do not yet know what we shall be. But if he is revealed to us, we shall be like him." And again the Savior himself says: "Father, I will that where I am, these also may be with me"; and again: "As I am in you, and you in me, that these also may be one in us." This he certainly says of those who in the present life have been planted together with the likeness of his death. And I think that this may fittingly be said also of that thief who hung on the cross together with Jesus; and through his confession, in which he said, "Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom," and through his rebuking of the other who blasphemed, he is seen by these things to have been planted together with the likeness of his death; but he was also planted together with his resurrection through this, that it is said to him, "Today you shall be with me in paradise." For worthy indeed was that plant of paradise, which was joined to the tree of life.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSBut as to the fact that in other places the Apostle says that we have already risen with Christ, and been raised up together with him, and sit together in the heavenly places, while here he says: "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be so also of his resurrection" — that is, what he elsewhere said had already happened, here he now says is future and to be hoped for — the reason is this, that a twofold resurrection is understood: one by which in mind and purpose and faith we rise with Christ from earthly things, so that we may think upon heavenly things and seek after those to come; the other, the general resurrection in the flesh which will be of all. Therefore the resurrection which is according to the mind and from faith already seems to be fulfilled in those who savor "the things that are above," "where Christ is at the right hand of God." But that general resurrection of the flesh which pertains to all is still to come: because the one is fulfilled at the Lord's first coming, the other at his second.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSIf we are buried with Christ now, we shall be united with him in his resurrection then, and if we have already become new and been changed in our way of life now, we shall likewise be new and changed in glory then.
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSWe die figuratively in our baptism, but we shall rise again in reality in our flesh, even as Christ did.
ON RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH 47He did not say: partook of the likeness of His death, but says "united," indicating by the word "union" the fruit of Christ's death in us. The body of Christ, buried in the earth, brought forth the fruit of salvation. Since we are buried in water, while Christ in the earth, and moreover we are buried to sin, while He in body, he did not say "death," but "the likeness of death." Therefore we shall also be partakers of the resurrection, inheriting eternal life, as those who have shown forth the resurrection consisting in good works.
Commentary on RomansThen when he says, for if we, he shows how the consequence follows necessarily. For after he died, Christ arose; hence it is fitting that those who are conformed to Christ's death in baptism should be conformed also to his resurrection by leading a blameless life. And that is what he says: for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, i.e., if we are incorporated into his death as a branch is grafted to a tree, then, as we are united with Christ in his passion, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, so as to live blamelessly in our present life and to attain to a glory similar to his in the future life: he will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body (Phil 3:21); if we have died with him, we shall also live with him (2 Tim 2:11). Thus, after using our likeness to the death of Christ to prove that we are dead to sin, the Apostle uses our likeness to the resurrection of Christ to show that we should not live in sin; which he introduces above as a consequence.
Commentary on RomansKnowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
τοῦτο γινώσκοντες, ὅτι ὁ παλαιὸς ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος συνεσταυρώθη ἵνα καταργηθῇ τὸ σῶμα τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τοῦ μηκέτι δουλεύειν ἡμᾶς τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ·
сїѐ вѣ́дѧще, ꙗ҆́кѡ ве́тхїй на́шъ человѣ́къ съ ни́мъ распѧ́тсѧ, да ᲂу҆праздни́тсѧ тѣ́ло грѣхо́вное, ꙗ҆́кѡ ктомꙋ̀ не рабо́тати на́мъ грѣхꙋ̀:
Until, therefore, this price should have been paid for all men which by the shedding of the Lords Blood had to be so paid for the absolution of all, the blood of every man, who, by the Law and solemn custom were to follow the precepts of holy religion, was required. But, since one Lord Christ suffered, seeing that the ransom is now paid for all, there is now no longer any need that the blood of every man one by one should be shed by circumcision, for in the Blood of Christ the circumcision of all has been solemnized, and in His Cross we are all crucified together with Him, and buried in His sepulchre, and planted together in the likeness of His death, that henceforth we should not serve sin: for he that is dead, is free from sin.
Letter 72, To ConstantiusPaul underlines and repeats a good deal in order to teach the baptized that they must not sin and above all that they must not return to idolatry, which is a very serious crime and the root of all errors, lest they lose the grace which they have received through Christ. He calls our former behavior "our old self" because, just as the man who has a pure life through Christ and faith in him is said to be new, so the same man is said to be old through unbelief and evil deeds. Paul says that these deeds have been crucified, which means that they are dead, that the body of sin (i.e., all our misdeeds) has been destroyed. Paul calls all our sins a body, which he says has been destroyed by a good life and by orthodox belief.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESThis refers to Deuteronomy [21:23]: "Cursed be every man hanged from a tree." For as the crucifixion of the old man is symbolized in the cross of the Lord, so the rebirth of the new man is signified in the resurrection. It is clear that according to Paul we are in the place of the old man who is accursed. No one doubts that it was because of him that the Lord was called "sin," because "he bore our sins" and "he was made sin for us," and "by sin he condemned sin."
AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 32-34.By these words we are taught that he who is baptized in Christ is baptized in his death and is not only buried with Christ and planted together with him but is first of all crucified with him. Thus we are instructed that, as he who is crucified is separated from the living, so also he who has been crucified with Christ in the likeness of his death is completely set apart from those who live according to the old man.
CONCERNING BAPTISM 1.2But to us the apostle says, "Now we know this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.". For "to bring themselves into captivity "and to slay themselves, putting to death "the old man, who is through lusts corrupt "and raising the new man from death, "from the old conversation "by abandoning the passions, and becoming free of sin, both the Gospel and the apostle enjoin.
The Stromata Book 4Perhaps some people will think that "the body of sin" is meant to refer to our earthly flesh, which has been joined to the soul as a kind of punishment, in that the soul sinned before bodies were created. Some people think and talk like this, but as it is a pagan idea we must reject it as being incompatible with the truth. Therefore, Paul says that our earthly body is the body of sin and our old man, because it has inherited the necessity of corruption from the old Adam.… Moreover, because of its weakness it has contracted a love for wickedness, and thus sin appears in the flesh as a congenital defect.We were crucified with Christ at the moment when his flesh was crucified, because it somehow included universal human nature in itself, just as universal human nature contracted the sickness of the curse in Adam at the same time that he incurred the curse.
EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS"Our old self" refers to our perishable and passible bodies.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHGet for yourself none of the things that are on earth, and do not be active in the affairs of the present life. For your life is hidden now and unseen by those who do not believe, but the time will come when it will be seen. But now is not your time. Since you have died once for all, refuse to mind the things that are on earth. The greatness of your virtue is seen especially when you have prevailed over the arrogance of the flesh and act toward the good things of the world just as if you were dead to this life.
BAPTISMAL INSTRUCTIONS 7.22So putting together both the cause and the demonstration of the Resurrection which is to come. And he does not say is crucified, but is crucified with Him, so bringing baptism near to the Cross. And on this score also it was that he said above, "We have been planted together in the likeness of His Death that the body of sin might be destroyed," not giving that name to this body of ours, but to all iniquity. For as he calls the whole sum of wickedness the old man, thus again the wickedness which is made up of the different parts of iniquity he calls the body of that man. And that what I am saying is not mere guesswork, hearken to Paul's own interpretation of this very thing in what comes next. For after saying, "that the body of sin might be destroyed," he adds, "that henceforth we should not serve sin." For the way in which I would have it dead is not so that ye should be destroyed and die, but so that ye sin not. And as he goes on he makes this still clearer.
Homily on Romans 11Therefore, what the Apostle had said about being planted together with the likeness of Christ's death, he now takes up again under another figure, and says: "Because our old man was crucified together with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed." In many places, and often already, we have said what it is to be crucified together with Christ; and we have often treated of the old man; whence briefly in the present passage we call the old man the one who lived according to Adam, liable to transgression and to sin, and over whom the death of sin held dominion, of whom he who had the power of death held the bonds of sin: and since Christ, blotting these out with his blood, nailed them to his cross, we too, according to the old man who was liable to sin, ought to be crucified, "that the body of sin might be destroyed, and that we should no longer serve sin." And I think it must be observed that where the Apostle says that the "body" must be destroyed, he adds "of sin"; but where he does not speak of destroying, he says not "the body of sin," but that it is we ourselves who should not serve sin — so that he may show that if the body of sin has been destroyed, we no longer serve sin, to which of course we were in servitude so long as it had not been destroyed in us, and our members which are upon the earth had not been mortified.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSBut we must still go back and consider more carefully in what sense he said "the body of sin." Here a twofold understanding seems possible: either he called our body the body of sin, or he means that sin itself has some body of its own, which must be destroyed by those who ought no longer to serve sin. Since, then, both senses can be admitted in this passage, we shall set forth our view on each. For if we posit that sin has a body of its own, it will appear that, just as it was said of those who have been restored into the new man that "you are the body of Christ, and members in part," so also of those who have not yet crucified the old man it may be said that they are the body of sin and its members, of which body the head is the devil, just as Christ is head of the body of the Church, which has neither spot nor wrinkle. And the members of which this body of sin consists may be seen to be those which the Apostle above enumerated as members upon the earth, that is, fornication, uncleanness, shamelessness, avarice, contentions, wrath, deceits, quarrels, dissensions, heresies, envy, revellings, and the like: of all which members it may fittingly be said that the body of sin consists, and that this body is called the old man. And if anyone should destroy it through the cross of Christ, and be changed into the new man who is created according to God, he will no longer be said to serve sin — to which without doubt he does serve so long as he lies under any of those things which we have expounded above to be the members of sin. But if instead the Apostle is understood to have called this body of ours the body of sin, it will surely be taken according to that understanding by which David also says of himself, "I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me." But the Apostle himself too says in another place, "Who will free me from the body of this death?" and again he names our body "the body of humiliation." And of the Savior he says in a certain place that he came "in the likeness of the flesh of sin," that "from sin" he might condemn "sin in the flesh." In which he shows that our flesh is indeed flesh of sin, but Christ's flesh is like the flesh of sin. For it was not conceived from the seed of a man, but the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, so that what was born of her should be called the Son of the Highest. Thus, then, Paul, through the ineffable wisdom of God which was given to him, gazing upon some hidden and secret thing I know not what, calls our body "the body of sin," and "the body of death," and "the body of humiliation." But David also, knowing the heavenly secrets by the same Spirit, said concerning the body: "And you have led me down into the dust of death"; and again: "Our soul has been humbled in the dust." Jeremiah likewise, aware of a similar mystery through the Spirit of God, says in his Lamentations that all men are prisoners of the earth — that is, on account of the body — and he says: "That he might humble under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, because they have turned aside the judgment of a man in the sight of the Most High, and have condemned a man in judging." The body of sin, therefore, is our body; since neither is Adam written to have known Eve his wife and to have begotten Cain except after the sin. Finally, in the law also a sacrifice is commanded to be offered for the little child that has been born, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons: of which one is for sin, and the other for a whole burnt offering. For what sin is this one young bird offered? Can a newly born infant already have sinned? And yet it has a sin for which a sacrifice is commanded to be offered, from which sin no one is said to be clean, not even if his life has been of a single day. Of this, therefore, David too must be believed to have spoken that which we mentioned above, that "in sins did my mother conceive me." For according to the historical narrative no sin of his mother is disclosed. For this reason the Church also received a tradition from the apostles, to give baptism even to little children. For those to whom the secrets of the divine mysteries were committed knew that there are in all people inborn defilements of sin, which must be washed away by water and the Spirit; on account of which the body itself is also named the body of sin — not (as some of those think who introduce the transmigration of souls into various bodies) for those things which the soul, placed in another body, has committed, but for this very thing, that it has come to be in a body of sin and a body of death and of humiliation; and, as he said, that "you have humbled our soul in the dust." These, meanwhile, are the things concerning the body of sin that could occur to us for the present. But which of the two expositions suits the apostolic sense, or whether neither does, let the one who reads judge.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSThrough baptism you who have been made a member of Christ's body were crucified with Christ. He hangs his innocent body so that you may have the power to restrain your guilty body from sin. Similarly, Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness so that every form of wickedness might be torn down, because each vice is a member of the body of sin. Christ was not crucified in part but in whole. Or perhaps we should read this as meaning that our body should be torn away from slavery to sin and that what used to be the property of transgression should now become the property of righteousness, for "everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin."
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSNow because John was to be worthy of the knowledge of the Apostles before the dissolution of the curse, and the abrogation of sin, and the matter of the Cross, he rightly received the Spirit in the womb, and he had the growth which was outside the world in order that by these means he might attain unto the natural innocency which the first man possessed before he transgressed the commandment, and that by this innocency of soul he might receive the knowledge of Divine mysteries. And when in the unspeakable depth of the love of God the Redemption was completed, the Person of God Himself stood in the midst like a freeman with power, and with His own hand He annulled the things which were old, and inaugurated those which were new, and the old man died upon the Cross, according to that which is written by Paul, "Our old man was crucified with Him," and the new man was revealed, and made known, and became visible, and not only that which was worthy of the dwelling of Paradise, after the manner of the first Adam, but that which was worthy to dwell also in heaven, and to go round about among spiritual beings, and to be like unto them in every thing. And therefore after this those who are experienced in all wickednesses, and tax-gatherers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and thieves, and worshippers of creatures, Grace seizeth suddenly, and without either plans or preparations maketh them worthy of the wealth of its mysteries, as in a new nature, it worketh in whomsoever it pleaseth, because the old man hath been crucified, and is dead, according to the word of Paul.
13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 9 -- Second Discourse on PovertyThis refers not to our body structure but to our moral behavior.… It is not our bodily frame which has been transformed, nor has our flesh endured the cross of Christ. The sinful body is destroyed by amendment of life, not by the destruction of our fleshly substance.
ON RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH 47For that must be living after the world, which, as the old man, he declares to be "crucified with Christ," not as a bodily structure, but as moral behaviour.
On the Resurrection of the FleshBesides, 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, " 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; " and that we should believe ourselves to be "dead with Christ," in such a manner as that "we shall also live with Him.
On the Resurrection of the FleshThe "old man" does not refer to our nature but to our evil mind. It is this which has been put to death in baptism, so that the body would not continue to serve sin.
INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS"Our old man," that is, wickedness, "is crucified with Him," that is, like the body of Christ, is buried in baptism; "that the body of sin might be destroyed," that is, the wickedness composed of various kinds, or our body inclined to sin, which is why he adds: "that we should no longer be slaves to sin." I desire, he says, that the body be dead, not in the sense that it be destroyed, but that it not sin.
Commentary on RomansAfter showing that we should not continue to sin after baptism has made us dead to sin, the Apostle now shows that we have the means to do this. Concerning this he does two things. First, he indicates the benefit we have received; second, the effect of this benefit, at for he that is dead. Concerning the first he does two things. First he sets out the benefit we obtain; Second, the effect of this benefit, at that the body of sin.
First, therefore: we have said that the baptized should walk in newness of life, namely, by desisting from sin. To anyone who says that this is impossible he responds, knowing this, that our old man, i.e., the oldness caused by sin, is crucified, i.e., put to death by the cross of Christ, with him, namely, with Christ. For as was stated above, man's oldness was brought about by sin—in the sense that the goodness of his nature was corrupted by sin—and is predominant as long as he continues in sin. But because what is predominant in a man characterizes the man himself, it follows that the oldness of sin in a man subject to sin is an apt description of the man himself. That is why he says the old self.
Now the oldness of sin can refer to the guilt of sin or to the stain of actual sins or even to the habit of sinning, which engenders a sort of compulsion to sin, or even to the fomes, or concupiscence, deriving from the sin of the first parent. Thus, therefore, our old self is said to be crucified together with Christ, inasmuch as the aforesaid oldness is removed by the power of Christ; either because it has been entirely removed, as the guilt and stain of sin are entirely removed in baptism, or because its force has been diminished, i.e., the force of the fomes or even of the custom of sinning: having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross (Col 2:14).
Then when he says, that the body of sin, he mentions the twofold effect of this benefit, the first of which is the removal of previous sins. Hence he says: that the body of sin may be destroyed. The body of sin is the assemblage of evil deeds, just as the assemblage of members makes one natural body: his body is like molten shields (Job 41:6). The second effect is that it makes us beware of future sins; hence, he adds: to the end that we may serve sin no longer. For a man is a slave of sin, when he obeys the concupiscence of sin by consenting to and doing the sin: everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin (John 8:34).
Commentary on RomansFor he that is dead is freed from sin.
ὁ γὰρ ἀποθανὼν δεδικαίωται ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας.
ᲂу҆ме́рый бо свободи́сѧ ѿ грѣха̀.
He is set free, he is delivered, he is cleansed of all sin, and not sin in word and deed only but also of all irrational movements of the mind.
CONCERNING BAPTISM 1.2Wherefore also He drove him out of Paradise, and removed him far from the tree of life, not because He envied him the tree of life, as some venture to assert, but because He pitied him, [and did not desire] that he should continue a sinner for ever, nor that the sin which surrounded him should be immortal, and evil interminable and irremediable. But He set a bound to his [state of] sin, by interposing death, and thus causing sin to cease, putting an end to it by the dissolution of the flesh, which should take place in the earth, so that man, ceasing at length to live to sin, and dying to it, might begin to live to God.
Against Heresies Book IIIBut He set a bound to his [state of] sin, by interposing death, and thus causing sin to cease, putting an end to it by the dissolution of the flesh, which should take place in the earth, so that man, ceasing at length to live to sin, and dying to it, might begin to live to God.
AGAINST HERESIES 3.23.6This he says of every man, that as he that is dead is henceforth freed from sinning, lying as a dead body, so must he that has come up from baptism, since he has died there once for all, remain ever dead to sin. If then thou hast died in baptism, remain dead, for any one that dies can sin no more; but if thou sinnest, thou marrest God's gift. After requiring of us then heroism of this degree, he presently brings in the crown also.
Homily on Romans 11Freed means "alienated" from sin, for the dead do not sin in any way. "No one born of God commits sin," for since he has been crucified and all his members are filled with regret, he will hardly be able to sin.
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSWhoever saw a dead man sleeping in some harlot's bed, or bloodying his hands with murder, or doing anything else which is sinful?
INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS"For he who has died has been freed from sin." This he says of the whole man. As "he who has died has been freed from sin," that is, has been delivered, is free, so also you, who have been baptized and have died to sin, remain dead.
Commentary on RomansThen when he says, for he that is dead, he clarifies what he had said: first, in regard to the first effect; second, in regard to the second, at now, if we be dead.
In regard to the first it should be noted that the assemblage of sins is destroyed when a man has his sins remitted. So he clarifies how the body of sin is destroyed when he says, he that is dead to sin through baptism, in which we die together with Christ, is justified from sin, i.e., transferred to the state of justice: and such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified (1 Cor 6:11). Therefore, because man dies to sin through the cross of Christ, he is freed from sin in such a way that the body of sin is destroyed.
Commentary on RomansNow if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
εἰ δὲ ἀπεθάνομεν σὺν Χριστῷ, πιστεύομεν ὅτι καὶ συζήσομεν αὐτῷ,
А҆́ще же ᲂу҆мро́хомъ со хрⷭ҇то́мъ, вѣ́рꙋемъ, ꙗ҆́кѡ и҆ жи́ви бꙋ́демъ съ ни́мъ,
It is clear that those who have crucified the body, i.e., the world with its vices and lusts, die to the world and die together with Christ, and that they are also conformed to his eternal and saving life so that they might deserve to be made like Christ in his glory. But the flesh, i.e., the body, is crucified in such a way that the lusts which arise in it as a result of the sin in it, which comes from the transgression of the first man, are trampled underfoot. For the devil is crucified in our flesh; it is he who deceives us through the flesh. But note how the word flesh is sometimes to be understood as the world, i.e., the elements, sometimes as the human body and sometimes as the soul which follows corporeal vices.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESAnd indeed even before the crown, this is in itself the greater crown, the partaking with our Master. But he says, I give even another reward. Of what kind is it? It is life eternal. For "we believe," he says, "that we shall also live with Him." And whence is this clear?
Homily on Romans 11"But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with him, knowing that Christ rising from the dead dies no more, death shall no longer have dominion over him. For in that he died to sin, he died once; but in that he lives, he lives to God." In everything the Apostle has said above, he wished to show this: that if Christ died to sin, we too have died to sin along with him. And when he says, "we were baptized into his death," and, "we have been planted together in the likeness of his death," through all these things he shows that we have died with Christ to sin, from the fact that Christ indeed died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and to each one of the believers he granted out of his own death, as a kind of gift of faith, the death of sin itself — that is, to those who believe themselves to be dead with him and crucified and buried together with him, and through these things sin cannot work in them as in dead persons, and thus they are said to be dead to sin. Therefore, then, in the present passage the Apostle draws the conclusion of everything he had established above, and says: "But if we have died with Christ," namely through those things which we have shown above, "we believe that we shall also live together with him." He did not say: and we have lived together, as he said, "we have died"; but, "we shall live together," so as to show that death is at work in the present, but life in the future — namely, then "when Christ shall have been made manifest, who is our life hidden in God." Now "therefore," as Paul himself teaches, "death works in us." But even this death that works in us seems to me to have certain distinctions. For just as in Christ there was one time of death, of which it is said, "And crying out with a loud voice he expired," and another when he lay placed in the tomb with the door closed, and another indeed when, sought in the sepulcher, he was not found, because he had already risen — of which resurrection the visible beginning was granted to no one of humankind — so also in us who believe in him this threefold account of death is to be held. And first, indeed, the death of Christ must be shown in us by the confession of the voice, when "with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Second, in the mortification of the members which are upon the earth, when we now always carry about the mortification of Christ in our body; and this is what he says, that "death works in us." Third, when we now rise from the dead, and walk in newness of life. And to explain it more briefly and more clearly: the first day of death is to have renounced the world; the second, to have renounced also the vices of the flesh; but the fullness of perfection in the light of wisdom is the third day, that of resurrection. Yet these distinctions in each of the believers, and the degrees of their progress, he alone can know and discern to whom alone the secrets of the heart lie open. But do you observe Paul's wisdom in writing: he who, writing to Timothy, said that "if we die together, we shall also live together"; and who, to those dying together with Christ, joined as something consequent and necessary that they should live together with him — here he added, "we believe," so as to show that although it is consequent and necessary for one who dies together to live together, nevertheless this is accomplished through the mediation of faith and of believing.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSIf we have not died with him we shall not live with him, because then we are not his members.
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSThose of us who were buried with Christ ought to die to sin, because we are waiting for the resurrection.
INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANSHere, it would seem, there is a repetition of what was said; but in reality there is not. Above, the apostle said that we must always remain dead to sin, and now he reasons about the resurrection of the new life according to God, which we must always have. If through baptism we died with Christ, then we believe that we shall always have the resurrection belonging to us, consisting in the new life.
Commentary on RomansThen when he says, now, if we be dead, he clarifies the second effect by showing how it conforms one to the life of Christ. The reasoning is this: one who dies with the dying Christ also lives with the rising Christ. But Christ rose from the dead, in such a way that he will never die again. Therefore, one who has died to sin lives with the risen Christ in such a way that he has the faculty of never returning to sin.
In regard to this he does three things: first, he shows the believer's conformity to the risen Christ; second, he gives a condition of this life, at knowing that Christ; third, he draws the intended conclusion, at so do you also.
First, therefore, he says, now, if we be dead with Christ, i.e., if we are dead to sin by virtue of Christ's death, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ, i.e., in the likeness of his life. We shall live, I say, the life of grace here and the life of glory in the future: when we were dead through sin, he made us alive together with Christ (Eph 2:5).
Commentary on RomansKnowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
εἰδότες ὅτι Χριστὸς ἐγερθεὶς ἐκ νεκρῶν οὐκέτι ἀποθνήσκει, θάνατος αὐτοῦ οὐκέτι κυριεύει.
вѣ́дѧще, ꙗ҆́кѡ хрⷭ҇то́съ воста̀ ѿ ме́ртвыхъ, ктомꙋ̀ ᲂу҆жѐ не ᲂу҆мира́етъ: сме́рть и҆́мъ ктомꙋ̀ не ѡ҆блада́етъ.
When death first had dominion over Christ, it was only with his consent.
SERMON 69.2For this sacrifice doth especially save our souls from everlasting damnation, which in mystery doth renew unto us the death of the Son of God: who although being risen from death, doth not now die any more, nor death shall not any further prevail against him: yet living in himself immortally, and without all corruption, he is again sacrificed for us in this mystery of the holy oblation: for there his body is received, there his flesh is distributed for the salvation of the people: there his blood is not now shed betwixt the hands of infidels, but poured into the mouths of the faithful.
Dialogues, Book 4, Chapter 58He declares in the plainest manner, that the same Being who was laid hold of, and underwent suffering, and shed His blood for us, was both Christ and the Son of God, who did also rise again, and was taken up into heaven, as he himself [Paul] says: "But at the same time, [it is] Christ [that] died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God." And again, "Knowing that Christ, rising from the dead, dieth no more:" for, as himself foreseeing, through the Spirit, the subdivisions of evil teachers [with regard to the Lord's person], and being desirous of cutting away from them all occasion of cavil, he says what has been already stated, [and also declares: ] "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." This he does not utter to those alone who wish to hear: Do not err, [he says to all: ] Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is one and the same, who did by suffering reconcile us to God, and rose from the dead; who is at the right hand of the Father, and perfect in all things; "who, when He was buffeted, struck not in return; who, when He suffered, threatened not;" and when He underwent tyranny, He prayed His Father that He would forgive those who had crucified Him. For He did Himself truly bring in salvation: since He is Himself the Word of God, Himself the Only-begotten of the Father, Christ Jesus our Lord.
Against Heresies Book IIIAnd notice again his undauntedness, and how he makes the thing good from opposite grounds. Since then it was likely that some would feel perplexed at the Cross and the Death, he shows that this very thing is a ground for feeling confident henceforward. For suppose not, he says, because He once died, that He is mortal, for this is the very reason of His being immortal. For His death hath been the death of death, and because He did die, He therefore doth not die.
Homily on Romans 11Being certain, he says, and "knowing that Christ rising from the dead dies no more." For if he were to die again, then just as we have shown it to be consequent and necessary that those who die together with him shall also live together with him, so without doubt it would seem consequent that, if after resurrection and life he were to die again, those also who live together with him would die again together with him as he died. Therefore, for this reason the Apostle determines by an absolute pronouncement that Christ dies no more, so that those also who live together with him may be secure concerning the eternity of life. But after these things (that I too may use the very words of the Apostle, in which he says: "But Isaiah is bold and says"), I too say: But Paul is bold and says: "Death shall no longer have dominion over him." Did you dare to say this, O Paul, concerning Christ, "Death shall no longer have dominion over him," as though at some time it had had dominion? — over him whose voice in the Gospel is carried through the whole body of the Church clearer than light, in which he says: "No one takes my soul from me, but I lay it down, and I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again." Do you then say that death had dominion over him who not only laid down his soul by his will, but also took it up by his power? who alone among the dead was "free," and whom alone death could not hold? These things, I suppose, and things like them, will be raised against Paul by those who are held by a tender affection toward Jesus, and endure to hear nothing lowly, nothing unworthy concerning him. But we too, when we look to Paul, do not think there is anyone who could surpass him in love of Christ: whence neither is he to be thought to have spoken anything about him contrary to what is worthy of him. And therefore let us search out more subtly, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, the word of wisdom by which we may be able to perceive Paul's meaning — nay rather, the mind of Christ which is in him, according to what he himself professes: "But we have the mind of Christ." Someone, then, may say more concisely on these matters that here he speaks of this common and middle death by which "he died," as the same Apostle says, "according to the Scriptures," and that nothing seems absurd if he who had taken up the form of a servant endured the dominion of death, which without doubt has dominion over all who, placed in the flesh, are reckoned under the servile form. But this too lies close to this assertion: that for this reason this form of a servant, that is, our very flesh also, is sown in corruption, that it may rise in incorruption; and is sown in weakness, that it may rise in power; and is sown in dishonor, that it may rise in glory; and is sown an animal body, that it may rise a spiritual body — without doubt so that death may no longer have dominion over it, which had dominion over it while it was in weakness, and dishonor, and corruption. For concerning such flesh as is still in these vices of the passions, Paul himself says: "That flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God, neither shall corruption possess incorruption." But also as to the fact that elsewhere the same Apostle named the body a body "of death," he who asserts these things says that this is to be understood of this middle death, which has dominion over a body of this kind so long as it is animal and corruptible, and not yet changed through the glory of the resurrection, and made incorruptible out of corruptible, and glorious out of ignoble. But that which is very much contrary to this assertion (that is, that we have died with Christ, and have been buried together with him — which certainly can in no way be understood of this common death), he will attempt to explain in this manner: that just as in the foregoing, when we were expounding concerning the diversity of laws, we showed that the Apostle in one and the same place names now the natural law, now that of Moses, now also that of sin, and taught by adducing testimonies from other places as well that this is the usage of divine Scripture, so also in the present passage he may establish that by the Apostle there is named now the common death, now that of sin, now also the very author of death, who is likewise said to be the last enemy to be destroyed, now also the place of the underworld, in which the devil is said to hold the empire of death.
Here too, then, what he says — "Death shall no longer have dominion over him" — one will maintain was said of that death by which Christ is commonly believed to have died. Yet how sound this assertion may be, let the one who reads it test. But another, who by the power of the Spirit looks into the deeper sense of Paul in these matters, will say that the death spoken of here, over which it is said that it shall no longer have dominion over Christ, is to be understood as that last enemy himself, who was prefigured by that whale which had swallowed Jonah, concerning which it is written in Job: "But let him curse it who cursed that day, he who is to destroy the great whale" — into which death Christ entered as Jonah into the belly of the whale, that is, into that place which the Savior himself named the heart of the earth, in which he says that the Son of man, after the example of Jonah, would spend three days and three nights, in order that he might bring out those who were there held fast by death. For he had taken the form of a servant precisely for this, that he might be able to enter that very place where death held its kingdom, according to what the Prophet also says in his person: "And I was counted with those who go down into the pit"; and again: "What profit is there in my blood, while I go down into corruption?" And that this may be perceived still more plainly, we shall once more make use of a comparison of this sort. Let us suppose a just and noble king who wishes to wage war against some unjust tyrant in such a way that he may not seem to have conquered by a violent and bloody encounter, because those serving under the tyrant were his own, whom he desired not to destroy but to set free. Therefore, by a better plan, he assumes the appearance of those who were with the tyrant, and in outward form becomes in all respects like them, until, placed under the tyrant's dominion, he might persuade those who obeyed him to depart and return to the lawful kingdom; and might at the opportune moment bind the strong man himself, and strip off his powers and principalities, and tear away and carry off the captivity that was held by him. In this way, then, Christ also, by his own will indeed, "emptied himself" at that time, and "took the form of a servant," and endured the tyrant's dominion, "becoming obedient unto death": and by that death he destroyed him who had the empire of death, that is, the devil, that he might free those who were held by death. For here, when the strong man had been bound and triumphed over on his cross, he went on even into his house, into the house of death, into hell, and from there plundered his vessels, that is, he drew out the souls which he was holding. And this is what he himself was saying through riddles in the Gospel when he said: "Who can enter into the house of the strong man and plunder his vessels, unless he first bind the strong man?" First, then, he bound him on the cross, and so entered his house, that is, hell, and thence "ascending on high, he led captivity captive" — namely those who rose with him and entered the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem. Whence the Apostle rightly says in the present passage that "death shall no longer have dominion over him." For he will not again give himself over into the tyrant's dominion, nor will he again empty himself so as to take the form of a servant and become obedient unto death; lest once more, in the form of a servant — though placed there by will and not by necessity — he should nevertheless suffer the dominion of the tyrant and of death. Wherefore I marvel that certain people wish to assert, against this most evident judgment of Paul, that in the ages to come Christ must again suffer either the same things or things like them, so that those also may be able to be freed whom in the present life the medicine of his dispensation could not heal. For they say: "Can there be any age in the future in which neither anything good nor anything evil is done, but things stand benumbed and deep silences remain?" This, they assert, seems absurd. We shall grant, then, that something is done. "And where anything is done," they say, "it is necessary that something be done rightly and something also less rightly, and that in that very activity some make progress and become better, others worse. For freedom of choice will always remain to a rational nature; and just as it was possible even for him who, by reason of the splendor of his glory, was Lucifer, and who because of the light of knowledge rose in the morning, to be changed from his glory and to be made darkness because of the wickedness he took upon himself; and for him who was spotless from his birth, and dwelt with the cherubim, and moved about in the midst of the fiery stones, and was clothed with every ornament of the virtues, nor was there any tree of the virtues in the paradise of God that could be compared to him — and after these things iniquities were found in him, and he was cast down from heaven to earth: so it can happen that in whatever state a soul may be, and in whatever perfection of virtues, since virtue is changeable, it may incur a fall, so that just as it is inclined from vices to virtue, so also from virtues to vices. And if this is so, it will seem consistent to require a physician where there is sickness, since, according to the Savior's own word, 'those who are ill have need of a physician.'" Putting forward these things, then, and things like them, they judge that the same dispensations must be repeated by Christ in the ages to come. But to these things we shall reply briefly, as we are able. We do not deny that free choice always remains to a rational nature; but we assert that so great is the power of the cross of Christ, and of this death which he underwent at the end of the ages, that it suffices for the healing and remedy not only of the present and the future age, but even of the ages past, and not only for this human order of ours, but also for the heavenly powers and orders. For according to the judgment of Paul the Apostle himself, Christ made peace "through the blood of his cross" not only for "the things that are on earth," but also for "the things that are in the heavens." But what it is that in the ages to come will hold fast the freedom of choice, so that it does not fall again into sin, the Apostle teaches us in a brief word, saying: "Charity never falls." For charity is therefore said to be greater than both faith and hope, because it alone will be that through which it will no longer be possible to sin. For if the soul shall have ascended to that perfection, that it loves God with its whole heart and with its whole soul and with all its strength, and its neighbor as itself, where will there be room for sin? Accordingly, in the law too this is said to be the first commandment, and in the Gospels it is charity that is commanded above all else; and when to Peter the sum of things was handed over concerning the feeding of the sheep, and upon him as upon solid ground the Church was to be founded, the confession of no other virtue was required of him but of charity; and John, along with many things about charity, also says this, that "he who abides in charity abides in God." And therefore rightly will charity, which alone is greater than all things, hold every creature back from falling. Then God will be all in all.
To this degree of perfection had the apostle Paul ascended, and standing in it he said with confidence: "For who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? Tribulation? or distress? or persecution? or famine? or nakedness? or peril? or the sword?" And again: "For I am certain that neither life, nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, nor angels, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." From all which it is plainly shown that, if all these things which the Apostle has enumerated cannot separate us from the love of God, once a man has ascended to that summit of perfection, much more will freedom of choice not be able to separate us from His love. For although this too is a power, and abides in our nature, nevertheless so great is the force of charity that it draws all things to itself, and joins and claims to itself all the virtues — especially since God first gave us the grounds of charity, "who spared not His only Son, but delivered Him up for us all," and "with Him has given us all things." Whence even he who was Lucifer, and rose in heaven, or he who was without spot from the day of his birth and was set among the cherubim, was able to fall before he had been bound by the bonds of charity toward the benefits of the Son of God; but after the charity of God has begun to be poured forth in the hearts of all through the Holy Spirit, that will be certain which the Apostle declared, that "charity never falls away."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSWe shall not fear the second death if we have died willingly. Or it may mean: "You cannot be baptized a second time because Christ cannot be crucified for you a second time," as Paul writes to the Hebrews. He does not say that these people cannot repent, but he does not allow them to repeat their baptism.
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSFor Christ too, having risen from the dead, lives always and will die no more.
Commentary on RomansThen when he says, knowing, he describes the condition of life of the risen Christ: first, he states it; second, he proves it, at for in that he died.
First, therefore, he says: we believe this, I say, because we know that Christ, rising again from the dead, dies now no more, but will live an everlasting life: I died, and behold I am alive forevermore (Rev 1:18). What is more, death shall no more have dominion over him, but it does over man: not only when his soul and body are separated when he dies, but also before he dies, when he is subject to sickness, hunger, thirst, and such things as lead to death. From all these things the life of the risen Christ is free. Consequently, he is not subject to the dominion of death; rather, he has dominion over death: I have the keys of death and Hades (Rev 1:18).
Commentary on RomansIn taking upon Him manhood, He gave a testimony in the world, wherein also having suffered, He freed us by His blood from sin; and having vanquished hell, He was the first who rose from the dead and "death shall have no more dominion over Him."
Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed JohnFor in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
ὃ γὰρ ἀπέθανε, τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ ἀπέθανεν ἐφάπαξ, ὃ δὲ ζῇ, ζῇ τῷ Θεῷ.
Є҆́же бо ᲂу҆́мре, грѣхꙋ̀ ᲂу҆́мре є҆ди́ною: а҆ є҆́же живе́тъ, бг҃ови живе́тъ.
In the Scriptures we learn that there are three kinds of death. The first is when we die to sin and live to God. Blessed is that death which, escaping from sin and devoted to God, separates us from what is mortal and consecrates us to him who is immortal. The second death is the departure from this life.… The third death is that of which it is said: "Let the dead bury their dead."
On the Death of Satyrus 2.36Paul shows that in the Savior's resurrection we have the assurance of eternity, to which we shall attain if we live a better life. For whoever lives to God by doing good is truly alive here and now and has eternal life.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESPaul is saying that if Christ had died for sinners two or three times, there would be no danger in going back to our old sinful ways. But as he only died once, we who have been buried and risen again with him will not die to sin again. There will be no second baptism, no second death of Christ. Therefore we must be careful to stay alive.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHMindful of him, do ye by all means know that Jesus the Lord was truly born of Mary, being made of a woman; and was as truly crucified. For, says he, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus." And He really suffered, and died, and rose again. For says [Paul], "If Christ should become passible, and should be the first to rise again from the dead." And again, "In that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God." Otherwise, what advantage would there be in [becoming subject to] bonds, if Christ has not died? what advantage in patience? what advantage in [enduring] stripes? And why such facts as the following: Peter was crucified; Paul and James were slain with the sword; John was banished to Patmos; Stephen was stoned to death by the Jews who killed the Lord? But, [in truth, ] none of these sufferings were in vain; for the Lord was really crucified by the ungodly.
Epistle of Pseudo-Ignatius to the TarsiansWhat does "unto sin" mean? It means that He was not subject even to that one, but for our sin, that He might destroy it, and cut away its sinews and all its power, therefore He died. Do you see how he affrighteth them? For if He does not die again, then there is no second laver, then do thou keep from all inclinableness to sin. For all this he says to make a stand against the "let us do evil that good may come. Let us remain in sin that grace may abound." To take away this conception then, root and branch, it is, that he sets down all this. But in that "He liveth, He liveth unto God," he says,-that is, unchangeably, so that death hath no more any dominion over Him. For if it was not through any liability to it that He died the former death, save only for the sin of others, much less will He die again now that He hath done that sin away. And this he says in the Epistle to the Hebrews also, "But now once," he says, "in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." And he both points out the power of the life that is according to God, and also the strength of sin. For with regard to the life according to God, he showeth that Christ shall die no more. With regard to sin, that if it brought about the death even of the Sinless, how can it do otherwise than be the ruin of those that are subject to it?
Homily on Romans 11These things we have said, as best we could, concerning the questions raised in this place, so that it might shine forth more clearly how Christ died once to sin, and dies no more; and that in that He lives, He lives unto God. But to live unto God is to be understood in this way: that, when that is completed whereby, being placed in the form of God, He emptied Himself and took the form of a servant and was made obedient unto death, He abides again in the form of God, and equal to the Father.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSAccording to the Apostle, man lives for God and dies for sin. When a man dies for sin, such a death is a blessed thing. By this death my Lord died. For "he who has died has died to sin."
DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDESChrist carried our sins and suffered for us so that in the future we might not sin. Christ now lives in the glory of his divinity.
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSSince Christ died once for all, no one who has died to Christ since then can live again to sin.
ON MODESTY 17"For in that He died, He died unto sin once" means: Christ died for our sin, whereas He Himself was not subject to death. "And in that He lives, He lives unto God," that is, He lives by divine power; for He always lives in the power of God the Father.
Commentary on RomansThen when he says, for in that he died to sin, he proves his statement, namely, that the risen Christ will not die again. And he proves this in two ways. First he proves it with a reason based on the death he underwent, saying: for in that he died to sin, he died once. This must not be taken to mean that he died to sin he committed or contracted, because sin had no place whatever in him: who did no sin (1 Pet 2:22). But he is said to have died to sin in two ways: in one way, because he died to take away sin: for our sake he made him who knew no sin to be sin (2 Cor 5:21), i.e., a victim for sin. In another way, because he died to the likeness of sinful flesh, i.e., to a suffering and mortal body: God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom 8:3). In both ways it can be concluded that Christ died once, from the fact that he died to sin. In regard to the first it is clear that he wiped out all sins through one death: by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified (Heb 10:14). Therefore, he does not need to die again for sin: for Christ also died for sins once for all (1 Pet 3:18). In regard to the second the same can be concluded. For if Christ endured death in order that the likeness of death disappear from him, his death ought to have been like that of others, who wear the flesh of sin and die but once. Hence, it is said: just as it is appointed for men to die once, so Christ also was offered once to bear the sins of many (Heb 9:27).
Second, he shows the same thing by considering the condition of life he obtained by rising. Hence he says: but in that he lives, he lives unto God, i.e., conformed to God. For it is said: he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God (2 Cor 13:4). Now the effect is conformed to the cause. Hence, the life which the rising Christ acquired is deiform. Therefore, just as God's life is everlasting and without decay: who alone has immortality (1 Tim 6:16), so Christ's life is immortal.
Commentary on RomansLikewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
οὕτω καὶ ὑμεῖς λογίζεσθε ἑαυτοὺς νεκροὺς μὲν εἶναι τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, ζῶντας δὲ τῷ Θεῷ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡμῶν.
[Заⷱ҇ 92] Та́кожде и҆ вы̀ помышлѧ́йте себѐ ме́ртвыхъ ᲂу҆́бѡ бы́ти грѣхꙋ̀, живы́хъ же бг҃ови, ѡ҆ хрⷭ҇тѣ̀ і҆и҃сѣ гдⷭ҇ѣ на́шемъ.
Paul attributes death to sin, i.e., to our body, but life to God, to whose nature it belongs that he lives, so that we must die to our body in order to live in Christ Jesus. While assuming the body of our sin, Christ already lives wholly for God, since he has united the nature that he shared with us in a mutual participation in the divine immortality.
THE TRINITY 9.13He well says, "reckon," because there is no setting that, which he is speaking of, before the eyes as yet. And what are we to reckon? one may ask. That we "are dead unto sin, but alive unto God. In Jesus Christ our Lord." For he that so liveth will lay hold of every virtue, as having Jesus Himself for his ally. For that is what, "in Christ," means, for if He raised them when dead, much more when alive will He be able to keep them so.
Homily on Romans 11Whence also with good reason he adds in what follows: "So do you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord" — namely, that by the imitation of Christ we may die to sin, being made strangers to it, and live unto God by joining ourselves to Him and becoming one spirit with Him. Nor was it without cause that he said, "Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin"; which stands better in the Greek: "Consider (think) yourselves to be dead unto sin." For the matter of which he speaks subsists rather in thought and in reason, since a death of this kind is to be held not in actual fact but in thought. For he who thinks or reckons within himself that he is dead does not sin. For example: if the desire of a woman draws me; if the charm of silver, or of gold, or the covetousness of an estate assails me, and I set in my heart that I am dead with Christ, and think upon that death, straightway the concupiscence is extinguished and the sin is put to flight. Or if, inflamed with hatred or anger, I am stirred to the slaying of my enemy — if I reckon myself to be dead with Christ, and set the thoughts of death in my mind, without doubt the fury is quenched, the hatred ceases, the anger subsides, no place is given to sin; and in this way a man is found to die to sin and to live unto God. But this too, which he further added, "alive unto God in Christ Jesus," does not seem to me idle. For I think it is as though he had said: Alive unto God in wisdom, in peace, in justice, in sanctification — all of which Christ is. To live unto God in these things, then, is to live unto God in Christ Jesus. But if without justice, without peace, without sanctification and the other virtues no one lives unto God, it is certain that no one lives unto God except in Christ Jesus. Amen.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSAs members of Christ you should understand that having died with him once for all you ought now always to live for God in Christ. In him our life is hidden with God, and since we have been clothed with him we should follow his example.
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSAnd again he said, "Ye are dead unto the world, but alive unto God, in our Lord Jesus Christ." And again he said, "If ye died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as if ye were living in the world, do ye receive the commandments?" Now a man arriveth at this rule of life after he hath stripped himself of his possessions, and beginneth to work good deeds in the members of his person, for so long as he hath riches, he justifieth himself by riches, and he emptieth not himself from the cares of riches which he serveth in himself. And if it be imagined that he will also do these things while he liveth in riches, he will not, for his service will be confounded, that is to say, he advanceth, and turneth backwards, and in addition thereunto, although this man may labour in the world of the body, yet it is impossible for him to stand in the purity of the soul, from which a man entereth into spiritual love, from which is born knowledge, the mirror of everything, and from which the understanding riseth step by step unto divine conversation.
13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 9 -- Second Discourse on PovertySince Christ does not die a second time, neither do we die a second time through a second baptism (that is, for us there is no second baptism). Therefore, let us remain in the former, that is, in the death of sin, but in the resurrection of life according to God. And this we received in Christ Jesus, that is, with His help: for He Who raised us when we were still dead will all the more preserve us in life now that we have become alive.
Commentary on RomansThen when he says, so do you also, he reaches the intended conclusion that we are conformed to the life of the risen Christ both with respect to its death to sin, i.e., to the mortal life which has the likeness of sin, never to return to it, and with respect to living conformed to God. In regard to the first he says: so do you also reckon that you are dead to sin, i.e., as never to return to sin: let not the dead live (Isa 26:14). In regard to the second he says: but alive unto God, i.e., to the honor and in the likeness of God, that we never die through sin: the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God (Gal 2:20). So he adds, in Christ Jesus our Lord, i.e., through Jesus Christ, through whom we die to sin and live to God; or in Christ Jesus, i.e., as incorporated into Christ Jesus, that by his death we may die to sin and by his resurrection live to God: he made us alive together with Christ, by whose grace you have been saved through Christ (Eph 2:5).
Commentary on Romans
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
ἢ ἀγνοεῖτε ὅτι ὅσοι ἐβαπτίσθημεν εἰς Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν, εἰς τὸν θάνατον αὐτοῦ ἐβαπτίσθημεν;
[Заⷱ҇ 91] И҆лѝ не разꙋмѣ́ете, ꙗ҆́кѡ є҆ли́цы во хрⷭ҇та̀ і҆и҃са крести́хомсѧ, въ см҃рть є҆гѡ̀ крести́хомсѧ;
Likewise also Paul in the Epistle to the Romans writes: "We who are dead to sin, how shall we any longer live in it? Because our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed," down to the words, "do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin."
The Stromata Book 3Paul says this so that we might know that once we have been baptized we should no longer sin, since when we are baptized we die with Christ. This is what it means to be baptized into his death. For there all our sins die, so that, renewed by the death we have cast off, we might be seen to rise as those who have been born again to new life, so that just as Christ died to sin and rose again, so through baptism we might also have the hope of resurrection. Therefore, baptism is the death of sin so that a new birth might follow, which, although the body remains, nevertheless renews us in our mind and buries all our old evil deeds.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESFor you are translated from your former vain and tedious mode of life and have contemned the lifeless idols, and despised the demons, which are in darkness, and have run to the "true light," [John 1:9] and by it have "known the one and only true God and Father," [John 17:3] and so are owned to be heirs of His kingdom. For since you have "been baptized into the Lord's death," [Romans 6:3] and into His resurrection, as "new-born babes," [1 Peter 2:2] you ought to be wholly free from all sinful actions; "for you are not your own, but His that bought you" [1 Corinthians 6:19-20] with His own blood.
Apostolic Constitutions (Book V), Section 3, XVITo be baptized into the death of Christ is nothing else but to die to sin, just as he died in the flesh.
AGAINST JULIAN 1.7.33Christ died to sin once, but in that he lives, he lives to God. We have undergone a death like his and have practically been buried together with him. For in that we carry his mortification about in our bodies, we have been buried together with him.
EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANSConcurring with these statements, Paul, speaking to the Romans, declares: "Much more they who receive abundance of grace and righteousness for [eternal] life, shall reign by one, Christ Jesus." It follows from this, that he knew nothing of that Christ who flew away from Jesus; nor did he of the Saviour above, whom they hold to be impassible. For if, in truth, the one suffered, and the other remained incapable of suffering, and the one was born, but the other descended upon him who was born, and left him again, it is not one, but two, that are shown forth. But that the apostle did know Him as one, both who was born and who suffered, namely Christ Jesus, he again says in the same Epistle: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized in His death? that like as Christ rose from the dead, so should we also walk in newness of life."
Against Heresies Book IIIWhat does being "baptized into His Death" mean? That it is with a view to our dying as He did. For Baptism is the Cross. What the Cross then, and Burial, is to Christ, that Baptism hath been to us, even if not in the same respects. For He died Himself and was buried in the Flesh, but we have done both to sin. Wherefore he does not say, planted together in His Death, but in the likeness of His Death. For both the one and the other is a death, but not of the same subject; since the one is of the Flesh, that of Christ; the other of sin, which is our own. As then that is real, so is this. But if it be real, then what is of our part again must be contributed.
Here he hints, along with the duty of a careful walk, at the subject of the resurrection. In what way? Do you believe, he means, that Christ died, and that He was raised again? Believe then the same of thyself. For this is like to the other, since both Cross and Burial is thine. For if thou hast shared in Death and Burial, much more wilt thou in Resurrection and Life. For now the greater is done away with, the sin I mean, it is not right to doubt any longer about the lesser, the doing away of death.
But this he leaves for the present to the conscience of his hearers to reason out, but himself, after the resurrection to come had been set before us, demands of us another, even the new conversation, which is brought about in the present life by a change of habits. When then the fornicator becomes chaste, the covetous man merciful, the harsh subdued, even here a resurrection has taken place, the prelude to the other. And how is it a resurrection? Why, because sin is mortified, and righteousness hath risen again, and the old life hath been made to vanish, and this new and angelic one is being lived in.
Homily on Romans XFor he compares the death which is through Adam with the life which is through Christ; and he says: "Not as the offense, so also is the gift;" and again after these things he says that the law entered in that sin might abound; but where sin abounded, grace superabounded; and in these words he resolves what seemed to be contrary, and says: "For we who are dead to sin, how shall we yet live in it?" Now therefore, wishing to show by the very facts what it is to be dead to sin, he says: "Or are you ignorant that whoever of us have been baptized in Christ Jesus, have been baptized in his death? For we have been buried together with him through baptism into death:" teaching by these words that if anyone has first died to sin, he is of necessity buried together with Christ in baptism; but if anyone does not first die to sin, he cannot be buried with Christ. For no one alive is ever buried. And if he is not buried together with Christ, neither is he lawfully baptized. But concerning the account of baptism, when we were expounding the Gospel according to John, where we came to that passage in which John says of Jesus: "He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit;" and likewise where the Savior himself says: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," we spoke according to our own powers, so far as we were able to attain — nay rather, so far as the Lord granted — where also we attempted to open up more deeply the force of that very word by which it is said: "Unless a man be born again." For what we Latins render "again" (denuo), the Greeks call ἄνωθεν (anōthen), which word signifies both "again" and "from above." In this passage, therefore, since he who is baptized by Jesus is baptized in the Holy Spirit, it is not said "again" in such a way as that, but rather it is fitting that it be understood "from above": for we say "again" when the same things that have been done are repeated; but here the same nativity is not repeated or reiterated, but rather, this earthly one being set aside, a new nativity is received from above; and therefore we should more rightly read in the Gospel: "If anyone has not been born from above, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God:" for this is to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And to this reasoning, that baptism may be confirmed to be from above, there will not undeservedly be joined to the Holy Spirit also "the waters that are above the heavens, and they praise the name of the Lord." And although according to the type handed down to the Churches we have all been baptized in these visible waters and in visible chrism, nevertheless he who is dead to sin, and is truly baptized into the death of Christ, and is buried together with him through baptism into death, he is truly baptized in the Holy Spirit and in the water from above. And consider yet more diligently the consequence of the mystical order. You must first die to sin, that you may be able to be buried with Christ. For burial is owed to one who is dead. For if you still live to sin, you cannot be buried together with Christ, nor be laid in his new sepulcher, because your old man lives, and cannot walk in newness of life. For on this account it was the Holy Spirit's care to hand down through the Scriptures both that the sepulcher was new in which Jesus was buried, and that he was wrapped in a clean linen cloth: so that everyone who wishes to be buried together with Christ through baptism may know that nothing of oldness is to be brought to the new sepulcher, nothing of uncleanness to the clean linen. This, then, is that blessed death of which the Apostle speaks, that "we always carry about the death of Jesus Christ in our body;" and again: "I die daily." But also that saying of his, "All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or this world, or life, or death" — he reckons among these that death by which we die to sin and are buried together with Christ. But someone may inquire in these passages why the Apostle, speaking of our baptism and of Jesus, said: "We have been buried together with him through baptism into death;" and likewise elsewhere: "If we die together with him, we shall also live together with him;" and likewise: "If we suffer together, we shall also reign together;" and nowhere did he say: We have been baptized together with Christ; since surely, just as death is compared with death, and life with life, so also baptism would seem to have had to be compared with baptism. But see how great caution there is in the Apostle's writings; for he says: "Whoever of us have been baptized in Christ Jesus." Our baptism, therefore, he says is in Christ Jesus. But Christ himself is reported to have been baptized by John, not with that baptism which is in Christ, but with that which is in the law. For so he himself says to John: "Suffer it now: for so it becomes us to fulfill all justice." In which he shows that the baptism of John was the completion of the old things, not the beginning of the new. Finally it is related in the Acts of the Apostles that certain of the disciples who had been baptized with the baptism of John were, by the judgment of the apostles, rebaptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. "Whoever," therefore, "of us have been baptized in Christ Jesus, have been baptized in his death." You may perhaps inquire this also: that since the Lord himself said to the disciples that they should baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, why here the Apostle took up in baptism the name of Christ alone, saying: "Whoever of us have been baptized in Christ," since surely no baptism is held to be lawful except under the name of the Trinity. But consider the prudence of Paul, since indeed in the present passage he desired to discuss not so much the account of baptism as the death of Christ, to the likeness of which he would persuade us also that we ought to die to sin and be buried together with Christ. And it was surely not fitting that, where he was speaking of death, he should name either the Father or the Holy Spirit. For "the Word was made flesh," and rightly, where there is flesh, there death is treated of. Nor was it fitting that he should say: "Whoever of us have been baptized" in the name of the Father, or in the name of the Holy Spirit, "have been baptized in his death." Whence from this passage the Apostle's practice is to be observed in other places also, namely that he does not always, when he takes up something from the Scriptures, take up the whole text of the words as it stands in its own place; but only those things which the argument of the present case requires, as also in the present discourse, since he desired to teach concerning the death of Christ, it sufficed him to say: "Whoever of us have been baptized in Christ, have been baptized in his death." But to me the Apostle seems not even idly to have prefaced in this chapter what he says: "Or do you not know?" By which he shows that at that time, that is, in the times of the apostles, not — as we see done now — was only the type of the mysteries handed down to those who were baptized, but their power and rational account as well, and this as to those who knew and had been taught that they who are baptized are baptized into the death of Christ, and are buried together with him through baptism into death; and that, just as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so those who have been baptized ought to walk in newness of life.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSDo you not know about this sacrament of baptism? In the Scriptures baptism is received in three ways: with water, with the Holy Spirit (who is also called "fire") and with blood in martyrdom. We who are believers have died with Christ in our baptism.
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSSince we are baptized we confess that we have died to the world and have been buried to sin and the devil. .
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." 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.
On the Resurrection of the FleshBut some think as if God were under a necessity of bestowing even on the unworthy, what He has engaged (to give); and they turn His liberality into slavery. But if it is of necessity that God grants us the symbol of death, then He does so unwilling.
On RepentanceIf you were "in him," you have your norm; if you have passed over "into Christ," you will be bound to be (yet) better.
On MonogamyHe explains how we died to sin, and says: through baptism. We were baptized into the death of Christ; therefore, we too must die, as He died. For what the cross and the tomb are for Christ, baptism is for us, though in a different respect.
Commentary on RomansThen when he says, know you not, he proves the antecedent, namely, that the faithful are dead to sin: first, he presents the fact he uses to prove his point; second, he proves it, at for we are buried together.
First, therefore, he says: know you not, as if to say: what I am about to propose to you is so obvious that you cannot fail to see it—if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized (1 Cor 14:38)—namely, that all we who are baptized in Christ Jesus: which can be interpreted in three ways. First, as indicating that baptism was instituted by Jesus Christ: make disciples of all nations, baptizing them (Matt 28:19); second, as indicating that it is conferred in the name of Christ: in the name of Jesus Christ they were baptized (Acts 8:12); third, in Christ Jesus, i.e., as indicating baptism into some likeness of Christ Jesus: for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal 3:27). Are baptized in his death, i.e., into a likeness of his death as re-presenting in ourselves the very death of Christ: always carrying in the body the death of Jesus (2 Cor 4:10); I bear on my body the marks of Jesus (Gal 6:17). Or in his death, i.e., by virtue of his death: he freed us from our sins by his blood (Rev 1:5). Hence, from the side of Christ hanging on the cross flowed blood and water after his death (John 19:34). Therefore, just as we are configured to his death, inasmuch as we have died to sin, so he has died to his mortal life, in which there was the likeness of sin, although no sin was there. Therefore, all we who are baptized are dead to sin.
Commentary on Romans