"Here is the best antidote to adversity — that as Christ's death is the gate of life, so we know that a blessed resurrection will be to us the termination of all miseries, inasmuch as Christ has associated us with himself on this condition, that we shall be partakers of his life, if in this world we submit to die with him… If you understand the expression delivered unto death as meaning to be incessantly harassed with persecutions and exposed to dangers, this would be more particularly applicable to Paul, and those like him, who were openly assailed by the fury of the wicked. And thus the expression, for Jesus' sake, will be equivalent to for the testimony of Christ. As, however, the expression to be daily delivered unto death, means otherwise — to have death constantly before our eyes, and to live in such a manner, that our life is rather a shadow of death, I have no objection, that this passage, also, should be expounded in such a way as to be applicable to all believers, and that, too, to everyone in his order. Paul himself, in Romans 8:36, explains in this manner Psalm 44:22. In this way for Christ's sake would mean — because this condition is imposed upon all his members…. For Paul means that, so long as we are in the world, we resemble the dead rather than the living." – John Calvin |
