CHAPTER FOUR: Of Faith, In Which the Apostles' Creed Is Explained (part 6 of 6)
The Resurrection of the Flesh; Everlasting Life
Here we have the goal and fulfilment of our blessedness. First, the resurrection of the flesh is assured to us, by which we enter into possession of everlasting life, since our flesh and blood cannot possess the Kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption. This is not merely difficult to believe, but altogether incredible if we judge it according to human reason. Thus, although many philosophers were not wholly ignorant of the immortality of the soul, not one of them ever entertained the slightest thought of the resurrection of the flesh. For who could imagine that the bodies we now possess—some of which rot in the earth, some are eaten by worms, others by birds or beasts, and still others are reduced to ashes by fire—shall one day be fully restored?
Yet the Lord has admirably provided against this difficulty, not only by bearing certain testimony in words to this future resurrection, but also by giving us visible assurance of it in Jesus Christ. Thus what would otherwise seem incredible has been shown before our eyes. Therefore, if we wish rightly to understand what this resurrection will be, we must always look to Jesus Christ, who is both its mirror and its substance. The Apostle likewise admonishes us of this when he describes the restoration of our body as conformity to the glorious body of the Lord Jesus.
Just as he was raised in the same body in which he had suffered, though after the resurrection it possessed a glory altogether different from what it had before, so we also shall rise in the same flesh that we now bear, and yet after the resurrection we shall be otherwise than we are now. Saint Paul explains this difference by several comparisons. The flesh of men and that of beasts share the same substance, yet their quality differs. The stars are of the same essence, but not of the same quality. In the same way, we shall retain the substance of our body, but its quality will be changed. Therefore, this body which is now corruptible shall not perish in our resurrection, but, putting off corruption, shall be made incorruptible; and, putting off mortality, shall be made immortal.
There will therefore be no difficulty preventing the Lord from restoring from corruption all those who have been consumed by death before the day of judgment, by the same power which he displayed in raising his Son. For those who are then alive shall pass into immortality by a sudden transformation rather than by the ordinary course of death.
And because the prophecy that death shall be swallowed up in victory will then be fully accomplished, everlasting life is mentioned together with the resurrection. Were every human tongue to express all that it could concerning the excellence of this life, scarcely the smallest part of it would be touched. For although Scripture teaches that the Kingdom of God is full of glory, joy, and blessedness, everything it says remains far beyond our understanding and is, as it were, veiled beneath figures, until the day comes when the Lord shall reveal himself to us face to face. Therefore, because the Prophets could not express this spiritual blessedness in its true substance, they described it and portrayed it, as it were, under bodily figures. Nevertheless, because our hearts must be kindled with love for it and with expectation of it, we must chiefly dwell upon this thought.
Namely, that since God, as our living fountain, contains in himself the fullness of every good, those who aspire to the supreme good and to every part of blessedness can desire nothing beyond him. Saint Peter declares that believers are called to become partakers of the divine nature. How is this so? It is because the Lord will be glorified in his saints and exalted in those who have believed his Gospel. If the Lord is to impart his glory, power, and righteousness to his elect—indeed, to communicate himself to them—we must understand that every good is comprehended under this grace. And even when we have made great progress in meditating upon it, we must still understand that we remain at the very bottom, standing only at the threshold, and that during this life we shall never approach the greatness of this mystery.
It is no wonder that no mention is made here either of the resurrection of the wicked or of the everlasting death prepared for them. For only those things are set forth here by which the believer’s conscience ought to be consoled, nourished, and strengthened in confidence of salvation. Nevertheless, curious minds must not therefore imagine that the wicked will not rise merely because the Creed contains no testimony concerning their resurrection. The condition of the wicked after this life is sufficiently revealed elsewhere, and everything that ought to make them tremble is clearly declared. We must not therefore look for such things in the Creed, which contains only the matter necessary to establish and build up our faith.
Does not the Lord Jesus testify clearly enough to the universal resurrection when he says that he will gather all nations before him and separate them, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats? Likewise, in another place:
“Those who have done good will enter into the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil into the resurrection of condemnation.”
What could we ask for that is clearer than Saint Paul’s confession before Felix, governor of Judea, that he awaited the future resurrection both of the wicked and of the righteous? Since, therefore, the universal resurrection is so firmly established by so many testimonies, a host of frivolous minds ought not to call it into doubt. Indeed, the reward of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked are so closely joined that the one necessarily carries the other with it. Therefore, whoever testifies that the one will take place presupposes the other at the same time. The Lord clearly indicates this through the Prophet:
“The day of vengeance is in my heart, and the time of redemption has come.”
Likewise, in another place:
“You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like grass; and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies.”
Because this occurs only obscurely in this world and is never fully accomplished here, it properly belongs to the final day of recompense, when the judgment and righteousness of God will be revealed.
But since no description is sufficient to show how horrible the punishments of the wicked will be, the torments they must endure are represented to us by bodily things: darkness, weeping, gnashing of teeth, everlasting fire, and worms continually gnawing at the heart. For it is certain that by such expressions the Holy Spirit intended to signify an extreme horror that overwhelms every faculty. Thus he says that a deep Gehenna has been prepared for them from all eternity, burning with fire, with wood always ready to sustain it, and that the breath of God is like sulfur kindling it.
Although such expressions ought to instruct us to conceive something of the miserable condition of the wicked, we must chiefly fix our thoughts upon this: what wretchedness it is to be separated from all fellowship with God. And not only this, but also to feel his majesty opposed to us—a majesty from which we cannot flee, but which continually pursues us. For first, his indignation is like a blazing fire which, by its mere touch, devours and swallows up all things. Then all creatures so serve his indignation in executing its severity that all those to whom God has revealed his wrath feel heaven, earth, sea, every beast, and all other things armed for their ruin and destruction.
The Apostle therefore spoke of no small matter when he said that unbelievers will be punished everlastingly by the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power. For if the poor conscience, seeing itself in the presence of God and feeling his wrath, is so torn, pierced, crushed, anguished, transfixed, shattered, and broken that it would be sweeter to be swallowed up in a thousand abysses than to endure this torment for a single moment, how grievous must it be to remain shut up forever and without ceasing beneath the wrath of God?
As for the error of the Chiliasts, who have limited the Kingdom of Christ and the overthrow of the Devil and his members to a thousand years, it is so frivolous and childish that it scarcely needs, and is not even worthy, to be refuted. All Scripture loudly and clearly proclaims that neither the blessedness of the elect nor the torment of the wicked will ever end. Either we must derive from the Word of God our certainty concerning things that are invisible to the eye and cannot be comprehended by human reason, or we must believe nothing about them at all.
Those who assign the children of God only a thousand years for the blessedness of the life to come do not see what injury they do both to Christ and to his Kingdom. For if believers were not to be clothed with immortality, it would follow that Christ—to whose glory they shall be conformed—has not been received into immortal glory. If their blessedness has an end, it follows that the Kingdom of Christ, in which they dwell, is temporal. In short, either such people are utterly ignorant of divine things, or else with great malice they endeavor to overthrow all the grace of God and the power of Christ, whose accomplishment cannot be complete unless sin is abolished, death swallowed up, and everlasting life fully restored.
As for their fear of attributing excessive cruelty to God by saying that the wicked will be punished with everlasting torment, even the blind can see what folly this is—as though the Lord committed a great injustice by excluding from his Kingdom those who, through their ingratitude, have made themselves unworthy of it. “But their sins,” they say, “are temporal.” I grant them this; but the majesty of God, which they have offended, is eternal. It is therefore right that the memory of their iniquity should never perish. “But if this is so,” they say, “the punishment will exceed the measure of the sin.” I answer that this is an intolerable blasphemy: to esteem the majesty of God so lightly that contempt for it should be considered less serious than the destruction of a soul. Let us therefore leave such babblers aside, lest by answering them we should appear to judge them worthy of a response, contrary to what we said at the outset.
Wherever this living faith exists, it is impossible for it not always to carry with it the hope of everlasting salvation—or rather, not to beget and produce it. For if this hope is not in us, then however eloquently we may speak of faith, and however adorned our words may be, it is certain that we possess nothing of it. For if faith, as has been said, is a sure persuasion of the truth of God—that this truth cannot lie, deceive, or disappoint—then whoever has conceived this certainty likewise expects the Lord to fulfil his promises, which he holds to be true. Thus, in sum, hope is nothing other than the expectation of those good things which faith has believed to be truly promised by God.
Faith believes that God is true; hope expects that in due time he will reveal his truth. Faith believes that he is our Father; hope expects that he will show himself to be such toward us. Faith believes that everlasting life has been given to us; hope expects that one day we shall possess it. Faith is the foundation upon which hope rests; hope nourishes and sustains faith. For just as no one can expect anything from God unless he has first believed his promises, so in turn the weakness of our faith must be sustained by patient expectation and hope, lest it fail.
Saint Paul therefore speaks most fittingly when he declares that our salvation is in hope. By waiting silently for God, hope restrains faith, lest it stumble through excessive haste. It strengthens faith, lest it waver concerning God’s promises or entertain any doubt about them. It refreshes and comforts faith, lest it grow weary. It conducts faith to its final goal, lest it fail midway or even at the outset. Finally, by renewing and restoring faith from day to day, hope continually gives it strength to persevere.
We shall see still more clearly how many ways faith needs to be strengthened by hope if we consider how many kinds of temptation assail those who have once received the Word of God. First, by delaying the fulfilment of his promises, the Lord often keeps us waiting longer than we would wish. Here it is the office of faith to do what the Prophet says:
“Though the promise delays, continue to wait for it.”
At times God not only leaves us languishing, but even gives the appearance of being angry with us. Here faith must come to our aid, so that, according to the words of another Prophet, we may wait for the Lord even though he has hidden his face from us.
Mockers also arise, as Saint Peter says, asking:
“Where is the promise of his coming? For since the creation of the world, all things continue in the same course.”
Indeed, the flesh and the world themselves suggest this thought to our minds. Here faith, sustained and supported by hope, must remain firmly fixed upon the eternity of God’s Kingdom, so that it may regard a thousand years as one day.
Because of this affinity and resemblance, Scripture sometimes uses the two words faith and hope almost interchangeably. Thus, when Saint Peter says that the power of God preserves us through faith until the revelation of salvation, he attributes to faith what would seem more properly to belong to hope. Yet this is not without reason, since we have shown that hope is nothing other than the firmness and perseverance of faith.
It is now easy to see how grossly the Master of the Sentences errs when he gives hope a twofold foundation: the grace of God and the merit of works. Hope can have no other object than faith has. But we have clearly shown that faith has the mercy of God as its sole object, rests entirely upon it, and looks nowhere else.
Yet it is worth hearing the fine argument he advances:
“If you dare to hope for anything without having merited it, this is not hope, but presumption.”
Tell me, my friends, who could refrain from cursing such beasts, who think it rash and presumptuous to believe with certainty that God is true? For although God commands us to expect all things from his goodness, they call it presumption to rest and repose in that goodness. But such a master is worthy of the disciples he has produced in the schools of the Sophists—that is, the Sorbonists.
We, on the contrary, since we see that God openly commands sinners to possess a sure hope of salvation, confidently presume so much upon his truth that, relying upon his mercy and rejecting all confidence in our works, we hope without any doubt for what he has promised us.