Wednesday, February 24, 2010

More on co-crucifixion

We come next to Paul's distinctive understanding of faith—pistis—as the human response to the gospel and the instrument of appropriating justification, and therefore also once again to what Paul means by justification itself. Our focus will be on the two passages where Paul uses the Greek verb sustauroo, “co-crucify”—each time in the passive voice. We will see that, according to Gal 2:15-21 and Rom 6:1-7:6, faith is co-crucifixion with Christ; faith is a death experience. For Paul, justification—restoration to right covenant relations with God and others—occurs, not through performance of or zeal for the Law, but through participation in Christ's quintessential act of covenant-keeping. This restoration to right covenant relations is therefore an experience of death and resurrection, or resurrection via death.—Inhabiting the Cruciform God, p. 63

<idle musing>
I frequently say that people want to go from Romans 5—freely justified by faith—to Romans 8 without going through Romans 6—buried with Christ. We want the benefits, but we don't want to die. I think Gorman is correct here; without death, there can be no resurrection and new life. After all, if the old life is still living, why would you need a new one?
</idle musing>

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