Resurrection and New Creation in Rom 8
(avg. read time: 9–18 mins.)
In anticipation of a larger project I will post next week, today I will examine the relationship of resurrection and new creation in Rom 8. The two eschatological expectations are not always referenced together, and thus it is noteworthy when they are for how they illuminate cases where only one is referenced and for how they show that these events belong together as embodying the same logic. As in new creation, where what is subject to death and decay is renewed and redeemed, the resurrection must involve redemption of the body (cf. Irenaeus, Haer. 2.29.2; 3.18.7, 23.7–8; 5.1.3, 13.4; Epid. 31; Tertullian, Res. 48; Marc. 5.9; Athanasius, Inc. 10; 21; 24; 29; Epiphanius, Pan. 64.64–65; 67.6). If the body is abandoned rather than redeemed, then there is an anthropological hole in the logic of the expectation of new creation. The conjunction of the two in Rom 8 is also interesting because the typical vocabulary for resurrection actually does not appear in Rom 8:18–25, but the description is unmistakably about resurrection. To see this and more about the relationship between them, we must examine the chapter.
It is first important to understand, as is generally the case in Paul’s expositions on resurrection, that he is not referring primarily to resurrection simpliciter, but specifically to the resurrection to everlasting life. One verbal signal that makes this clear is the use of the rare verb ζῳοποιέω in Rom 8:11. It has the sense of “make alive” or “give life.” There are no uses of this verb for resurrection prior to the first century. Its association with such in the NT appears to be a function of the connection the NT writers make between God’s actions in creation and resurrection. While other resurrection verbs, such as the verb ἐγείρω used in this chapter, may refer to the physical aspect of resurrection in terming of rising, and while they may also have the significance of suggesting an awakening from the sleep of death, this verb we are focusing on refers to the actual giving of life in resurrection, especially the everlasting life of the eschatological resurrection. Where it has such a referent, it also more clearly has a salvific connotation that is not present in the previous verbs. Even in John 5:21, which occurs in the context of a statement of the universal resurrection, this same terminology does not appear in the actual statement of universal resurrection, but only in terms of giving life to whomever the Son wills. In other cases, it indicates more than restoration to life; it indicates receiving everlasting life by the salvific action of God, the one who makes alive (John 6:63; Rom 4:17; 8:11; 1 Cor 15:22, 45; 2 Cor 3:6; 1 Pet 3:18).
Believers taste of this life in the present time in anticipation of the resurrection by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Spirit is linked to life in opposition to the way of sin. It is also important to understand this because ch. 8 serves as a contrast to 7:7–25, which is popularly mistaken as describing believers as they currently are, when it best exemplifies Adam and Adamic humanity. Notice how often Paul references the Spirit in ch. 8, whereas he references him not a single time in 7:7–25. Yet there is an inferential particle connecting what precedes with ch. 8. The inference derives its force from what Paul had said in 7:6 about the contrast between being under the Law and in the Spirit.
Since the way of the Spirit of life is presented as subsequent to the way of the flesh of death, Paul is implicitly using resurrection imagery for describing the work of the Spirit from the beginning (8:1–6). And his talk of the Spirit ultimately transitions into speaking of all three persons of the Trinity in 8:9–11. Here, the Spirit is described as both “Spirit of God” and the “Spirit of Christ” in 8:9. He is also identified as the Spirit “of the one who raised Jesus out of the dead” in 8:11, which fits with identifying statements Paul makes of God the Father elsewhere (Rom 4:24; 1 Cor 6:14; 2 Cor 4:14; Eph 1:20; cf. 2 Cor 1:9). As the Spirit of God, the Spirit is the one through whom or because of whom God will raise those who are in Christ to everlasting life (or “make them alive”).1 His presence is the guarantee of God’s future raising action.
As the Spirit of Christ, we see that it is through the Spirit that Christ communicates his resurrection life and all that pertains thereto. Indeed, he is the one who marks Christians as being “in Christ” in that he indwells them (cf. Gal 4:6; Phil 1:19). He is the one who maintains the union of Christ with Christians. And in his application of Christ’s everlasting life to those who are “in Christ,” we see one of numerous cases in the NT where Jesus’s resurrection was the first piece of the eschatological reality, that the new creation, and the new human family—consisting of both Jews and gentiles—began with Jesus (Acts 3:15–21; 26:23; 1 Cor 15:20 – 22, 42–49; 2 Cor 1:22; 4:13–5:5; Eph 1:14, 19–20; Phil 3:19–21; Col 1:18; 1 Thess 4:14–15; 5:9–10; Heb 2:14–15; Rev 1:5). This is crucial foundation work for where Paul will go from here.
This is also further exemplified at other points in the passage by the fact that it is the gospel narrative of Christ, and the implementation of its pattern, that serves as the foundation of the Church and the new creation. After all, Paul says that to live according to the flesh leads to death, the death which is more than the conclusion to mortality because it means annihilation, but to live by the Spirit brings life when we have put to death the deeds that characterize this current world order (8:13). As with Christ, one only finds the way out of the tomb into everlasting life by following Christ to Golgotha and there affirm by our confession and by our lives his mortification of our sins. The three-stage gospel narrative is also explicitly summarized in 8:34 to show that there is no condemnation because the one who died, was raised, and is at the right hand of God intercedes on our behalf. As this is the one whose image we are conformed to as the firstborn who is also the progenitor of the new creation family (8:29), the expectation is that we will be conformed to this same narrative pattern, and that this is essential to new creation. Likewise, the Spirit marks us as God’s children (8:14–16). And if we are children by the Spirit, we are also God’s heirs, even being co-heirs with Christ (8:17). Once again, Christ provides the pattern we are conformed to by the work of the Spirit as sharing in suffering leads also to sharing in glory, which implies sharing in his resurrection in the transition between those stages (as was already stated).
All of this leads us to the segment on new creation in vv. 18–25. Just as God’s image-bearers were essential to bringing the original creation work to completion, so too will the salvation and glorification of the same bring about the new creation. That is why Paul can say that creation is eagerly anticipating the revelation of the children of God. Paul has built to this point by telling us that the Spirit is connected to designating believers as the children of God and that he is linked with their being made alive with everlasting life at the eschatological resurrection. Both of these functions are linked with the revelation of glory, which is tied to the conformity with the image of Jesus. What Paul says elsewhere is that believers are transformed by being conformed to the image of Christ, sharing in his glory, and thus God’s glory (v. 29; 1 Cor 15:49; 2 Cor 3:18; Phil 3:21). Perhaps precisely because of the term’s association with God, Paul never provides straightforward explanation of what he means by δόξα in his letters, even as he associates it with its typical conceptual constellation of radiance, splendor, honor, praise(worthiness), dignity, magnificence, and majesty. I have previously noted (in my dissertation) its connection to proper dignity and proper function, and it is crucial to note that “proper” here is defined by the will of God. Perhaps the best simple description of the more theologically driven sense of “glory,” when applied to creatures, is that it is that capacity in which creatures reflect God insofar as they fulfill God’s will for them. Such an understanding is especially applicable to humans in that their “glory” is attached to their capacity to bear the image of God in representing him, particularly by virtue of their union with Christ (Rom 3:23; 6:4; 8:17–30; 9:4, 23; 1 Cor 2:7; 11:7; 2 Cor 3:7–11, 18; 4:17; Eph 3:16; Col 3:4).2 This is why Rom 8 so closely ties sonship and glorification, as Preston Sprinkle argues:
In fact, glorification is in some sense the future visible manifestation of the believers’ presently inward status as “sons of God”. Their corrupted state and the suffering that follows might call this status into question. Therefore, their glorification will be the outward manifestation of this status. When their status is both internally and externally confirmed, then God will have completed his goal of redemption: to spiritually and physically renew his ‘sons’ in order that He might enjoyed [sic.] unhindered fellowship with them.3
This quality associated with resurrection and image-bearing is thus crucial to the realization of God’s creative purposes for humanity, even though it also signifies a state in which believers go beyond the original creation, as the new creation surpasses—and not merely repristinates—the old/present creation.
The revelation of the glory of the children of God in resurrection is also linked to creation’s freedom from slavery to decay (φθορά). Bodies of the present age experience in themselves and in the world around them the characteristic principle of decay, while bodies of the new age will experience decay’s reversal in complete vivification. Indeed, Paul says that humans must be transformed in order to participate in the new creation characterized by this complete vivification (ἀφθαρσία, 1 Cor 15:53–54). Interestingly, Philo also applies ἀφθαρσία on a cosmic level to the present world (Eternity, esp. 32–38) and rejects the idea that there will be a new creation (Eternity 39–51; cf. Aristotle, Cael. 1.10 [279b], 12 [281b–282a]). Because Paul’s worldview is in many ways starkly different from Philo’s, including in terms of his resurrection belief and overall eschatology, Paul assigns such a quality to the age to come, rather than the present age. As the body shares the characteristics of the present age, so too will it share the characteristics of the new creation.
To substantiate this point further, we must consider how Paul uses this term and the implied contrast of it, which is explicit in 1 Cor 15. The term φθορά generally refers to destruction, ruin, corruption, decay, and so on. It is sometimes a synonym for mortality in that it relates to destructibility, corruptibility, and the decay that comes with mortality and death itself (e.g., Plato, Phil. 55a; Resp. 546a; Aristotle, Phys. 229b.13; Thucydides 2.47.3; Sophocles, Ant. 1224). It can also serve metonymically for what leads to death (i.e., corruption), hence its use in some moral contexts. Paul applies it to the flesh (subject as it is to the power of sin) and its way of life in Gal 6:8, and it generally refers to what is transitory or temporary (by virtue of being part of the old age) in Col 2:22. Outside of Paul, 2 Pet 2:12, 19 use it in reference to being bound to the perishability of the world, an especially poignant statement in this context given the reference to the world’s conflagration in 3:10. In 1 Cor 15, it serves well as a description for the mortality and destructibility of the body of the present age in subjection to the associated forces of sin, death, and decay. It describes what destroys and robs of life by virtue of creating alienation from the God who gives life.4
Its contrast, ἀφθαρσία, which appears in 1 Cor 15:42, is the negation of the same, as signified by the alpha privative, but I tend to translate it positively as “absolute/complete vivification.” It generally refers to indestructibility, immunity to decay, incorruptibility (in both vital and moral senses), and it can function as a synonym for immortality/ἀθανασία, as in 1 Cor 15:53–54 (cf. Aristotle, Top. 6 [145b.22–34]). Paul uses the term in Rom 2:7 for what the righteous seek, the result of which is that God gives them everlasting life. It is also part of a prepositional phrase that characterizes the proper love for Christ in Eph 6:24 and it is a benefit of the gospel in 2 Tim 1:10. Outside of the NT and patristic literature, it may be applied to God or the gods, or it may otherwise be an allusion to the divine (e.g., Philo, Heir 35; Names 210; Moses 2.194; Eternity 46–47; Plutarch, Arist. 6.3; Diogenes Laertius, Lives 10.76, 123). Indeed, Philo sometimes uses it as a synonym for “divine” (Philo, Creation 153; Sacrifices 5). Wisdom 2:23 reflects a similar idea in saying that humans were originally supposed to have this quality in order to reflect God and that this quality is restored through following Wisdom in 6:18–19 (cf. Philo, Agriculture 100; Drunkenness 140; 212; Flight 59; Dreams 1.217–218; 2.258). Patristic literature used this term as a reference to the character of divine life, which Jesus made accessible to humans through his union of God and human in his incarnation (which was brought to completion in his death and resurrection; e.g., Irenaeus, Haer. 3.18.7; 19.1; Athanasius, Inc. 8; 22; John of Damascus, Orthodox Faith 3.12).5
The associated adjectives of φθαρτός and ἄφθαρτος appear together in contrasts in vv. 52–54; Rom 1:23 (contrasting God with creatures of the world made into idols); 1 Cor 9:25 (contrasting temporary reward with reward from God); and 1 Pet 1:18, 23 (contrasting the things of the world with the things of God). The latter adjective also applies to God in 1 Tim 1:17, a parallel statement to the declaration that only God is immortal in 1 Tim 6:16. It also refers to a heavenly/divine inheritance in 1 Pet 1:4, as well as, arguably, a divine quality of gentleness exemplified in humans in 3:4.6
More broadly in the realm of associated terminology, Dag Øistein Endsjø observes:
As immortality was the continuous union of body and soul, to become immortal was literally a question of the flesh becoming incorruptible, to have one’s body being given that same perfect physical nature as Zeus, Hera and Athena. Gods were, as we also have seen, repeatedly referred to as incorruptible, aphthitos. As the eternal bane of human nature, corruptibility is the process that forever breaks down the human body. Only through becoming incorruptible could the flesh ascertain that the body would forever remain together with the soul. The very flesh would be transformed so that it no longer could fall victim to the ravage of time and decay.7
There was thus extensive precedent in Paul’s world for associating this quality with divinity and bodies with divine qualities. However, Paul does not assign this quality to God’s own body, but to the body that God gives. He also does not look to the distant mythological past for this kind of body, but to the recent epoch-making past of the Christ-event and to the eschatological future.
In light of the uses elsewhere in connection with God and the eschatological context here, it seems best to translate ἀφθαρσία in a more positive sense than the negative sense that the alpha privative warrants. It refers not simply to the absence of death or mortality, but to the banishment of these qualities that is the result of receiving the utter fullness of everlasting life, the type of life untouchable by death or mortality. The absolute vivification that comes with resurrection to everlasting life removes all symptoms of mortality and replaces them with the characteristics of the everlasting life of God. In this context, the implication is that this quality will be cosmic as well as bodily, for the body will participate in its cosmic context in the age to come as it does in the present age. The liberation of the body from decay goes hand in hand with the liberation of creation from decay.
God’s work of new creation begins in the present time, even in the midst of the suffering of creation. And because of the gospel story of Jesus, we can now see as Paul does that this suffering is as the labor pains of the new creation (8:22). Jesus himself is the first fruits of the resurrection and the new creation, as Paul expresses in 1 Cor 15 (as well as Col 1:18), but he also describes us as those who have the first fruits of the Spirit. The genitive phrase here may be a genitive of apposition, so that we should understand it as “the first fruits who is the Spirit.” But in any case, the function of the imagery is as it was in 1 Cor 15:20. It is the imagery of what is present being a pledge and promise of more that is to come. This fits with what we see elsewhere in the NT of the Spirit being the “already” of the kingdom. His indwelling presence in the midst of our groaning in waiting shows that Jesus’s resurrection was the beginning of the larger new creation work of God, as the new creation will bring to fruition what was begun in him, even as he was the one through whom all things were made in the first place. What was accomplished by creation at first will be accomplished by the redemption of bodies, and of creation, through resurrection. As such, just as Jesus’s resurrection was followed by his exaltation in ruling over the kingdom, our own resurrection will be followed by the consummation of God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. That is what new creation is. Thus, in this way and many others (as I hope to go over in the future), the new creation is Jesus’s resurrection writ large in consummation, even as Jesus’s resurrection is new creation writ small as the prototype.
Whenever humans serve their divinely ordained function, creation can fulfill its function as one half of the marriage between heaven and earth, and this will come to fruition with the resurrection. Humans have some agency and participation in the new creation by the will of God. Creation will enjoy the consequence of the deliverance of the children of God and their announcement as such (which must involve the redemption of their bodies through resurrection). Until that time of its exodus, it waits, groaning as in childbirth. Believers share in this groaning through prayer in the Spirit. This metaphor is crucial to grasp in Paul’s thought—as well as in the thought of the rest of the NT writers—since new creation is in a birthing process, having already begun, but not yet complete. The sufferings of the present are part of those birthing pains. This point follows the pattern of the many statements of the divine necessity of the crucifixion and resurrection, the former entails the latter according to God’s plan. It also follows the pattern of waiting with perseverance, potentially for an entire lifespan, for a goal that God has promised for a long time. Hence why Paul closes his discourse with an extended meditation on the sovereign faithfulness of God, working through all situations for his good purposes. In all parts of this process of foreknowing, predestination to the conformation to the likeness of Jesus, calling, justification, and glorification, one sees God’s inexorable, righteous will and love. Nothing can stand against it. In case anyone wishes to accuse Paul of wishful thinking, he re-emphasizes his basis for this conviction in a historical event: the death and resurrection of Jesus (8:34). By participating in Christ, Christians share in that conquest, even if the fruit of that conquest takes a long time to reap.
There is a textual variant here of one letter that differentiates whether the prepositional phrase has a sense of “through” (with the genitive) or “because of” (with the accusative). I am not interested here in adjudicating on this reading.
Cf. Preston Sprinkle, “The Afterlife in Romans: Understanding Paul’s Glory Motif in Light of the Apocalypse of Moses and 2 Baruch,” in Lebendige Hoffnung – Ewiger Tod?! Jenseitsvorstellungen im Hellenismus, Judentum und Christentum, ed. Michael Labahn and Manfred Lang, ABG 24 (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2007), 201–33.
Sprinkle, “Afterlife in Romans,” 219.
Cf. Winfried Verburg, Endzeit und Entschlafene: Syntaktisch-sigmatische, semantische und pragmatische Analyse von 1 Kor 15, FB 78 (Würzburg: Echter, 1996), 184.
Similarly, Janssen, Anders, 191–95 describes the term as referring to God’s sphere of life in this context.
Similar uses to the above are notable in Wis 12:1; 18:4; Philo, Creation 82; Alleg. Interp. 1.51, 78; Sacrifices 63, 95, 97, 101; Unchangeable 123, 142–143, 151; Migration 13, 18–19, 199; Heir 118; Names 195–196. Also note its use for Pyr in the inscriptions Ephesos 641; 642; 652.
Endsjø, Greek Resurrection Beliefs, 66. For more on the immortal gods, see Endsjø, Greek Resurrection Beliefs, 39–45.