For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 15:22 Go To 1 Corinthians 15
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The question may be asked whether even the wicked are to rise again and be endowed with life through Christ and His merits. S. Augustine ( Ephesians 28) says no, because their resurrection, being to condemnation, is better called death than life. S. Thomas also says that Christ is the efficient cause of resurrection to all men, but the meritorious cause to the good alone.
But my answer is that Christ is the cause of the resurrection of all, even of the wicked: 1. Because Christ wished by His resurrection to abolish the power of death over the whole human race entirely, and therefore the wicked are included, not as wicked, but as men, abstracting their wickedness. See S. Ambrose (de Resurr. c21), and still more clearly S. Cyril (in Joann. lib. iv. c12).
2. Christ merited resurrection for the wicked, even as wicked, that He might inflict just punishment on His enemies, that His glory might be increased by the eternal punishment of His enemies. But these meanings are beside the scope of the passage. The Apostle is treating of the blessed resurrection of the saints, not of the resurrection of the wicked to misery.
We may here recapitulate the six methods by which the Apostle has proved that Christ rose again, that so he might prove that we too should rise.
1. From the testimony of those who saw Him alive after He rose, viz, Peter, Paul, James , the other Apostles, and the five hundred brethren (ver5).
2. If Christ is not risen, then the preaching of the Apostles and the faith of Christians are alike vain (ver14).
3. If Christ is not risen, we are still in our sins. This is proved by the fact that faith that justifies and expiates our sins is the same by which we believe that Christ died and rose again for us (ver17).
4. If Christ is not risen, then have ill perished who have fallen asleep in Christ, and have been destroyed both in body and soul; for the soul cannot live for ever without the body (ver18).
5. If we serve Christ only in this short life, and under His law have no hope of resurrection, then are we of all men most miserable (ver19).
6. By Adam all die, therefore through Christ shall all rise again, and be quickened. For Christ has done us as much good as Adam did harm: He came, not only that He might repair all the falls and loss of Adam and his descendants, but that He might lift us up to a higher state.(ver21).
