Daniel Tossanus Disputation on Adam and Christ (Part 5)
Disputatio Theologica: De illo loco d. Pauli 1 Cor 15:22. Sicut in Adam omnes moriuntur: Ita et in Christo omnes vivificabuntur: Et de hac quaestione: An Christus pro omnibus sit mortuus?
Original Latin. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4.
41. And indeed, God loves all his creatures, insofar as they are his creatures, but not with the same level of love. For he loves some in Christ, whom he chose in Christ from eternity according to the will of his good pleasure. He does not love the reprobate in the same way, whom nevertheless he does not damn as innocent, but on account of their voluntary wickedness and willful unbelief.
42. But those who believe believe because it has been given to them. Those who do not, because it has not—though they are not forced to disbelieve, but they harden their hearts, by the just judgment of God, blinded by Satan.[1]
43. Enough has been said about the subject of the proposition, about the universal signifier “all,” which refers to all those who are made alive. Now something should be said about the predicate, about what that vivification is, and how we are made alive in Christ.
44. Vivification is not indeed used in Scripture in one and the same way. For sometimes it has in view the animate or natural order, common to all living things about which John 1:4 speaks, “In him was life,” etc. and Acts 17, “through him we live and move.” Sometimes it has in view the spiritual order—and this is understood either as in this world or in the heavens: For here [in this world], new life is begun among believers while Christ lives in them through faith. And by virtue of their fellowship with Christ they die to sin and live to righteousness.[2] But they will be perfected fully in that life [in the heavens] when their bodies are resurrected to eternal life and their souls, liberated from all sin, will live to God and live in God, enjoying eternal joy, comfort, which all pertain to us through Christ. Ps. 22; Is. 26; John 14; Rom. 8.
45. But Christ is said to live, not as God only, nor simply as a man, but because this God-man is head of the whole church to which believers are united, as members to a head, who by his dying has reconciled us to the Father and promised us righteousness and eternal life—this is the vivification we are dealing with now.
46. For he properly is said to have died for an offense who offers to the one offended that which he loves equally or more than he hates the offense. But the Son of God offered himself, and gave himself for the church, for us, and died according to the flesh, united personally and indivisibly to him.[3]
47. Therefore, although that man himself [i.e., the God-man] was made alive by the Spirit (as Peter says[4]) that is, by the divine power, and God raised him, freeing him from the agonies of death, and God alone effectively made him alive, nevertheless when we understand all of this through the lens of the office of Christ, each form works what is proper to it with the communion of the other (that is, in personal union). The Word works what is proper to the Word, and the flesh, what is proper to the flesh.[5]
48. And the flesh is not on its own capable to vivify, but properly the Spirit or God (as Christ explains[6]) vivifies, and effectively so. The flesh of Christ meritoriously and instrumentally, on account of being united to the Word, has earned the dignity of meriting life for us, and we are united to Christ so that we might be made alive by his Spirit.
49. Thus also, given that death is a privation, it has no power to make alive; but the unique death of our savior (says Augustine in De Trinitate 4.3), namely his bodily death, saved us from our two deaths, of body and soul—Indeed, not merely on account of his death, but because of the unity of the Godhead, lest in his death the Godhead would be separated from his human nature.[7]
50. Nevertheless, the ministry of the word is used as an instrument to communicate salvation to us. This is why the Gospel is called the word of life and salvation. Yet, Christ himself properly gives penitence and remission of sins, and justifies, regenerates and vivifies believers with the efficacious strength of a bulwark [pro efficacitate fortis roboris ipsius].[8]
51. And although believers in Christ will die a bodily death, their death is not so much an end, as a passage (as Cyprian says[9]) and it is said about them: “Blessed are those who die in the Lord, because they rest from their labors.” And although, at this time, their life is hidden with Christ in God, nevertheless, they truly live, and their bodies will be made alive for the blessed life on that final day.[10]
[1] Matt. 13; Phil. 1:29; Jn. 12:39; 2 Cor. 4:4. [2] Gal 2; Rom. 6. [3] Thomas Aquin. in 3. part. Summa Quaest. 19. 1 Pet. 3. [The citation should read: Q. 48]. [4] Acts 2. [5] Leo ad Flavianum. [6] Jn. 6. [7] Thom. sum. 3. quaest. 50. [8] Jn. 6:68; Acts 13; Acts 5; Eph. 1. [9] De Mortalitat. [10] Rev. 14; Matt. 22:32; Col. 3.