existence. Secondly, we submit that
death and life here cannot mean departure from the body or
continuance in it, because that is a matter with which Christ's
mission did in no way interfere, but left exactly as it was
before; whereas, in the thing really meant by Paul, Christ is
represented as standing, at least partially, in the same relation
between life and men that Adam stands in between death and men.
The reply to the question, What is that relation? will at once
define the genuine signification of the terms "death" and "life"
in the instance under review. And thus it is to be answered. The
death brought on mankind by Adam was not only internal
wretchedness, but also the condemnation of the disembodied soul to
the under world; the life they were assured of by Christ was not
only internal blessedness, but also the deliverance of the soul
from its subterranean prison and its reception into heaven in a
"body celestial," according to its original destiny had sin not
befallen. This interpretation is explicitly put forth by Theodoret
in his comments on this same passage, (Rom. v. 15-18.) He says,
"There must be a correspondence between the disease and the
remedy. Adam's sin subjected him to the power of death and the
tyranny of the devil. In the same manner that Adam was compelled
to descend into the under world, we all are associates in his
fate. Thus, when Christ rose, the whole humankind partook in his
vivification."7 Origen also and who, after the apostles
themselves, knew their thoughts and their use of language better
than he? emphatically declares in exposition of the expression of
Paul, "the wages of sin is death" that "the

7 Impatib., dialogue iii. pp. 132, 133, ed. Sirmondi.

under world in which souls are detained is called death."8

"As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
These words cannot be explained, "As in Adam the necessity of
physical death came on all, so in Christ that necessity shall be
removed," because Christ's mission did not touch physical death,
which was still reigning as ever, before Paul's eyes. Neither can
the passage signify, "As through Adam wretchedness is the portion
of every heart of man, so through Christ blessedness shall be
given to every heart," because, while the language itself does not
hint that thought, the context demonstrates that the real
reference is not to an inward experience, but to an outward
event, not to the personal regeneration of t