hoettgen, commenting on this text, (2 Cor. v. 2, )
likewise quotes a large number of examples of like phraseology
from Rabbinical writers. The statements thus far made and proofs
offered will be amply illustrated and confirmed as we go on to
consider the chief component parts of the Pauline scheme of the
last things. For, having presented the general outline, it will be
useful, in treating so complex and difficult a theme, to analyze
it by details.

We are met upon the threshold of our inquiry by the essential
question, What, according to Paul, was the mission of Christ? What
did he accomplish? A clear reply to this question comprises three
distinct propositions. First, the apostle plainly represents the
resurrection, and not the crucifixion, as the efficacious feature
in Christ's work of redemption. When we recollect the almost
universal prevalence of the opposite notion among existing sects,
it is astonishing how clear it is that Paul generally dwells upon
the dying of Christ solely as the necessary preliminary to his
rising. "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and
your faith also is vain: ye are yet in your sins." These words are
irreconcilable with that doctrine which connects our
"justification" with the atoning death, and not with the typical
resurrection, of Christ. "That Christ died for our sins, and that
he was buried, and that he rose again the third day." To place a
vicarious stress upon the first clause of this text is as
arbitrary as it would be to place it upon the second; but
naturally emphasize the third clause,

9 Laurence, Ascensio Isaia Vatis, appendix, p. 168.

10 Laurence, Ascensio Isaia atis, cap. 9, v. 7, 9; cap. 4.

and all is clear. The inferences and exhortations drawn from the
mission of Christ are not usually connected in any essential
manner with his painful death, but directly with his glorious
resurrection out from among the dead unto the heavenly
blessedness. "If we have been planted together in the likeness of
his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection."
Sinking into the water, when "buried by baptism into the death of
Christ," was, to those initiated into the Christian religion, a
symbol of the descent of Christ among the dead; rising out of the
water was a symbol of the ascent of Christ into heaven. "If ye
then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." When Paul cries,
exulting