1 Corinthians 15:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

And as disobedience in Adam brought us to punishment, so in Christ compliance and good obedience in all things showed us to be partakers of the blessing from above and from the Father.

Thus it is said: 'The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit' (1 Cor. 15:45). The Apostle explains this to us in another way also, saying: 'The first man was of the earth, earthly; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.

As was the earthly man, so also are those who are earthly. And as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthly man, let us also bear the image of the heavenly Man' (1 Cor. 15:47-49).

And again: 'Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us' (Gal. 3:13). The Only-begotten, the Word of God, 'humbled Himself,' as it is written (Phil. 2:8), and willingly came down to all that is ours.

He did this not in order to be subject with us to the kingdom of death, as though Adam had transmitted mortality to Him also, for He Himself gives life to all. Rather, He did this so that, having shown a form subject to corruption, He might transfer it to life.

For this reason 'the Word became flesh' (Jn. 1:14). So also the wise Paul writes: 'For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.'

It would be unreasonable to think that Adam, an earth-born and mere man, spread the force of the curse placed on him to the whole race as a kind of naturally passing inheritance.

It would be unreasonable to think that He who is from above and from heaven, who is God by nature, Emmanuel, who took upon Himself likeness to us and became for us the second Adam, did not in turn make richly partakers of His life those who would choose kinship with Him through faith.

We have become members of His body through the mystical blessing. We are united with Him in another way also, since we have become sharers of His divine nature through the Spirit. For He dwells in the souls of the saints.

As blessed John says: 'By this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us' (1 Jn. 3:24). Therefore He Himself is our life, and He Himself is our justification.

Why, since we die in Adam (cf. 1 Cor. 15:22), do we pay for the paternal condemnation, and each of us must repay his transgression? Yet my father, made alive in Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 15:22) and cleansed by the Holy Spirit from the ancestral debt and from his own transgressions, did not transmit to me, who was born from him, participation in this purity.

Nor did the grace of justification active in him benefit me, although it overcomes sin.

We must examine how our forefather Adam transmitted to us the condemnation imposed on him because of the transgression. He heard, 'For you are earth, and to earth you shall return' (Gen. 3:19). He became corruptible from being incorruptible and was brought down into the bonds of death.

Since, after falling into such a condition, he begot children, we who came from him as from one corruptible were born corruptible. Thus we are heirs of the curse in Adam.

We do not suffer punishment because we disobeyed with him the commandment he received. Rather, as I said, when he became mortal, he transmitted the curse to the seed that came from him. That is, we were born mortal from one mortal.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, being called the second Adam and the second beginning of our race after the first, transformed us anew into incorruption. He overtook death and abolished it by His flesh, and in Him the power of the ancient curse was broken.

Therefore the wise Paul says that 'since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead' (1 Cor. 15:21). And again: 'For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive' (1 Cor. 15:22).

Thus corruption and death are the universal and common punishment because of the transgression in Adam. In the same way, in Christ a redemption concerning all and common to all has been accomplished.

For in Him human nature put off the death sent upon it because the first man had become corruptible. Yet the father of any one of us, even if he is sanctified by the Holy Spirit and receives remission of transgressions, does not transmit this gift to us.

For there is one who sanctifies all, justifies all, and restores all to incorruption, our Lord Jesus Christ. This gift comes to all equally through Him and from Him.

But remission of sin is one thing, and deliverance from death is another. Each person receives remission of his own transgressions in Christ by the Holy Spirit. Yet we are delivered together from the punishment imposed on us of old, that is, from death that overtook all, according to the likeness of the first Adam, who fell into death.

For this reason the wise Paul says that death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam's transgression (Rom. 5:14). The punishment of death had force before the law.

But when Christ finally shone forth, righteousness entered, justifying by grace and driving corruption away from our bodies.

Incorruption, ἀφθαρσία, corruption, φθορά, and related words occupy an important place in Cyril's thought. Incorruption in man is part of the image of God. Yet the first-formed man did not have incorruption and indestructibility by his own nature, for this belongs by essence, οὐσιωδῶς, to God alone.

For their maintenance, a good surpassing nature was necessary, namely the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is the very inbreathing of Gen. 2:7, about which the saint writes in the second chapter of this treatise. Its loss entails corruption and death.

At the same time, the human soul is immortal, and what is properly subject to destruction is only the body. Thus Christ restores incorruption to the whole man, composed of soul and of a body subject to corruption.

According to Cyril, although Christ as the second Adam and new root of the human race grants victory over death to all men, salvation in each person is attained personally and is determined by his own choice.

'All will rise from the dead, because the grace of resurrection has been given to the whole nature. And in the one Christ, who from the beginning first destroyed the dominion of death and rose to eternal life, all mankind in general is likewise transformed into incorruption.

Again, in Adam, in the one and first man, all mankind is condemned to death and corruption. But at that time a great difference will appear among those who have risen. Some, who have fallen asleep with faith in Christ and during bodily life received the pledge of the Spirit, will receive the most perfect grace.

Called to divine glory, they will be changed. Others, who did not believe in Christ, will inherit along with the others only restoration to life, and will go down into Hades for punishment.'

The teaching reflected in this chapter about Christ as the second Adam, received from the Apostle Paul (Rom. 5:11-19; 1 Cor. 15:22, 45), is one of the key positions of Cyril's soteriology. It is also one of the most important unifying principles of his biblical exegesis.

At the same time, it would be incorrect to number the saint among supporters of the so-called organic theory of Redemption. The renewal of human nature in Christ Himself is achieved immediately after the Incarnation, by virtue of the hypostatic union with God.

But in order to communicate this renewal to other people through the restoration of the Holy Spirit to them, the offering of the Sacrifice to God was necessary. Cyril writes of this in quite juridical terms.

He understands it as the fulfillment of divine justice in Christ through His taking upon Himself the punishment appointed for men. He speaks of the satisfactory price of Christ's Sacrifice, by which He became 'compensation for all,' ὁ πάντων ἀντάξιος, and a 'ransom,' ἀντάλλαγμα, for the human race.

For to some of the risen it will be said, "Come," and to others, "Depart."

The truth of the universal resurrection is also revealed from the fact that death entered through a man. As through Adam all fell into mortality, so through the Founder of new life all received the capacity to rise from death to life.

As the death of Adam began the death of all, so the resurrection of Christ opened the way to the resurrection of all.

Theodoret writes: "Pay attention to the foundation of the race, and you will see that the descendants followed the forefather. All became mortal because he received mortality.

So the whole human nature will follow the Master Christ and will partake of resurrection, because He too is the firstborn from the dead (Col 1:18), just as Adam is the firstborn.

The Apostle did not without reason call Christ man here, knowing that He is God. He did so in order, by showing consubstantiality, to confirm the teaching on the resurrection."

These last words of blessed Theodoret refer to the first proposition: by man came death, and by man came the resurrection. It is compared with the latter proposition: in Adam all die, and in Christ all will be made alive.

The earlier phrase, "by man came the resurrection," corresponds here to "in Christ they will be made alive." It follows that in Christ the man they will receive resurrection, or be made alive.

The underlying thought is this: deified human nature had to pass through the whole path of restoration in order to open the road for those being restored.

For this reason Christ dies, to destroy the power of death. For this reason He rises, to lay the foundation of resurrection for all. For this reason He enters into glory, to open the door for all to enter this glory.

The ancient saints did not enter paradise, but descended to a special place, Sheol. There they waited until the Promised One would come and open the way there for them.

He came, passed through, and brought them into paradise, though only with His human soul, because that paradise is still preliminary. Thus deified human nature passed everywhere, so that by itself it might open the path to the restoration of all men.

The Apostle expresses this when he says: by man came death, and by man came the resurrection. By this resurrection the foundation has been laid, and the path to the resurrection of all has been opened.