been a remarkable coincidence of judgment among commentators. Chrysostom says: ‘“‘The conversion of souls is more wonderful than the resurrection of the dead.” Oecumenius remarks on this passage: “To raise us from spiritual death is an exercise of the same power that raised Christ from natural death.” Calvin says, “Some (i. e. Stulti homines) regard the language of the apostle in this passage as frigid hyperbole, but those who are properly exercised find nothing here beyond the truth.” He adds: “Lest believers should be cast down under a sense of their unworthiness, the apostle recalls them to a consideration of the power of God; as though he had said, their regeneration is a work of God, and no common work, but one in which his almighty power is wonderfully displayed.” Luther, in reference to the parallel passage in Colossians, uses the following language: “Faith is no such easy matter as our opposers imagine, when they say, ‘ Believe, Be- lieve, how easy is it to believe.’ Neither is it a mere human work, which I can perform for myself, but it is a divine power in the heart, by which we are new born, and whereby we are able to overcome the mighty power of the Devil and of death; as Paul says to the Colossians, ‘In whom ye are raised up again through the faith which God works.’ ”
It is then a great truth which the apostle here teaches. He prays that his readers may properly un- derstand τί τὸ ὑπερβάλλον μέγεθος τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ. The conversion of the soul is not a small matter; nor is it a work effected by any human power. It is a re-