We are said to be ‘ quickened together with Christ.’ This does not mean merely that we are quickened as he was, that there is an analogy between his resurrec- tion from the grave, and our spiritual resurrection ; but the truth here taught is that which is presented in Rom..6, 6.8. Gal. 2,192.20. .2 Cor. 5, 14...1,Cor 15, 22. 28, and in many other passages, viz. that in virtue of the union, covenant and vital, between Christ and his people, his death was their death, his life is their life, and his exaltation is theirs. Hence all the verbs used in this connection, συνεζωοποίησε, συνήγειρε, συνεκάθισε, are in the past tense. They express what has already taken place, not what is future; not what is merely in prospect. The resurrection, the quicken- ing and raising up of Christ’s people were in an im- portant sense accomplished, when he rose from the dead and sat down at the right hand of God. Ei yap ἡ ἀπαρχὴ ζῆ; καὶ ἡμεῖς, is the pregnant comment of Chrysostom. The life of the whole body is in the head, and therefore when the head rose, the body rose. Each in his order however ; first Christ, and then they that are Christ’s.
The apostle says, by way of parenthesis, by grace are ye saved. The gratuitous nature of salvation is one of the most prominent ideas of the context and of the epistle. The state of men was one of helplessnes and ill-desert. Their deliverance from that state is due to the power and the unmerited love of God. They nei- ther deserved to be saved, nor could they redeem themselves. This truth is so important and enters so
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