Paul's Concept of Union with Christ by Pauline Books and Media

P AUL ’ S C ONCEPT

U NION

WITH

C HRIST

by Sr. Kathryn James Hermes, fsp

Paper submitted to Fr. 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.

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 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);

persons in Christ (“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus”—Rom 8.1);

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);

new life in Christ (“we are sanctified in Christ”—1 Cor 1.2);

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);

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 1

cf. Lewis Smedes. Union with Christ (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993) 56-58.

Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Peabody: Hendrikson, 1994), 28.

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 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). 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 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.

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 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.

James Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Grand Rapids: Eerdmanns, 1998), 425.

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, lifecreating 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! 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 6

Dunn, 436.

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). 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.

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 [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 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 7

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

George Panikulam. Koinōnia in the New Testament: A Dynamic Expression of Christian Life (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1979), 140.

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 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 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). 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). 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). 13

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 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. Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble 14

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).

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

Dunn, 484.

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, 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 10

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

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 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 11

Dunn, 483.

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 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.

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.