Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians John Calvin (continued)
Commentary on the Corinthians he had said was his own, he afterwards, correcting himself, ascribes wholly to the grace of God — wholly, I say, not in part, for whatever he might have seemed to do, was wholly, he declares, the work of grace. A remarkable passage certainly, both for laying low the pride of man, and for magnifying the operation of Divine grace in us. For Paul, as though he had improperly made himself the author of anything good, corrects what he had said, and declares the grace of God to have been the efficient cause of the whole. Let us not think that there is here a mere pretense of humility 924 It is in good earnest that he speaks thus, and from knowing that it is so in truth. Let us learn, therefore, that we have nothing that is good, but what the Lord has graciously given us, that we do nothing good but what he worketh in us, (Philippians 2:13) — not that we do nothing ourselves, but that we do nothing without being influenced — that is, under the guidance and impulse of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:11-19
1 Corinthians 15:11-19 11. Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed. 11. Sire ego igitur, sive illi, ita praedicamus, et ita credidistis. 12. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
12. Si autem Christus praedicatur excitatus a mortuis, quomodo dicunt quidam, mortuorum resurrectionem non esse?
13. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 13. Si autem mortuorum resur-rectionon est, neque Christus resurrexit. 14. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
14. Quodsi Christus non resurrexit, inanis igitur est praedicatio nostra, inanis et fides vestra.
15. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
15. Invenimur etiam falsi testes Dei, quia testati sumus a Deo, quod suscitaverit Christum; quem non suscitavit, siquidem mortui non resurgunt.
924Heideggerus seems to have had Calvin's exposition here in his view in the following observations on the expression made use of by the Apostle: "Non Gratia Dei meoum, uti vetus Itala vertit, quasi effectus inter Gra-tiam Dei, et Pauli arbitrium distribueretur; nihil enim habuit ipse, quod non acceperit; sed {Οὐκ} {ἐγὼ} {δε}, {ἀλλἀ} {ἡ} {χάρις} {τοῦ} {Θεοῦ} {σὺν} {ἐμοί} mecum, ut totum et in solidum omne gratiae soli acceptum feratur. Neque ita loquitur solius humilitatis et modestiae explieandae ergo, quanquam et hanc testari voluit; sed quia po-tens illa gratia demonstratio et testimonium irrefragabile erat resurrectionis Domini.'' --- ``Not the grace of God with me, as the old Italic version renders it, as though the effect were divided between God's grace and Paul's free-will; for he has nothing that he has not received, but {ἡ} {σὺν} {ἐμοί}, which with me, that every thing may be wholly and entirely ascribed to grace alone. Nor does he speak thus, merely for the purpose of showing humility and modesty, though he had it also in view to testify this, but because that grace was a powerful demonstration and irrefragable testimony of our Lord's resurrection.'' --- Heideggeri Labores Exegetici in Cor. (Tiguri. 1700). --- Ed.