Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians John Calvin (continued)
John Calvin
16. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 16. Si enim mortui non resurgunt, neque Christus resurrexit. 17. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 17. Si autem Christus non resurrexit, vana est fides vestra: adhuc estis in peccatis vestris.
18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 18. Ergo et qui obdormierunt in Christo perierunt. 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
19. Quodsi in hac vita solum speramus in Christo, miserrimi sumus omnium hominum.
11. Whether I or they Having compared himself with the other Apostles, he now associates himself with them, and them with him, in agreement as to their preaching. "I do not now speak of myself, but we have all taught so with one mouth, and still continue to teach so." For the verb {κηρύσσομεν} (we preach) is in the present tense — intimating a continued act, or perseverance in teaching. 925 "If, then, it is otherwise, our apostleship is void: nay more — so ye believed: your religion, therefore, goes for nothing."
12. But of Christ. He now begins to prove the resurrection of all of us from that of Christ. For a mutual and reciprocal inference holds good on the one side and on the other, both affirmatively and negatively — from Christ to us in this way: If Christ is risen, then we will rise — If Christ is not risen, then we will not rise — from us to Christ on the other hand: If we rise, then Christ is risen — If we do not rise, then neither is Christ risen. The ground-work of the argument to be drawn from Christ to us in the former inference is this: "Christ did not die, or rise again for himself, but for us: hence his resurrection is the foundation. 926 of ours, and what was accomplished in him, must be fulfilled in us also." In the negative form, on the other hand, it is thus: "Otherwise he would have risen again needlessly and to no purpose, because the fruit of it is to be sought, not in his own person, but in his members."
Observe the ground-work, on the other hand, of the former inference to be deduced from us to him; for the resurrection is not from nature, and comes from no other quarter than from Christ alone. For in Adam we die, and we recover life only in Christ; hence it follows that his resurrection is the foundation of ours, so that if that is taken away, it cannot stand 927
The ground-work of the negative inference has been already stated; for as he could not have risen again but on our account, his resurrection would be null and void, 928 if it were of no advantage to us.
925"Perseuerance a enseigner ceste mesme chose;" — "Perseverance in teaching this same thing."
926"La substance et le fondement de la nostre;" — "The substance and foundation of ours." 927"Si ce fondement est oste, nostre resurrection ne pourra consister;" — "If this foundation is taken away, our resurrection cannot possibly stand."
928Billroth, when quoting the above statement of Calvin, remarks, that "Calvin seems to