John Calvin Commentary 2 Corinthians 13:4

"for he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him through the power of God toward you." — 2 Corinthians 13:4 (ASV)

For though he was crucified. He speaks with particular intention of Christ’s abasement, intending to suggest indirectly that nothing was despised in him except what they would also have been prepared to despise in Christ himself, since he emptied himself, even to the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8).

He shows, however, at the same time, how absurd it is to despise in Christ the abasement of the cross, since it is joined with the incomparable glory of his resurrection. “Should Christ be esteemed less by you because he showed signs of weakness in his death, as if his heavenly life, which he leads after his resurrection, were not a clear sign of his Divine power?” For as the term flesh here means Christ’s human nature, so the word God is taken here to denote his Divinity.

Here, however, a question arises: Did Christ experience such weakness as to be subjected by necessity against his will? For what we suffer through weakness, we suffer from constraint, and not from our own choice.

Since the Arians of old abused this pretext to effectively oppose the divinity of Christ, the orthodox Fathers explained that it was effected by appointment, because Christ desired it so, and not from his being forced by any necessity.

This answer is true, provided it is properly understood. Some, however, mistakenly extend the appointment to Christ’s human will—as if this were not the condition of his nature, but a permission contrary to his nature.

For example, they say, “His dying did not happen because his humanity was, properly speaking, liable to death, but by appointment, because he chose to die.” I grant, indeed, that he died because he chose to do so. But from where did this choice come, if not from this: that he had voluntarily clothed himself with a mortal nature?

If, however, we make Christ’s human nature so unlike ours, the main support of our faith is overturned. Let us, therefore, understand it in this way: Christ suffered by appointment, not by constraint, because, being in the form of God, he could have freed himself from this necessity. Nevertheless, he suffered through weakness because he emptied himself (Philippians 2:6).

We are weak in him. To be weak in Christ here means to be a sharer of Christ’s weakness. Thus he makes his own weakness glorious, because in it he is conformed to Christ, and he no longer shrinks back from the disgrace that he has in common with the Son of God. But, meanwhile, he says that he will live towards them after Christ’s example.

“I also,” he says, “will be a sharer of Christ’s life, after I have been freed from weakness.” To weakness he opposes life; accordingly, he understands by this term a condition that is flourishing and full of honor. The clause towards you may also be taken in connection with the power of God, but it is of no importance, as the meaning always remains the same: that the Corinthians, when they began to judge correctly, would have respectful and honorable views of the power of God, which was in Paul, and would no longer despise outward infirmity.