Resurrection and New Creation in the Framework of Galatians
(avg. read time: 7–14 mins.)
Resurrection is not as explicitly prominent in Paul’s letter to the Galatians as in some of his other letters, particularly the Corinthian correspondence and Romans (as we have reviewed already). However, Jesus’s resurrection and the eschatological framework it supplies, particularly via its connection with our resurrection and with new creation, is structurally significant to Paul’s theologizing in Galatians. That is, we can see the influence of this event and its significance at structurally crucial parts of Galatians. As such, both in terms of Paul’s framework of thought presented to his readers and the framework of his letter, the resurrection and the concomitant eschatological reality of new creation are structurally crucial. We will outline how this is so by examining implicit and explicit references to resurrection and new creation in Galatians, beginning with the first and last chapters and working inward (i.e., we will be starting with the frame and work inwards to examine the other details of the framework).
Introduction of Galatians
The only use of ἐγείρω, Paul’s preferred term for referring to the action of resurrection, in Galatians appears in the first sentence, as Paul describes himself as an apostle who has his authority not from other humans but through Jesus Christ, the one who sent him (and thus made him, in this most literal sense, an “apostle” or “sent one”) and God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead (1:1). As we have seen elsewhere, this is an adjectival participle construction used to describe God. That is, the past action of raising Jesus is the identifying action by which God is characterized. Indeed, it is his climactic means of self-revelation. Even though Paul nowhere else uses the term in this letter, the fact that this is how he introduces God in the discourse as the framework for understanding who God is shows how crucial the action is.
On multiple levels, it is God’s action of raising Jesus that is foundation of Paul’s apostleship and thus his identification in this letter (and others) as “apostle.” One, as we noted in the previous entry, apostleship was initially tied up with the resurrection, as the apostles were those to whom the resurrected Jesus made resurrection appearances and commissioned them to be sent as envoys. Two, as Paul himself will note later, his status as apostle is tied to his particular experience of encountering the risen Jesus. Three, the story the apostles were commissioned to tell had at its center (along with the crucifixion and exaltation) the resurrection of Jesus. Four, this was such a crucial story to tell because God raising Jesus was his way of establishing the eschatological reality of the kingdom. After all, Jesus’s resurrection was the first installment, the first fruits, of the general resurrection, specifically of the resurrection of the righteous “from the dead.” As Jesus had been separated from the rest of the dead by being raised to everlasting life ahead of all others (cf. the use of the prepositional phrase in Matt 17:9; Mark 9:9–10; Luke 20:35; 24:46; John 2:22; 20:9; 21:14; Acts 3:15; 4:2, 10; 10:41; 13:30, 34; 17:3, 31; Rom 4:24; 6:4, 9; 7:4; 8:11 [2x]; 10:7, 9; 1 Cor 15:12, 20; Gal 1:1; Eph 1:20; Phil 3:11; Col 2:12; 1 Thess 1:10; 2 Tim 2:8; Heb 13:20; 1 Pet 1:21), so too will those who are in union with him be raised and separated from the rest of the dead (on this, see my post on Jesus’s resurrection and the general resurrection in Acts).
The fact that Jesus’s resurrection provides an eschatological framework is reinforced by v. 4. Here, as God had an adjectival participle to characterize him, the Lord Jesus Christ is given a similar construction to identify him as the one who gave himself for (or because of) our sins so that he would rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. As I have noted in my work on Acts, saving from sins was established in the OT as part of God’s eschatological plan. Furthermore, Paul’s reference to “the present evil age” evokes the popular scheme of eschatology in apocalyptic works (also taken up in the later rabbis) in which the present age, described as evil, is distinguished from the promised age to come in which God’s great promises will be brought to fruition. Jesus is the one who has brought this about, at least in an inaugurated sense (i.e., in line with the inaugurated eschatology of the NT), and thus he is fittingly described as the one who has done what he has done “according to the will of our God and Father.” I have described this notion on multiple occasions as Jesus being the executor of God’s will, for it is God’s will that he accomplished in his death, resurrection, and exaltation, as well as all that led up to those major gospel events and all that has followed those events. This scheme is an inaugurated eschatology precisely because it was inaugurated by eschatological events, such as Jesus’s resurrection to everlasting life ahead of everyone else.
Galatians 6
We have seen how the opening of this letter appeals to resurrection and its concomitant eschatology, so now we must attend to how the closing portions of Galatians in ch. 6 complement this framework with reference to new creation, as well as implicit reference to resurrection. For the implicit reference to resurrection, consider 6:8. Paul refers to “everlasting life” here as what happens when you sow to the Spirit (i.e., to the purposes of the flesh) as opposed to sowing to the flesh. Resurrection to everlasting life is precisely the outcome for the resurrected righteous, as they partake of the life of the age to come, the life of new creation (cf. Rom 2:7; 5:17–21; 6:4, 22–23; 2 Cor 4:17–5:1; 5:4; 1 Tim 1:16; 4:8; 6:12; 2 Tim 1:10; Titus 1:2; 3:7). In this case, as with others we have seen implicitly referencing final judgment and the benefits of the new creation for the righteous, we can see how the promise of everlasting life has an ethical function for motivating the conduct apropos to “reaping” everlasting life, as Paul says here.
For the reference to new creation, consider 6:14–15. Paul invokes a theme he had articulated earlier in the letter, which we will return to below, of a participationist soteriology, wherein believers are in participatory union with Christ. By the cross of Jesus, Paul says the world has been crucified to him and he to the world. That is, by his union with Christ, he shares in Christ’s crucifixion as well as its benefits. In light of this action by which God inaugurated the age to come, the age of the new creation, Paul can say that the marks of the old age—the marks that distinguished humanity in terms of circumcision or uncircumcision—no longer matter. What matters is new creation. As in 2 Cor 5:17, Paul brings forward this eschatological expectation and speaks of how it applies in the present on an individual level. The justified can now live in anticipation of the new creation by themselves being embodiments of new creation, living in anticipation of the resurrection by rising to newness of life after being crucified to the world with their sins through their faithful union with the crucified and risen Jesus. In short, they make the gospel story their story. Once again, the eschatological framework provides the theological indicative to the ethical imperatives of Paul throughout the letter, and he has established this at both the beginning and the ending of his letter.
Paul and the Paradigm of Christ in Gal 2
After Paul recounts the history of his apostleship and his relations with other apostles, he gets to a crucial point in reporting on his controversy with Peter brought on by the Judaizers. This led him to talk about how justification, the “rightwising” of the faithful, is brought about. For it is not by the works of the law. Rather, he says through the law he died to the law in order that he would live to God (2:19). The verb Paul uses here—ζάω—can be used for resurrection in some contexts, though it can also simply mean to “live.” What makes a resurrection sense apropos here is the fact that it follows in sequence after death. That is, he died for the purpose of living to God. That sense is further confirmed by the rest of this text, wherein Paul refers to being crucified with Christ and no longer living himself, for it is Christ living in him. Thus, he lives now in the flesh by faith in the Son of God who loved him and handed himself over for him (2:19–20). That is, as Paul has expressed elsewhere, being crucified with Christ has the ultimate result of being raised to everlasting life with him. The newness of life he experiences now in the flesh is the anticipation, the down payment if you will (cf. 2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; Eph 1:14), of the resurrection that is to come (cf. also Rom 6). That is why Paul can speak of Christ being the one living in him, for Christ has risen and can thus communicate his everlasting life to others, which he will consummate at the eschatological resurrection. The union believers have with Christ mean that they also are incorporated into his crucifixion and resurrection (as well as his exaltation). This participatory union is also behind Paul’s statements in 6:14 and 17 about sharing in the crucifixion of Jesus, which, given the larger gospel narrative, also implies sharing in his resurrection. Paul is simply not as explicit about it here as in texts like 1 Cor 15, where he needed to be more explicit. In Gal 2, it was sufficient to be suggestive with his use of resurrection language. And given how important this idea of participatory union is that Paul expresses so succinctly here, this text also illustrates how structurally important resurrection is to the letter and to Paul’s teaching.
The Kingdom of God in Gal 5
In Gal 5, Paul once again appeals to eschatology as a basis for his ethical directives. It is fitting for him to do so because of his larger theological scaffolding that he establishes here and in other letters of contrasting the “flesh” (σαρξ) with the Spirit (5:16–26). This contrast is a contrast of ruling powers over one’s self, in that the flesh of the present is dominated by the powers of sin and death (hence the term’s connotations of both sinfulness and weakness in Paul’s works), as opposed to the life-giving Spirit of the living God. This contrast is also a contrast of times, as the flesh is associated with the old age and the presence and action of the Spirit is associated with the age to come. Of course, the present time is in the overlap of the ages because the Spirit is already present and active in ways expected of the age to come, but all the promises are not yet consummated. Thus, Paul and other Christians can speak of the kingdom of God, one of the most common ways of referring to the final hoped-for reality, as something that is still future. Thus, Paul can say that those who practice the deeds of the flesh (i.e., those who live by the flesh) will not inherit the kingdom of God (5:19–21). He does not mention the kingdom again in the positive side of the contrast, but it is a clear enough implication that those who live by the Spirit and manifest the fruit of the Spirit as listed in 5:22–23 are those who manifest that they are the heirs of the kingdom of God. This is the same type of teaching as Jesus when he outlined the virtues of the kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount. More immediately, the teaching here feeds into the teaching in the following chapter about sowing and reaping and the outcome of new creation for those who live by the Spirit. As in other places, “the kingdom of God” and “new creation” put different accents on the same expectations. The former is most apropos in this context because the contrast between flesh and Spirit involves a contrast of ruling powers, and the kingdom of God accentuates the dominion of God.
The Life-Giving Spirit in Gal 3
Paul does not directly refer to the Spirit as “life-giving” in Galatians as he does elsewhere with the term ζῳοποιέω (1 Cor 15:45; 2 Cor 3:6; cf. Rom 8:11). Paul and others use this term to refer to God the Father, Christ, or the Holy Spirit as giving everlasting life, the life of the age to come, the life linked with the eschatological resurrection (also see John 5:21; 6:63; Rom 4:17; 1 Cor 15:22; 1 Pet 3:18; cf. Eph 2:5; Col 2:13). While the other more popular verbs associated resurrection tend to refer—literally or metaphorically—to the action of raising, this verb refers more specifically to the act of giving life or making alive. What is interesting about its use in this context is that Paul uses it to describe what the law was not able to do, since by design it was not able to make alive (Gal 3:21). After all, according to the argument of Galatians (and other texts), the law had a particular purpose for a time and thus it was designed for temporary use in defining the terms of the old covenant, even as it attested to the eternal God, revealed him, and pointed forward to the one who would fulfill it. This remark is part of a larger contrast between the law and the Spirit, as well as the law and Christ, in Gal 3. That is, the law was never able to provide the eschatological benefits that are now available of what God has done in Christ and made applicable through the promised presence and action of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit, being of the triune God, is able to do what the law could not in giving the life of the age to come.
The Jerusalem Above in Gal 4
Finally, we must attend to Paul’s reference to the “Jerusalem above” in Gal 4:26. As I have noted in the case of Hebrews (also see here), what is the case here is that the cosmological contrast of heavenly and earthly is at the service of the temporal contrast of the eschatological future and the present. Hence, in Paul’s allegory, he links Hagar with the present Jerusalem and Sarah (though not named as such) with the Jerusalem above. This fits with promises from the OT and expectations in Second Temple texts that there will be a new Jerusalem (Isa 2:1–4//Micah 4:1–5; Isa 49:8–26; 51–52; 60–62; Jer 30:18–22; 31; Ezek 40–48; Zech 8; 14; Tob 13:15–17; 14:5–7; 1 En. 90:28–29; Sib. Or. 3.265–294, 702–704, 718, 772–74; 5.420–428; 4 Ezra 9:38–10:55; 2 Bar 4; T. Dan 5:12–13; Jub. 1:15–18; Pss. Sol. 17:11–46; 4QFlor I, 1–9; 11QTa XXIX, 7–10; XLV, 12–14; XLVII, 3–4, 10–11; LII, 19–20; LIII, 9–10 [cf. 2QNJ ar; 4QNJa ar; 11QNJ ar]). It also fits with what we see in Heb 12:22–26 about the heavenly Jerusalem and the picture of Rev 21–22 of the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven to earth in the new creation. Paul is probably referring to it in such abbreviated fashion here because he had spoken about it previously with the Galatians. He points to it as a reminder of the eschatological component of their identity as people belonging to the Jerusalem above, the Jerusalem of the new creation. And this is so because they belong to the new covenant, the covenant of promise, the eschatological covenant (4:21–31; cf. Jer 31:31–34). As in other cases in this letter of Paul teaching about identity, expectation, ethics, and foundational theology (i.e., who God is and what God does), we thus see how resurrection and the larger eschatological reality it is part of are crucial to the framework of Paul’s letter and Paul’s teaching.