reason and immortal for another; mortal, that is, because it was able to die, and
Book VI 321
The solution to the problem
24, 35. "So how," they ask, "are we said to be renewed if we don't get back what was lost by the first man, in whom all sinned"(Rom 5:12)? Clearly, there is a way in which we get this back, and there is a way in which we do not get this back. And so it is not the immortality of an "enspirited" body that we get back, which the man did not yet have; but what we get back is the justice30 from which the man fell through sin. So we shall be renewed from the staleness of sin, not to the original "ensouled" body which Adam had, but to something better, that is, to an "enspirited" body, when we are made equal to the angels of God (Lk 20:36), fit for heavenly mansions, where we will not need any food that decays. So then, we shall be renewed in the spirit of our minds (Eph 4:23), according to the image of him who created us (Col 3:10), which Adam lost by sinning. We shall also be renewed in the flesh, though, When this perishable thing puts on imperishability (I Cor 15:54) so that it may be an "enspirited" body, into which Adam had not yet been changed, but into which he was to have been changed if he had not earned the death of his "ensouled" body by sinning.
36. Finally, the apostle did not say, "the body indeed is mortal because of sin," but: the body is dead because of sin (Rom 8:10).
25. Before sin, in fact, the body could have been said to be both mortal for one reason and immortal for another; mortal, that is, because it was able to die, and immortal because it was able not to die. It is one thing, after all, not to be able to die, like natures which God created immortal,31 while it is quite another to be able not to die; and this is the way the first man was created immortal, something to be granted him by means of the tree of life, not by his natural constitution. From this tree of life he was cut off when he had sinned, so that he could die,32 while if he had not sinned he would have been able not to die.
So then, he was mortal in virtue of the make of his "ensouled" body, immortal in virtue of his maker's favor. If the body, you see, was simply "ensouled," then it was certainly mortal, because it was able to die, though it was also immortal for the reason that it was also able not to die. Nor will it enjoy the immortality of not
30. The more usual word for rendering justitia in biblical and theological contexts is "righteousness"; the word "justice" is avoided because it is considered to have too limited a connotation of law and order, andjudges and law courts. But while this is true, 1 still think it is the best word in the scriptural and theological context, first because "righteousness" has become such a "churchy" word, and secondly because "justice" is so easy to link with the concept of "justification." What is meant by this is our being justified by God, that is our being treated as not guilty, our being declared innocent by him, and thus in truth having innocence restored to us. Adam enjoyed this innocence before he sinned, but as a gift of God's grace. After the development of the doctrine oforiginal sin, this state of pre-lapsarian innocence came to be known as "original justice." 31. The spiritual creation, angels (and the ones which fell, demons); and according to some thinkers of that time, the heavenly bodies also. 32. See Gn 3:22-24.