Participating in Christ

Explorations in Paul's Theology and Spirituality

Gorman, Michael J.

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781493416936
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblische Studien

World-renowned scholar Michael Gorman examines the important Pauline theme of participation in Christ and explores its contemporary significance for Christian life and ministry. One of the themes Gorman explores is what he calls "resurrectional cruciformity"--that participating in Christ is simultaneously dying and rising with him and that cross-shaped living, infused with the life of the resurrected Lord, is life giving. Throughout the book, Gorman demonstrates the centrality of participating in Christ for Paul's theology and spirituality.

Part 1
Paul and Participation

The nine essays in this first part of the book are primarily careful exegetical studies of various key passages in Paul’s letters that demonstrate the significance of participation for the apostle’s theology and spirituality. These exegetical studies are connected to one another and thus also make claims about Paul’s theology and spirituality as a whole. Furthermore, this part of the book also makes claims—often more implicit than explicit—about the significance of that theology and spirituality for today. Some of these claims are addressed more explicitly in the two essays in part 2.

one
Participating in Christ

An Overview

Participation is back in the (theological) news. The energy and, indeed, excitement about participation is palpable at conferences, in publications, and even occasionally from the pulpit. This renewed interest in participation is due in no small measure to the apostle Paul. This chapter briefly considers Paul’s language of participation before sketching some of the major aspects of Paul’s theology and spirituality of transformative participation in Christ. This sketch will take the form of thirteen propositions divided into four sections: the cross, cruciformity, dying and rising with Christ, and mission. These propositions do two things: they summarize much of my previous work on Paul and participation, and they anticipate some of the areas that will be explored in more depth in later chapters of this book.1

Paul’s “In Christ” and “With Christ” Language

Paul expresses participationist ideas in several ways.2 One common way is by using prepositions and prefixes. He often uses the language of being “in Christ,” as well as related phrases like being “with Christ.” This assumes that there has been an initial movement, through faith and baptism, from “outside of” and “away from” Christ to being “in” and “with” Christ: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Rom. 6:3).3

For Paul it is as natural to speak about a person or persons being “in Christ,” “in Christ Jesus,” “in the Lord Jesus,” or “in the Lord” as it is for Christians today to refer to themselves as “Christians.” Take, for instance, the evidence from his letter to the Romans; all the boldfaced phrases begin with the Greek preposition en (“in”):4

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (6:11)

1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (8:1–2)

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit. (9:1)

So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. (12:5)

I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. (14:14)

In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to boast of my work for God. (15:17)

1I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, 2so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well. 3Greet Prisca and Aquila, who work with me in Christ Jesus. (16:1–3)

7Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives who were in prison with me; they are prominent among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was. 8Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. 9Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. 10Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. 11Greet my relative Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. 12Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. 13Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; and greet his mother—a mother to me also. (16:7–13)

I Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord. (16:22)

The natural way in which Paul uses this “in” language does not mean he is unreflective about it or that it is void of content. Rather, such expressions are rich in meaning; they constitute Paul’s main idiom for “the intimate and personal relationship that exists between the exalted Christ and those who have committed themselves to him.”5 Some of the phrases in Romans, especially in chapter 16, use “in Christ” almost as a title. But in earlier chapters there is clearly significant theological content associated with the various phrases. To be in Christ is to have life and to be alive to God (6:11; 8:1–2); it is to live according to certain ethical norms (9:1); it is to be part of a community, a body (12:5); and it is to possess certain convictions and attitudes (14:14; 15:17).

We should assume that most, if not all, of these theological dimensions of being in Christ—and more, if we look outside Romans—are also to be associated with the various people described as being in Christ/in the Lord in chapter 16. At the same time, aspects of chapter 16 can also be generalized with respect to all who are in Christ: being in Christ is the result of a transfer from being outside Christ (16:7); there is missional work to be done in Christ (16:9, 12–13); and there is accountability in Christ (16:10). Moreover, it is clear that being in Christ both includes and transcends the local community; those who are in Christ in Corinth (like Paul) and in Rome are in Christ together. “In” language is a spatial idiom that signifies a relational reality that is both personal and corporate, both “vertical” and “horizontal,” both local and universal.

Not to be forgotten in considering this language is that “Christ” (Gk. Christos) means “Messiah.” Paul is saying that he and all believers are located in the crucified and resurrected Messiah and Lord whose name is Jesus. And this reality reminds us, furthermore, that our participation in the Messiah is possible only because God the Father has first participated with us by being present in the Messiah Jesus, a presence revealed both in the Messiah’s incarnation and death and in his ongoing resurrected life:6

In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. (2 Cor. 5:19)

38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:38–39)

Sometimes the “God in Christ” and “us in Christ” realities seem to merge, for Christ is the place where human beings meet God and receive salvation:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:23)

They are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 3:24)

As noted above, the close association between believers and Christ is also expressed in the language of “with Christ,” a reality that is both present and future (and is expressed, grammatically, in several ways).7 For example:

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ [Christō synestaurōmai]. (Gal. 2:19)

And if [we are God’s] children, then [we are also] heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ [synklēronomoi de Christou]—if, in fact, we suffer with him [sympaschomen] so that we may also be glorified with him [syndoxasthōmen]. (Rom. 8:17)

But if we have died with Christ [apethanomen syn Christō], we believe that we will also live with him [kai syzēsomen autō]. (Rom. 6:8; cf. 1 Thess. 4:17)

I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ [syn Christō einai], for that is far better. (Phil. 1:23)

Because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus [kai...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part 1: Paul and Participation
• Part 2: Paul and Participation Today
• Bibliography
• Scripture Index
• Author Index
• Subject Index
• Back Cover