Whom God raised up
From the dead; for though his life was taken away by men, he was
raised to life again by God the Father, to whom the resurrection
of Christ is generally ascribed, though not to the exclusion of
Christ himself, and the blessed Spirit; and this being what the
apostles were witnesses of, and the Jews endeavoured to stifle as
much as they could, it being the sign Christ gave them of the
truth of his Messiahship; and this being also a fundamental
article of the Christian religion, the apostle enlarges upon it:
having loosed the pains of death;
this may be understood either of what Christ had done for his
people by dying for them; he had abolished death; he had took
away its sting, and delivered them from the curse of it, having
fulfilled the law, satisfied justice, and made full atonement for
their sin; so that though they die, death is not a penal evil to
them, nor shall they always continue under the power of it: or of
what God did in raising Christ from the dead; he delivered him
from the power of death, by which he was held in the grave, and
which is expressed by a word which signifies pains and sorrows,
even those of a woman in travail; which though he felt not now,
he had gone through them; his low state in the grave was the
effect of them; and these are said to be loosed when he was
raised up, he being so entirely delivered from them, as that they
should never come upon him more: and it is to be observed, that
the same word in the Hebrew language, and so in the Chaldee and
Syriac, in which Peter might speak, signifies both cords and
sorrows; and we often read in Talmudic and Rabbinic F23
writings, of (xyvm lv
wlbx) , "the sorrows", or "pains" of the Messiah. The
death which Christ died, being the death of the cross, was a very
painful one: he endured great pains in his body, smote with rods,
and buffeted with the hands of men; by being scourged and
whipped, and having a crown of thorns platted on his head; but
the pains of the cross were still greater, his body being
stretched out upon it, and fastened to it by nails drove through
his hands and feet, and then reared up, and jogged in the earth,
where he hung upon it in extreme agony, till he expired: and
these pains he endured, not through want of love to him in his
Father, who, as he does not willingly grieve and afflict the
children of men, so neither would he his own Son; nor was it on
account of any sin of his, for he knew none, nor did he commit
any; but he was wounded, and bruised, and endured these sorrows
and pains for the sins of his people: as he was their surety, it
was necessary he should die, because the wages of sin is death,
and the justice and veracity of God required it; and it was
proper he should die the painful death of the cross, because of
the types and prophecies of it, and chiefly that he might appear
to be made a curse for his people: though more must be meant here
than the pains he endured in the moment and article of death,
since they ceased at death, and he was then freed from them;
whereas the text speaks of a loosing him from them at his
resurrection, which supposes that they continued on him until
that time; wherefore these pains of death also signify the power
and dominion death had over him, and continued to have over him
in the grave; with the cords of which he was bound and held, till
he was loosed by raising him from the dead. Dr. Goodwin is of
opinion, that these words are to be understood, not of the
resurrection of Christ's body from the pains and power of death,
but at least chiefly of the recovery and revival of his soul from
those spiritual agonies which attended him, and from which he was
loosed and delivered before his death; and the rather, because as
before observed, at death the pains of it are gone, the
bitterness of it is over, and nothing is felt in the grave;
besides, the word here used signifies the pains of a woman in
travail, ( 1
Thessalonians 5:3 ) and seems best to agree with those inward
sufferings of Christ, which are called "the travail of his soul",
( Isaiah
53:11 ) and which, like the pangs of a woman in labour, came
upon him gradually: four or five days before his death he said,
"now is my soul troubled", ( John 12:27 ) . The night
in which he was betrayed, when he came into the garden, he began
to be sorrowful, and heavy, and sore amazed; and at length he
breaks out, and says, "my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto
death", ( Matthew
26:37 Matthew
26:38 ) and after some time his pains increase, and being in
agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was, as it were,
great drops of blood, ( Luke 22:44 ) but the
sharpest pains were yet to come, and which he endured when on the
cross, being forsaken by his God and Father, ( Matthew
27:46 ) and which arose partly from the sins of his people,
the filth and guilt of them laid upon him, which must be very
distressing to his pure and holy mind; and from the wrath of God,
and curse of the law, which he sustained as the punishment for
them; and it was necessary he should bear the whole punishment
due to sin, the punishment of sense, or feel the wrath of God,
and the strokes of divine justice, and the punishment of loss, or
be deprived of the divine presence; and these sorrows of soul may
be well called the pains or sorrows of death, because they were
unto death, and issued in it; a corporeal death followed upon
them; and when he was in the garden, and on the cross, it might
be truly said, "the sorrows of death compassed him about", (
Psalms 18:4 )
but from these he was loosed just before his death, when he said,
"it is finished"; the darkness was over; the light of God's
countenance broke out upon him; he heard his cry, and helped him
in the acceptable time, in the day of salvation; his anger, as a
judge, was turned away from him, justice being entirely
satisfied; and therefore it was not possible he should be held
any longer with these cords and sorrows of death; for he being an
infinite person, was able to bear all the wrath of God at once,
which was due to sin, and therefore did not bring on him an
eternal death as on the wicked, he sustaining and satisfying for
all at once; and, like another Samson, broke asunder these cords
like threads, and was loosed from them. But after all, though
these are very great truths; yet, according to the order in which
these words lie, being placed after the account of the
crucifixion and death of Christ, they seem rather to respect the
resurrection of his body, and the loosing it from the power and
dominion of death; and in such sense as never to return to it, or
any more feel the pains of it. One of Stephen's copies reads,
"the pains of Hades", or the invisible state; and the Vulgate
Latin version, "the pains of hell"; as in ( Psalms 18:5 ) where the
grave is meant; and the Syriac version, (lwavd hylbx) , "the pains", or "cords of the
grave": the word "cords", or "bands", best agrees with the word
"loosing"; and the Ethiopic version renders it, "the bands of
death".
Because it was not possible he should be holden of
it:
of death, and under the power of it; partly, because of the power
and dignity of his person, as the Son of God, he being still the
Prince of life, and who by dying abolished death, and him that
had the power of it; and partly, because as the surety of his
people, he had made full satisfaction for sin, and had brought in
an everlasting righteousness, and therefore ought in justice to
be discharged, and detained a prisoner no longer; as also because
of the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning his
resurrection, which must be fulfilled, as follows.