Raising The Dead

In repromissione etiam Dei non haesitavit diffidentia, sed confortatus est fide, dans gloriam Deo: plenissime sciens, quia quaecumque promisit, potens est et facere. Ideo et reputatum est illi ad justitiam. Non est autem scriptum tantum propter ipsum quia reputatum est illi ad justitiam: sed et propter nos, quibus reputabitur credentibus in eum, qui suscitavit Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum a mortuis, qui traditus est propter delicta nostra, et resurrexit propter justificationem nostram. Inquirendum sollicite est quid est quod Apostolus in hoc loco Deum nominans cui credimus et cui Abraham credidit, non dixit, credentibus in Deum excelsu, vel in Deum qui feit coelum et terram; sed tantum, qui suscitavit Dominum Jesum a mortuis. Nimirum quia multum magnificentius est in laudem Dei Dominum Jesum Christum suscitare a mortuis quam creare coelum et terram. Illud enim fuit facere quae non erant; hoc autem est reparare quae perierant. Illud fuit nova instituere; istud fuit perdita restituere. Cujus rei mysterium jam in fide Abrahae praecesserat, cum jussus filium immolare, credidit, sicut dicit Scriptura, quia et a mortuis potens est suscitare Deus. Propter hoc gaudens unicum offerebat, quia in eo non interitum posteritatis, sed reparationem mundi et innovationem totius creaturae cogitabat, quae per resurrectionem Domini futura erat. Hoc ergo modo competenter videbitur habita comparatio fidei Abrahae, et eorum qui credunt in Deum, qui suscitavit Dominum Jesum Christum; quia quod ille credidit futurum, nos credimus factum. Qui traditus est propter delicta nostra, et resurrexit propter justificationem nostram. Mors Christi et significat, et exigit mortificationem veteris hominis nostri, et resurrectionem ad justitiam. Propter quod implacabiliter exesum habere debet homo peccatum suum, propter quod scit traditum esse Dominum suum. Nemo ergo fidem quam habet in eum, arbitretur sibi reputandum ad justitiam, nisi depositio veteri homine cum actibus suis, et novo induto, conformem et comparticipem se fecerit mortis ejus et resurrectionis. Alioqui nulla conventio injustitae ad justitiam. Guillelmus S Theodorici Abbas, Expositio In Epistolam Ad Romanos, Liber II, Caput IV Source: Migne PG 180.588d-590a

Indeed he did not hesitate in distrust of the promise of God, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, fully assured that whatever He has promised, He is able to perform. And therefore it was reputed to him as righteousness. And that was not written only for him, that it was reputed to him as righteousness, but also for us, for it shall be reputed to the believers of Him who raised up Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, He who was given up for our sins and rose again for our justification. 1 One must enquire carefully why it is that in this place when the Apostle names God, whom we believe in and whom Abraham believed in, he does not say, 'to the believers in God most high,' or 'in God who made heaven and earth,' but only He who raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead. Certainly it is because it is more magnificent for the praise of God to raise up the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead than to create heaven and earth. The latter is to make what was not, the former to repair what has been destroyed. The latter was to establish something new, the former to restore what had been ruined. Already Abraham had preceded the mystery of this in faith, when he was commanded to sacrifice his son, and he believed, as Scripture says, 'that God can raise up the dead.' 2 Because of this, rejoicing, he offered up his only son, because in that was not the ruin of posterity but he thought of the repair the world and renewal of  all created things, which was through the resurrection of the Lord in the future. This therefore seems to have its fitting comparison with the faith of Abraham, and with those who believe in God, who raised up the Lord Jesus Christ, because Abraham believed for the future, and we believe it as something done. 'He who was delivered up for our sins and rose again for our justification.' The death of Christ even signifies and demands the mortification of our old man, and the resurrection to righteousness. Because of which a man should be implacable in scouring off his sin, since he knows that on account of them his Lord was handed over. No one, therefore, who has faith in Him, should judge himself to be reckoned as righteous unless having deposed of the old man with his deeds, and having put on the new man, he is conformed and made a fellow participant in His death and resurrection. There is no gathering of the unrighteous to righteousness. 3 William of St Thierry, Commentary on Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans, Book 2, Chapter 4 1 Rom 4.20-25 2 Heb 11.19 3 Ephes 4.22, Phil 3.10, Ps 1.5