Paul's Concept of Union with Christ

PAUL’S CONCEPT OF UNION WITH CHRIST

bySr. Kathryn James Hermes, fsp

Paper submitted toFr. Stylianapolous

March 29, 2002

One of the great themes in the letters of Saint Paul is union with

Christ. It is a theme that penetrates all of his letters, his life, and his

mission. There are different aspects of union with Christ that are

woven throughout Paul’s letters. Christians are united with Christ

because they are baptized into his death: “Do you not know that all of

us who have been baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized into his

death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so

that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we

too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6.3-4). They form with Christ

one body: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all

the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with

Christ” (1 Cor 12.12-13). They have been foreknown and predestined

by God to be remade into the image of his Son: “For those whom he

[God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of

his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren”

(Rom 8:29). With faith and through the sacraments of Baptism and

Eucharist, Christians are initiated into a process of personal

transformation in which they put on Christ to the point that can say it

is Christ who lives in them: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no

longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2.20).

The purpose of this paper is to examine four aspects of union

with Christ: cosmic union, spiritual union, sacramental union, and

personal union.

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Cosmic Union

For Paul the death and resurrection of Christ was a cosmic event

that signaled the end of the old age and the beginning of the new. The

whole created order has been made new. Through the cross God has

put an end to the kosmos of sin and death and has brought into being

a new kosmos. The old age is passing away (cf. 1 Cor 7.31b), the new

age has appeared in Christ. To the Corinthians Paul wrote: “So for

anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone

and a new being is there to see” (2 Cor 5.17). The new kosmos is

Christ and the Holy Spirit as they impact the world. This impact can be

visibly seen in the Christians who exist in this new kosmos. Looking at

the new kosmos from a different angle, one could say that it is

precisely a new existence in union with Christ and the Spirit.

The foremost language Paul uses to express this cosmic reality is

the abundant “in Christ” language that is found in his letters. Paul uses

the phrase “in Christ” 164 times in his letters. The sheer number of

appearances of this phrase in his writings is ample evidence that Paul

included the whole Christian life in this little phrase. For example, he

writes, “The Spirit within us establishes our status in Christ” (2 Cor

1.22); “…if only I can gain Christ and be given a place in him…through

faith in Christ” (Phil 3:8-9); “all our ways are in Christ” (1 Cor 4.17);

“We are sons of God in Jesus Christ” (Gal 3.26); “In Christ, we live to

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the praise of his glory” (Eph 1.12); “the peace of God sustains us since

we are in Christ” (Phil 4.7).

Lewis Smedes analyzes Paul’s use of “in Christ” language in his

book Union with Christ. Smedes believes that Paul’s “in Christ” phrases

can be grouped into six categories. Paul speaks of:

1. God in Christ (“God was in Christ reconciling the world

to himself”— 2 Cor 5.9);

2. persons in Christ (“There is therefore now no

condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus”—Rom

8.1);

3. the Church in Christ (Paul refers to the Church as one

body in Christ—Rom 12.5, and addresses his

communities as “churches of God in Christ Jesus”—Eph

1.1);

4. new life in Christ (“we are sanctified in Christ”—1 Cor

1.2);

5. life’s actions in Christ (for Paul, the Christian’s speech,

thought, hopes, desires, relationships, attitudes, and

style of life are set within the existence of Christ, all our

ways are “in Christ”—1 Cor 4.17, a man marries a

woman in the Lord—1 Cor 7.39, “our speech is in

Christ”—2 Cor 1.19);

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6. himself in Christ (Paul “exhorts in Christ”—Phil 2.1,

labors in Christ—1 Cor 15.58, rejoices in Christ—Phil 3.1,

is weak in Christ—2 Cor 13.4, is led to triumph in Christ—

2 Cor 2.14).1

Paul’s use of “in Christ” terminology, therefore, embraces all of

Christian existence. To be “in Christ” means to exist within a new

historical order brought about by Christ’s victory over the powers of sin

and death. The justification brought by Christ is given as “a gift,

through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward

as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Rom 3.24-25).

There has been, in effect, a transfer of ownership. Those who once

were slaves have a new standing and become the property of Jesus

Christ. “You are not your own; you were bought with a price” (1 Cor

6.19b). “Those who are in Christ” (1 Cor 15.23, Gal 5.24) cannot return

to their former master. “The one who has paid the price of their

emancipation requires that they be faithful to his worship and his

service.”2

In his letter to the Romans, Paul takes up the purpose of this

transfer of ownership or this belonging to Jesus Christ: “For those

whom he [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the

image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many

1 cf. Lewis Smedes. Union with Christ (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993) 56-58. 2 Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Peabody: Hendrikson, 1994), 28.

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brethren” (Rom 8.9). Paul states that God’s choice of an individual to

belong to him as an adopted child is in view of that person becoming

conformed to the image of his Son. Paul sees this as a continuing

process. This is clear from his use of the present tense of the word

metamorphizomai in verses that speak of this transforming process.3 In

Philippians 3.10, Paul expresses that the process of transformation is

continual and that it is a process that will be completed at the

resurrection of the dead: “becoming like him in his death that if

possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3.10-11).

Thus, Paul views Christians as living in a new epoch of history, a

new historical order, a new situation. “We are bound to Christ by the

present reality of his lordship.”4 Instead of the image of Christians

being filled with new life, Paul presents the image of Christians being

incorporated into the new epoch under Christ. Paul speaks of this new

epoch more clearly in the beginning of his letter to the Ephesians, “he

chose us in Christ…to be adopted sons, through Jesus Christ…to the

praise and glory of his grace…his free gift to us in the Beloved…[that]

when the times had run their course…he would bring everything

together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and

everything on earth” (Eph 1.4-10).

3 “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom 12.2) and “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness” (2 Cor 3.18).4 Smedes, 66.

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Paul emphasized the newness of this epoch established by Christ

by referring to Genesis in 2 Corinthians: “For it is God who said, ‘Let

light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the

light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor

4.6-7). The reference to Genesis (‘Let light shine out of darkness’)

infers that he saw the initiative of grace in Christ as a new creation

which can come about only through God’s power. The new creation

formed by Christ as the eldest of all the adopted sons of God achieves

in the new age what had been intended for humankind in the first

creation. For Paul anyone “in Christ” is new creation: “So for anyone

who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone and a

new being is there to see” (2 Cor 5.17).

Spiritual Union

For Paul, to belong to Christ and to live in him is to have the

indwelling of the Spirit. In his letter to the Romans, Paul states that the

Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. “You are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of

God dwells in you. And one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does

not belong to him” (8.9).

Union with Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit are for Paul two

sides of the same coin, or at least they are intrinsically the one

experience of Christian mysticism. Paul claimed that the Spirit had

been dispensed as had been promised by the prophets Jeremiah and

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Ezeckiel, and that the expected new age had begun. “God has sent the

Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal 4.6).

In the Christian life, the most decisive element for Paul was the

Spirit. The presence of the Spirit in a person’s life was the most

distinctive and defining feature of a life that God had reclaimed. The

seal of the Spirit was “God’s mark of ownership put in and upon the

one being transferred to the lordship of Christ.”5 The Spirit therefore

was what identified them as Christ’s.

Therefore, to “have the Spirit” is to be “of Christ.” “The Spirit

within us establishes our status in Christ” (2 Cor. 1:22). The status that

we have received is the status of sonship. “You have received the spirit

of sonship” (Rom 8:15). “It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with

our spirit that we are children of God” (v 16).

The Spirit has begun in us a process which will reach its end in

the resurrection of the body which is the saving act of the Spirit (v. 11).

The union with Christ brought about by the Spirit’s work has certain

characteristics:

It is a new status and existential bond. The Spirit is “the

outreaching, life-creating power of God in creation and society.”6 The

Son is the pattern of sonship of the Father, and he is thus the first of

many “sons.” This new status of those who pattern themselves on the

eldest Son is effected by the Spirit who enables us to pray, “Abba! 5 James Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Grand Rapids: Eerdmanns, 1998), 425.

6 Dunn, 436.

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Father!” The new existential relationship that we have with the Father

is the work and gift of the Spirit. The Spirit is at one and the same time

the agent of our adoption and the proof of its reality. Being adopted by

the Father means not only the conviction of our own sonship, but the

reality of being brothers and sisters of all who are in Christ Jesus.

The union brought about by the Spirit is characterized by

freedom. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free

from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8.2). The Spirit’s gift was the

opposite of the slavery of the law. “Born in accordance with the Spirit,”

his Christian converts were not to return to the slavery of the law nor

to licentiousness. Thus Christians are to think of themselves as (and to

realize that they in truth are) those who “walk according to the Spirit”

(Rom 8.4). The incompatibility between the flesh and the Spirit is

absolute. Christians must live by the Spirit. To the Galatians he wrote:

“I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For

the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the

Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to

prevent you from doing what you would” (Gal 5.16-18). Walking

according to the Spirit is further elucidated by Paul with a listing of the

fruits of the Spirit: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5.22).

Beyond walking according to the Spirit, Christians feel themselves to

be led by the Spirit (Rom 8.14; Gal 5.18).

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Thus, we have been sealed by the Spirit (Eph 1.13), refreshed

and given life in him (1 Cor 12:13), and have become his temple (1 Cor

6.19). The Christian’s behavior, attitudes, and desires must never

“distress God’s holy Spirit, whose seal [the Christian] bears until the

day of [his or her] redemption comes” (Eph 4.30). Paul believed that

obedience to the Spirit ought to be spontaneous and joyful and arise

from the impulse of conscience rather than from laws and regulations.

The Christian experiences the presence of the Spirit in hope. The

Spirit within us longs for the fruition of the promise. The gift of the

Spirit is the beginning of a process that will reach its climax in the

resurrection of the dead. Until that time the Spirit groans within us,

according to Paul. “We ourselves have the first fruits of the Spirit, we

ourselves also groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting adoption, the

redemption of our body” (Rom 8.23). The same image is brought up in

2 Cor 5.2: “Here indeed we groan and long to put on our heavenly

dwelling.” Christian life in the Spirit can only be lived in hope.

Sacramental Union

It is not enough to believe the proclamation of what God has

done in Christ. One must enter into a sacramental union with Christ.

Baptism and Eucharist particularly become for Paul ways to participate

“in Christ,” to become “one body” with him.

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When Christians are baptized, they are united with Christ.

Romans chapter 6 describes what this means. First the baptized shares

in Christ’s death. “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus

were baptized into his death. Therefore we have been buried with him

by baptism into death” (v. 4). Second, the consequences of having

died with Christ are that “the body of sin might be destroyed” (v. 6).

Thus “we are no longer enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed

from sin” (v. 6-7). Third, the baptized who shares in Christ death also

shares with him in newness of life (v. 4) made possible for us by his

resurrection. “For if we have been united with him in a death like his,

we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (v. 5).

And again, “if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also

live with him” (v. 8). Therefore, finally, the baptized who have died

with Christ in baptism should consider themselves “dead to sin and

alive to God in Christ Jesus” (v. 11). Baptism thus places the Christian

under the law of grace.

Baptism in Paul’s eyes was not confined to a ritual act but was

part of a whole complex of salvation by which a person was initiated

into living Christ. It was the beginning of a life-long journey (a

“walking”) in newness of life. Paul said to the Galatians, “For as many

of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3.27). Paul

urged the Romans to realize that they must consider themselves “dead

to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ” (6.11). They were to “yield

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[themselves] to God as men who have been brought from death to life”

(11.13-14).

Baptism also made of the Christians one body. And that body is

Christ’s body, as Paul indicates to the Corinthians, “all the members of

the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the

one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Cor 12.13). He clearly

and unequivocally identifies the Corinthian community with Christ. This

community signified a new social order. In 1 Corinthians 12.13 he lifts

up this new social order by stating: “one body—Jews or Greeks, slave

or free—[for] we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

Union with Christ and with others in Christian community as one

body is most accurately understood by the term koinonia. In Saint

Paul’s time the Greek word koinonia could refer to any type of sharing:

the sharing of goods or property, participation (such as people who

shared a vocation, quality, name, or religion); or it could indicate

association as in community, marriage, union or intimacy.7 In Pauline

literature, the term expresses someone’s sharing in Christ with others.

It has a strict communitarian sense and is never used to express an

individual’s sharing in Christ. Koinonia originates not in human beings

but in God. It is not a random coming together of persons who share a

common interest. “It is the coming together of those whom God has

called into koinonia with himself through his Son and in him with one

7 cf. New Testament Language Project: Contexticon. Koinonia, broad context.

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another.” 8 For example in 1 Corinthians, Paul states “God is faithful; by

him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our

Lord” (1 Cor 1.9). He is speaking to the whole Corinthian community.

The individual Christians were called together in fellowship with Christ.

Paul writes to the Philippians who all “share in God’s grace with [Paul]”

(Phil 1.5). They partake together with Paul in God’s grace, at the

initiative of God himself.

Similarly, Paul speaks of Eucharist as both the “one bread” and

the “one cup” as well as the “sharing” of the one bread and one cup (1

Cor 10.16-17). Again we note three things: 1) the oneness; 2) created

at the initiative of God, in this case the one bread and the one cup

which are clearly stated later as the body and blood of the Lord; and 3)

that is participated in by the members of the group with each other.

Partaking of the one bread and the one cup together made the

Corinthians one body, the one body of Christ. “The cup of blessing

which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread

which we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because the

bread is one, we though many are one body, for we all partake of the

one bread” (1 Cor 10:16-17).

With all Paul’s talk of “being baptized into one body,” and

“eating one bread and thus becoming one body,” we could ask if Paul

sees Christian holiness only as a shared holiness? Koinonia is only used 8 George Panikulam. Koinōnia in the New Testament: A Dynamic Expression of Christian Life (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1979), 140.

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to express a sharing with others who are called by the Father to

participate in his holiness in Christ. Paul clearly, however, sees

individuals as responsible for their own holiness. His lists of vices and

virtues are directed to individuals although often they affect

community life (for example, Gal 5.19-23). In 1 Corinthians he speaks

up about a man living with his father’s wife and says the community

should not allow such a member to continue to live within it (1 Cor 5).

To the Galatians he counsels, “If anyone is detected in a transgression,

you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit

of gentleness” (Gal 6.1). An authentic Pauline understanding of union

with Christ, therefore, must integrate the individual and the

community. “It is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal

2.20) must be integrated with “Because there is one bread, we who are

many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10.17).

Personal Union

After the gift of union with Christ and the Spirit, by faith and

sacrament, Christian life becomes a process of transformation by

deeper growth in Christ and the Spirit, and evidenced by a new life

expressing the qualities of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit.

Have the mind of Christ

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For Paul the transformation of human existence and conformity

to Christ comes through the renewal of the mind. “Do not be

conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your

mind” (Rom 12.2). What did Paul mean by the renewal of one’s mind?

He encouraged the Philippians to “have this mind among yourselves,

which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2.5). The mind of Christ Jesus is

revealed through his self-emptying kenotic love shown ultimately on

the cross, where he as a servant was obedient unto death. If the

Philippians were to have the mind of Christ then they should “do

nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better

than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but

also to the interests of others” (Phil 2.3-4).

The whole “I” is transformed in Christ as the mind is renewed.

“Your mind has to be renewed in spirit so that you could put on the

New Man” (Eph 4.22). Thus Paul can say that “to set the mind on the

flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom

8.6).

Paul encourages his Christian converts to be of one mind. To the

Corinthians who were divided into factions he wrote, “I appeal to you,

brethren, …that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions

among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same

judgment” (1 Cor 1.10).

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Paul encourages Christians to let their thoughts be on things

above. “Let your thoughts be on things above, not on the things that

are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is

hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3.2-3).

Finally Paul counted all else loss compared to the “surpassing

worth of knowing Christ” (Phil 3.8). Paul believed that he was so in

union with Christ that he had the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2.16).

Take Christ as your pattern

Paul’s ethical teaching is rooted and formed by his theology.

Continually he urges his Christian converts to pattern their life on

Christ. “As God’s dear children, then, take him as your pattern, and

follow Christ by loving as he loved you, giving himself up for us as an

offering and a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God” (Eph 5.1-2). The pattern

that we are following from Paul’s perspective is the pattern of someone

who loved to the extent of giving himself up for us, someone who took

our place, someone who loved others more than his own life. Paul

affirms this also in his letter to the Romans, “Each of us must consider

his neighbor’s good, so that we support one another. Christ did not

indulge his own feelings, either; indeed, as scripture says: The insults

of those who insult you fall on me” (Rom 15.2-3). Or again, “Nobody

should be looking for selfish advantage, but everybody for someone

else’s” (1 Cor 10.24).

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Paul explicitly presents Christ as pattern for ethical behavior

throughout his letters. For example in Colossians he writes, “The Lord

has forgiven you; now you must do the same” (Col 3.13).

In Ephesians, the pattern of Christ’s love becomes the norm of a

husband’s love for his wife. “Husbands should love their wives, just as

Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her” (Eph 5.25-27).

In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul could offer his own

example as a guide to the Corinthians in how they should give up their

rights in order to build up the community. He had given up his rights as

an apostle. The Corinthians should see in this the pattern of Christ who

gave up his rights (Phil 2) and be willing to give up their “rights” so as

to respect the weakness of their fellow Christians, brothers for whom

Christ died. Therefore Paul became a practical, concrete pattern for

imitating the selfless love patterned by Christ. “Take me as your

pattern, just as I take Christ for mine” (1 Cor 11:1).

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not only were the Christians to pattern their ethical behavior on

Christ, they were to “put on” Christ. To “put on” is a more complete

level of commitment then “patterning one’s life on” or “imitating”

Christ. “Let us then cast off the deeds of darkness and put on the

armor of light, let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not

in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not

in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make

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no provision for the flesh” (Rom 13.12-14). Here Paul clearly states the

attitudes and actions of the “old self” or the “flesh” which he calls here

the “deeds of darkness”: reveling, drunkenness, debauchery,

licentiousness, quarreling, and jealousy. He bids us put on the “armor

of light” which he equates with “putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

What does he mean by the “armor of light”? First let us consider the

activities mentioned in this passage that are “deeds of darkness.”

These activities are not private sins. They are activities because of

which one does not give to the community what one has an obligation

to give (reveling, drunkenness), or they directly attack the holiness

Paul expects of the community (debauchery, licentiousness,

quarreling, and jealousy). Here again we see Paul’s understanding of

conformity to Christ involving one’s relationship with others or the

community.

To put on the “armor of light,” therefore, Paul encourages his

Christian converts to: “bear with the failings of the weak” (Rom 15.1-

3), “do nothing from selfishness or conceit” (Phil 2.5ff), “bear one

another’s burdens” (Gal 6.2). He urges them to be forbearing of one

another, “if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other;

as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Col 3.13).

“Outdo one another in showing honor…. Rejoice with those who

rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another;

do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; never be conceited.

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Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the

sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably

with all” (Rom 12.10, 15-17).

Paul also encourages his Christian followers to “put on” or

“clothe” themselves with very personal attitudes and virtues. “You are

to be clothed in heartfelt compassion, in generosity and humility, in

gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive each other if

one of you has a complaint against another. The Lord has forgiven you;

now you must do the same. Over all these clothes, put on love, the

perfect bond” (Col 3.12-14).

Putting on Christ is not an act or commitment made once for all.

It also is a process. To put on Christ we must first strip off what is not

of him—our old self. “You have stripped off your old behavior with your

old self, and you have put on a new self” (Col 3.9-11). This new self is

one “which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is

renewed in the image of its Creator” (v. 10). From each Christian’s

personal progress in putting on Christ and becoming more and more

clearly the image of God comes the Christian community that clearly

reflects the new social order of the Kingdom: “There is no room for

distinction between Greek and Jew, between the circumcised and

uncircumcised, or between barbarian and Scythian, slave or free. There

is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything” (v. 11).

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Be crucified with Christ

Paul wrote to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ”

(Gal 2.19). For Paul the believer “is and continues to be in a state of

having been fused with the very likeness of Christ’s death.”9 The verb

tenses used in Romans 6.5 indicate a past event establishing a state

which continues to persist. “For if we have been united with him in a

death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection

like his.” For Paul, the process of salvation entails a growing

conformity to Christ’s death. Note that in Philippians 3.8-9 the

reference to a share in Christ’s sufferings follows the reference to the

resurrection: “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection,

and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if

possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” The resurrection

power of Christ is always accompanied by partaking in his death.

Paul believes that we are baptized into Christ’s death. He also

believes that our life progressively takes on a cruciform image through

which our “old self is crucified with him [Jesus]” (Rom 6.6). Death to

the old self, life to the new self “which is being renewed in knowledge

in accordance with the image of the one who created it” (Col 3.10).

Unless this death the believer undergoes is real, it amounts to a

mere psychological shift, something similar to feeling like a new person

after therapy. In order to forcefully express the reality of our death,

9 Dunn, 484.

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Paul says that in the new life in Christ, “our ‘I’—that is, our very self—

does not live anymore. It is truly dead…. If there is something beyond

the death of our ‘I,’ our ‘self,’ it is Christ who lives in us. ‘It is no longer

I who live, but Christ who lives in me’ (Gal 2.20). In other words,

Pauline terminology fully equates life with Christ.”10

“We are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have

died. And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for

themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor

5.14-15). Paul here intimates the concentration, focus, and attention

essential to living no longer for ourselves but for Christ. This turning

from ourselves toward Christ is more clearly spelled out in Galatians.

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its

passions and desires” (5.24). Anything that diverts one from the prime

focus of Christian life must be put to death—a death in service of

authentic life.

The sufferings that Paul experienced were not his own. He

considered them to be Christ’s own sufferings. His union with Christ

was expressed in his conformity to the crucified One, but also in his

experience of his sufferings as being those of Christ himself.

For Paul, the Risen Christ was still the crucified Christ. “He

[Christ] was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For

10 Paul Nadim Tarazi, Galatians. A Commentary. (Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Press, 1994), 88-89.

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we are weak in him, but in dealing with you we shall live with him by

the power of God” (2 Cor 13.4). Paul learned that the weakness of the

believer did not have to be remedied before the power of Christ could

manifest itself. After the experience of being transported to the third

heaven recorded in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul recounts how he was given a

thorn in the flesh which he begged the Lord to remove. The Lord

responded to him, “My grace is enough for you: for power is at full

stretch in weakness” (2 Cor 12.9). Thus “continuing human weakness

was an integral part of the process of salvation.”11 Human weakness is

the complement to divine power.

Thus for Paul, to live is Christ. Paul begins his letter to the

Philippians, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (1.21).

Conclusion

In this paper I have presented a sustained look at one of Paul’s

most cherished themes: union with Christ. We have seen that the

Christian existing in the new age inaugurated by Christ is already in a

certain union with Christ and everything about his or her life, attitudes,

and behavior is therefore “in Christ.” The new existential relationship

that we have with the Father “in Christ” is the work and gift of the

Spirit. The Spirit is at one and the same time the agent of our adoption

and the proof of its reality. Baptism and Eucharist are privileged places

of sacramental union. Christians are baptized into Christ’s death and 11 Dunn, 483.

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thus live with him. Because Christians eat one bread they participate in

Christ and become one body with him and with one another in Christ.

After the gift of union with Christ and the Spirit, by faith and

sacrament, Christian life becomes a process of transformation, in

which the Christian’s “I” is transformed into Christ until it is true that

“it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2.20). The

new social order brought about by the kingdom becomes a reality in

the Christian community as the individual Christians become Christ

and pattern their life after the One to whom they belong.

Paul’s ethical teaching flows from his own experience of being

under the lordship of Christ and sealed with the Spirit. Ethical behavior

is a working out of a process begun through being claimed by Christ,

gifted with the Spirit, and is lived out responsibly in community with

others who are called by God to participate in his Son, Jesus Christ.

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Works Cited

Bryant, Robert. The Risen Crucified Christ in Galatians. Society of Biblical Literature, 2001.

Dunn, James. The Theology of Paul the Apostle. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.

Dunn, James. The Theology of Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Cambridge: University Press, 1993.

Hays, Richard B. The Moral Vision of the New Testament. San Francisco: Harper, 1996.

Kistemaker, Simon J. New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997.

Murphy-O’Connor, Jerome. Paul—A Critical Life. New York: Oxford, 1996.

New Testament Language Project. Contexticon. 2002.

Panikulam, George. Koinonia in the New Testament: A Dynamic Expression of Christian Life. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1979.

Smedes, Lewis. Union with Christ. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.

Spicq, Ceslas. Theological Lexicon of the New Testament. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994.

Stanley, David, SJ. Boasting in the Lord. New York: Paulist, 1973.

Tarazi, Paul Nadim. Galatians. A Commentary. Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Press, 1994.

Wan, Sze-kar. Power in Weakness. Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 2000.

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