The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 509

.consummate his victory over earth and hell when he resigns to God the Father his delegated soverei~nty a.s the Mediator. As in the forty dnys no ,vinds and water~ were to be stilled, no demoni,1c crossed his path to en.II fortl1 his power, no exertion made in the exercise of authority and rule over those inimical to his divinity but conflict was swallowed up in conquest; so now, the end having been attain;d of mediatorial government a.nd a.II opposition put down, what befits him so royally as to resume the ancient characteristics of his Sonship as the second Person in the holy Trinity a.nd take the glory of eternal ages back, Ion:; ago resigned, to his bosom? Does this require that his humanity shall be laid asi,le? lly no means. Turn again to the forty days. Humanity then manifested in him a semi-~lorified state. Over time and space he was conqueror, nor was he amenable to any law of flesh and blood, but enjoyed the immunities of a "spiritual body." Yet, notwithstanding, he was most human, and in his voice the old tones were tenderer and sweeter, so that Mary knew him when he spoke her name, and in his manner there was a more precious condescension, which St. Thomas felt when he exclaimed, "My Lord and my God." The human body as it goes downward towards the brutes loses its native properties as the companion of the soul. The human body as it goes upwanl towards God increases its capacity to enshrine arud show forth the spirit. ,vhat limit exists to this capacity, we know not. But we may well believe that Christ's humanity, though the Mediatorsbip cease to exist, will be associated for ever with his Sunship. And under what conditions shall this termination of the Mediatorship occur? When the "la.~t enemy shall be destroyed." And that enemy is death. This closes the protracted warfare. It began with his victory over the grave, it eods with his triumph over all graves. "Death itself there dies." By the subjection of the Son to the Father, we understand, then, that it is the incarnate Son who is thus subordinate,!, and that this interferes in no way with the human relation sustained to his people. Less thtin Son of man he can never be, any more than less than Son of God. But just as his semi-glorified state during the forty days endeared hirn all the more to the disciples, and that too while they felt hirn removed from the old forms of social contact, so this last and most resplendent display of Christ's Godhead will elevate the humanity of his saints into a fuller assimilation to himself. The new distance will be only a new nearness, for God shall be" all in all." 'l'he next verse (ver. 29) introduces an abrupt ehange: "Else ['since' or,' again'] what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?" Various interpretations have been put on this obscure passage, none of them free from dil11eulties. "Posthumous baptism by proxy," or the baptism of a. living person for a friend who had died unbaptized; baptism in the sense -0f" being immersed in sufferings;" or, again, as signifying" a vicarious occupancy of the position once filled by a. deceased person;" or, once more, as applied to all believers,- are the learling explnnations offered. Whatever the meaning is of being "baptized for ,t,he dead "-whether it was a superstitious custom which bad sprung up in the Church and wa.s condemned by the apostle, or, the ordinary and proper use of this sacrament- it is not nece8sary for us to determine in order to see its connection with the argument. In any view of the matter, baptism was an unmeaning thing, if there were no resurrec- tion. Solemnize it as they might, practise it with reference to the alTeetionate memories of the dead, administer the holy rite altogether with respect to the living, but, never- theless, thtJ living and tho dead were in the same category, unless there were a resurrection. Why are we risking so much by our baptism as a prnfession of Christian faith? Why this useless and irrational "jeopardy"? Plainly cuough, jeopardy has a Divine meaning for the living-a meaning, too, that every gravcillnstrntes and enforces, if baptism is a sacrament-and, unquestionably, wo do well to incur the risks, pro- vided there be a general resurrection. llnt the dead body, what of that? And the Jiving body, what of this? l write to you, Corinthians, of no disembodied existence. I write of no immorwlity of spirit as spirit. I have nothing to do with that. Baptism bas nothing to do with that; our memory of the dead is no abstract memory of their souls, but of body nnd spirit as forming their humau nature. And now, if baptism recoanize the union of bo,ly and spirit, and symbolize tho redeemed sanctity of each, ther~ is good reason for jeopardy; otherwise none at all. Ily his love for this Church, ·by his joy in its members, he protests that his own jeopardy is so great as to warrant the statement, "I <lie daily." Outward circumstances beset him with so many perils  518 THE FIHST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHlANS. [err. xv. 1-58-