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2Co_5:15. Continuation or second part of the judgment, in consequence of which the love of Christ συνέχει ἡμᾶς .
ὑπέρ has the emphasis, whereas in 2Co_5:14 the stress lay on εἷς and πάντων . “And (that) He died for the benefit of all (with the purpose) that (because otherwise this ὑπέρ would be frustrated) the living should no mere (as before the death they had died with Christ) live to themselves, i.e. dedicate their life to selfish ends, but,” etc. Comp. Rom_14:7 ff.
οἱ ζῶντες ] Paul might also have said οἱ πάντες ; but οἱ ζῶντες is purposely chosen with retrospective reference to οἱ πάντες ἀπέθανον , and that as subject (the living), not as apposition (as the living, Hofmann), in which view the life meant is held to be the earthly one, which Jesus left when He died; but this would only furnish a superfluous and unmeaning addition (it is otherwise at 2Co_4:11), and so also with de Wette’s interpretation: so long as we live. No; it is the life, which has followed on the ἀπέθανον . He, namely, who has died with Christ is alive from death, as Christ Himself has died and become alive (Rom_14:9); He who has become αύμφυτος with His death, is so also with His resurrection (Rom_6:5). Thus the dead are necessarily the ζῶντες , by sharing ethically the same fate with Christ, Gal_2:19 f. Their ζωή is, consequently, doubtless in substance the life of regeneration (Erasmus, Beza, Flatt, and others); it is not, however, regarded under this form of conception, but as καινότης ζωῆς (Rom_6:4), out of death. Comp. Rom_6:8-11. Rückert, in accordance with his incorrect taking of ὑπέρ in the sense of ἀντί (see on 2Co_5:14), explains: “those, for whom He has died, on whom, therefore, death has no more claims.”
καὶ ἐγερθέντι ] is correlative to the οἱ ζῶντες , in so far as these are just the living out of death, whose life is to belong to the Living One; and ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν belongs also to ἐγερθ ., since Christ is raised διὰ τὴν δικαίωσιν ἡμῶν (Rom_4:25). Comp. on Php_3:10; 1Co_15:17.
Note, further, that Paul in 2Co_5:15 writes in the third person (he does not say we), because he lays down the whole judgment beginning with ὅτι as the great, universally valid and fundamental doctrine for the collective Christian life, that he may then in 2Co_5:16 let himself emerge in the ἡμεῖς . He would not have written differently even if he had meant by ἀγάπη τ . Χριστοῦ his love to the Lord (in opposition to Hofmann). Much that is significant is implied in this doctrinal, objective form of confession.