For since by man came death
The first man, by sin, was the cause of death; of its coming into
the world, and upon all men, by which corporeal death is here
meant; though the first man also by sin brought a moral death, or
a death in sin on all his posterity; and rendered them liable to
an eternal death, which is the just wages of sin; but since the
apostle is treating of the resurrection of the body, a bodily
death seems only intended:
by man came also the resurrection of the dead;
so God, in his great goodness and infinite wisdom has thought
fit, and he has so ordered it, that it should be, that as the
first man was the cause of, and brought death into the world, the
second man should be the cause of the resurrection of life.
Christ is the meritorious and procuring cause of the resurrection
of his people; he by dying has abolished death; and by rising
from the dead has opened the graves of the saints, and procured
their resurrection for them, obtained for them a right unto it,
and made way for it: and he is the pattern and exemplar,
according to which they will be raised; their vile bodies will be
fashioned, and made like to his glorious body; and whereas both
in life and in death they bear the image of the first and earthly
man, in the resurrection they will bear the image of the second
and heavenly one: he also will be the efficient cause of the
resurrection; all the dead will be raised by his power, and at
the hearing of his voice; though the saints only will be raised
by him, in virtue of their union to him, and interest in him,
being members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.