Full Text for The New Creation in Christ (Text)

~---------------Concoll{)ia Theological ~ Montbly JUNE • 1950 Concou()ia Theological. Monthly Published by The Lutheran Ch1trch -Missouri Synod EDITED BY nIE FACUL1Y OF CONCORDIA SEMINARY ":f .. ST. LOUIS, Mo. Address aU communications to the EdilOrial Committee in care of the Managing Editor, F. E. Mayer, 801 De MunAve., St.Louis 5, Mo. EDITORIAL COMMITTEE PAUL M BRETSCH~ RICHARD R. CAEMMmum, THEODORE HOYER, FREDERICK E. MAYER, LoUls-J. SIECK CONTENTS FOR JUNE 1950 I THE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST. Walter Bartling STUDY ON 1 TIMOTHY 1:3-11. Otto E. Sohn THE CHRISTIAN AND GoVERNMENT. A. M. Rehwinkel A SERIES OF SERMON STUDIES FOR TrlE CHURCH YEAR BRIEF STUDIES THEOLOGICAL OBSERVER BOOK REVIEWS P,.\GE 401 419 429 441 451 454 472 Leupold, H. c.: Exposition of Genesis. -Barnes' Notes on the Old Testament (Job, Psalms). -Brunner, Emil: The Christian Doctrine of God. -Huggenvik, Theodore: We Believe. -Wisloff, Fredrik: I Believe in the Holy Spirit. -Cull­mann: Christ and Time. -Warfieid, Benjamin Breckinridge: The Person and Work of Christ. -Pastors of Ev. Luth. Church: We Beheld His Glory; What Seek Ye? By the Obedience of One; Unto a Living Hope; In Whom We Live; Teach Me Thy Paths; For This Cause. -Albus, Harry J.: A Treasury of Dwight L. Moody. -Erdman, Charles R.; Blackwood, Andrew W.: Great Pulpit Masters (Moody and Spurgeon). -Great Gospel Sermons (I: Classic; II: Contemporary). CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY is published monthly by Concordia Publishing House, 3558 S. Jefferson Ave., St. Louis 18, Mo., to which all business correspondence is to be addressed. $3.00 per annum, anywhere in the world, payable in advance. . Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter_ Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in SeCtion 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 5, 1918. PIINDD IN U ...... Concou()ia Theological Monthly JUNE 1950 No.6 The New Creation In Christ A Study of the Pauline BV XQLOLql Formula By WALTER BARTLING A LL modern studies of the BV XQL or one of its variants (BV XQtcrtql 'I'I1aoiJ, BV aut4> , EV XUQLCP, etc.) occurs 196 times in the New Testament. Of these 196 occurrences, 164 are to be found in the Pauline corpus. The a priori consideration arising out of this remarkable fact is that the formula dare not be regarded as accidental when it is found in Paul and then be ignored as being of no special consequence. "Der Be­gruender der christlichen Theologie," says Deissmann, "hat ein An­recht darauf, class man ein jedes seiner W orte, zumal seine Aussagen ueber Jesus Christus, mindestens beachtet." 1 But just this was not done with reference to the BV XQLGtql formula. "Empirismus," "Libertinismus," "WiUkuer," "dogmatisch interessierte Umdeutung," are the terms Deissmann uses to describe the current general at­titude toward Paul's favorite phrase.2 Though many scholars since Deissmann have attempted to right the wrong that Paul's "Lieb­lingsbegriff" has suffered, it is still true that the average Bible reader is unaware of the rich treasures that lie buried in the unassuming little phrase "in Christ jeSlts!' This article in no way pretends to be an exhaustive study of 26 402 THE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST the formula. We shall merely attempt to discover some of the elements that went into the fashioning of the phrase and to solve a few of the problems that arise out of its use. The EV XQLotip is used in a great variety of contexts, but the most interesting is its use with the verb "to be," either expressed or unexpressed. It is this use which is basic to all others and which is theologically most significant. Our discussion, therefore, wllI center in the EV XQLOtcp dvm. I. GOD'S REDEMPTIVE ACTIVITY "IN CHRIST" We begin to see why EvXQLotcpis Paul's "Lieblingsbegriff" when we examine what has variously been termed the "objective" and "heilsgeshichtliche" use of the formula.3 A listing of some of the passages in which this use of the EV XQLOtcp is found should be suf­ficient to convince us of its central importance. In Christ men are justified (Gal. 2: 17), sanctified (l Cor. 1: 2), and receive grace (l Cor. 1: 4 ). I n Him they have freedom (Gal. 2: 4 ), are led in triumph (2 Cor.2:14), and shall be made alive (l Cor. 15:22). In Christ there is grace (2 Tim. 2: 1 ), salvation (2 Tim. 2: 10 ), re­demption (Rom. 3:24), eternal life (Rom. 6:23), truth (Eph. 4:21). In Him God reveals His love (Rom.8:39), His kindness (Eph.2:7), and His will (l Thess.5:18). In Christ all things receive their Yes (2 Cor. 1: 19 f.), for in Him the promise ( E ph. 3: 6) and the blessing of Abraham (Gal. 3: 14) are fulfilled. Everything that God has planned for the salvation of fallen man, everything that He has done in history for man's redemption, He has planned and executed in Christ Jesus. In the person of Christ and in His work on the plane of history is man's redemption. "In Christo tritt die Offenbarung, das heilsschaffende Handeln Gottes, tritt sein Heil in die Geschichte. 'In ibm' ist es beschlossen, in ihm ist es da. Auf die geschichtliche Begruendung blickt die alte 'objektive' Fassung." 4 But this "Heilsgeschichte," this history of God's redemptive ac­tivity, is not merely history, if by history we mean events of the past or the narration of such events. It is redemption; it is salva­tion. The historical Christ, in whom God accomplished His saving design, is the still living Christ. Yer He knows a continuity with His historical existence, for He is and ever remains EotUUQO)!lEVOr; (Gal. 3:1; 1 Cor. 1:23; 2:2). ''It is not that Jesus was first the THE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST 403 Crucified, then became the Risen, and is now the Exalted; but as the Exalted is the Risen, so He is the Crucified. His death is not something which belongs merely to history, though it is indeed a historical fact. But He is now present as the Crucified." 5 In Christ} today and every day, there is salvation, for God's redemptive activirj is daily actualized for those who are in Christ. This is beautifully expressed in those passages in which the EV XQL(1'tQ> has a pregnant force (= Ev X(;lL(rtQ> dVaL) and relates the effects of God's redemptive activity to the believers, to those who are in Christ. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8: 1 ) .6 'E~ Ctlnov bE V!!EL~ £!JTE EV XQL!JTCP 'I1']Gov, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and con­secration and redemption" (1 Cor. 1: 30). "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold; the new has come" (2 Cor. 5: 17 ). "You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6: 11). "In Christ Jesus you are all the sons of God, through faith" (GaL 3: 26). "For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5: 21; d. Phil. 3: 8 f.). We state the inescapable conclusion: to be in Christ is to be taken up into the sphere of God's redemptive activity.7 For Paul the state of being in Christ is the all-inclusive presupposition of salvation. The EV XQL is the central, the focal point in the Pauline thought world. If this is true, it is a gross misunderstanding to say that EV XQLuTQ> dVaL expresses a mystical, esoteric, highly subjective experience. Being in Christ is Paul's expression for a universal Christian experience. What, exactly, is that experience? Our discussion thus far in­dicates that the EV XQLG'tQ> is a succinct expression for the sphere of God's redemptive activity and that to be in Christ is to be taken up into that sphere. We have also noted that Ev XQLGTQ> as an ex­pression for the redemptive sphere is to be understood quite literally: in Christ} i. e., in the once historical and in the still living Christ, God has revealed and executed His saving purpose -in Him} in His person and in His work, the two to be thought of as one. It remains to be seen whether an equally literal interpretation of the pregnant lv XQWTQ> is justified. Does being in Christ mean for Paul an actual identification with, or incorporation into, Christ? 404 THE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST II. INCORPORATION INTO CHRIST In Gal, 3: 26 f., being in Christ is more closely defined as pUlting on Christ, and both expressions are associated with Baptism. The believer has in Baptism put on Christ as a garment and is henceforth a son of God in Christ, through faith. "Die Taufe ist der Grund fuer dieses Sein und das ihm zugrunde liegende Verhaeltnis:'8 How or why Baptism effects this being in Christ, "das ibm zugrunde lie­gende Verhaeltnis," is not disclosed in the Galatians passage. Ap­parently the Galatian Christians needed no instruction on this point. But we do not have to search long for a commentary on our text. Rom. 6: 1-14 comes to mind immediately as an obvious parallel. In Romans 6, as in Galatians 3, Baptism is represented as the starting point of a stream of consequences which issues in "being alive to God in Christ" (v. 11) . Baptism Ets; XQ~IJ"t6v is more closely defined in Romans 6 as Bap­tism ELs; "tOY {hlvu"tov ulmru (v. 3). Paul is opposing the opinion which would make a mockery of God's grace by finding in it the occasion for renewed sinning. He does so by reminding the Roman Christians, not so much of their Baptism, but of what there 'took place. "Baptism symbolizes death, burial, and resurrection with Christ. But not only so; it is the means through which we are ac­tually identified with these events of the Messianic life story." 9 "Die Taufe bedeutet," says Miming, "ein ganz reales Teilhaben, Beteiligtsein an Tod und Auferstehung Christi, aber nicht im Sinne dnes symbolischen Significat, sondeen im Sinne des Sakraments, das ein sichtbares Signum einer unsichtbaren Wirklichkeit ist. Es han­delt sich nicht nur urn ein Miterleben dessen, was an Christus ge­schah, sondeen die Tau£e versetzt uns ... als ganz existentiell Be­teiligte in die Situation der Kreuzigung, des Begraebnisses und dec Auferstehung 'am dritten Tage:" 10 Baptism implies far more than a mere symbolical drowning. It is in the deepest possible sense a means of grace -the means by which the believing initiate is ac­tually identified with Christ in His redemptive work. Any other interpretation does not do justice to the text as a whole. The01JvE"tCtcp1']!J,Ev uv"t0 of v.4, the (J'UVE(J'tU'UQWih] of v.6, and the &n:E1'MvoIJ-Ev airY XQLIJ"t0 of V. 8, cannot mean that what Christ experienced on a specific occasion is repeated symbolically in the believer at the time of his Baptism. The aVv (XQw"t0) stands THE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST 405 stubbornly in the way of this interpretation. A symbolical recapitu­lation could not have been termed "dying with Christ." 11 Further­more, the "rising with Christ" in Romans 6 is not decribed as the result of the baptismal act, but as a necessary consequence of the "dying with Christ." This intimate relationship between dying and risbg with Christ indicates that we have to do here with nothing less than the actual death of Christ on Calvary. Gal. 6: 14 lends solid support to this interpretation of Romans 6: "Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." The Apostle's own death to the world has its source, its loctls, in t..~e Cross of the Crucified. But also Rom. 6: 10 shows that Paul has in mind throughout the once-for-all event of Calvary: "The death He died He died to sin, once for all (Ecpana~); but the life He lives He lives to God." Verse 11 then reveals what this once-for-all eyent means for the believer: "So you most consider yourselves dead to sin and aliTe to God in Christ." "Wie naemlich dieser Gekreuzigte durch die Herrlichkeit des Vaters von den Toten auferweckt wurde und niche ill Tade blieb, so bleibt es auch fuer uns nicht bei diesem in der Taufe vollzogenen Tode, dena dieser war ja eben ein Mitsterben mit diesem gekreuzigten, aber nicht Un Tode ge­bliebenen Christus." 12 In Rom. 6: 11 we have again met our formula -Ev XQLO'1:fP 'I'I1O'oiJ. It is intended to show in which respect it is true that the readers are alive to God. It is true, inasmuch as they are in Christ. In other words, their becoming alive to God, or (which is the same) their sharing in the life of Christ, a fact of which Paul has spoken in vv.4, 5, 8, has its validation and its source in their being in ChristP Now, since according to vvA, 5,8, the believer shares in the life of the risen Christ only because he has first shared in His death, the conclusion is near at hand that also the dying with Christ has its foundation in the being in Christ. And so we have come full circle and are back at Gal. 3: 26 f. The putting on Christ, or the being in Christ, which is the result of Baptism, is a compact expres­sion for the dying and rising again of the believer with Christ in Baptism. It means a very real identification with Christ, so very real that it can best be described as mCMpMatWninto Christ. We summarize with Percy: 406 THE .NEW CREATION IN CHRIST Das Mitsterben des Glaeubigen mit Christus in der Taufe; wovon Roem.6:1-12 spricht, kommt somitdadurch zustande, dass der Glaeubige durch die Taufe in das, was einmaC mit Christus geschah, . hineingegliedert wird, und dies kann seinerseits nichts anderes bedeuten, als dass er in Christus selbst und zwar in ihn nicht nur als den Auferstandenen, sondern in ihn schon als den, der am Kreuz starb, auf eine ganz reale Weise eingegliedert wird.14 That this is a hard teaching is not to be denied. We shall briefly develop the idea that Christ is the representative and, in a sense, inclusive personality of the new creation. This idea helps us some~ what in overcoming the difficulty of conceiving the identification of believers with Christ. But there is still another problem, equally intense for our limited field of comprehension: that is the problem of the time relationships involved. "The Messianic events of Christ's death and resurrection," remarks Thornton, "took place once for all in history and can never be repeated as historical events." And not only in the sense that this is true of all historical events. "The Messianic events are unique, final, and unrepeatable in a sense proper to them alone. For in them the whole plan of God's redemptive action, as unfolded in Holy Scripture, came to its fulfillment. In them, on the Christian reading of history, God did once for all that which, whilst this world order lasts, will never need to be done again; that which, when this world order is ended, will be manifestly brought to its fruition." 15 Yet this one event, far away and long ago, is an ever-present reality: "1 am crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2: 20). That is the stone of stumbling. We may succeed in making this hard fact more acceptable to our minds by inventing concepts of "super-history," and the like, but the hard fact remains. If the explanation offered is that the time thought of in the embarrassing aorists (O"UVEO"'W'UQw1'hj, etc.) is the moment of Baptism, then we must remember that Baptism does no more than effect the identification with the once-for-all event of Caivary (not to mention the fact that Paul can speak of dying with Christ out­side the context of Baptism-Gal. 2:19 f.; 6:12 ff.; 2 Cor. 5:14). Deissmann coined the phrase "Passionsmystik" to take away from the hardness of Paul's teaching. There is, indeed, according to Deissmann, an identification of the believer with the great events of Christ's life, but this identification is made psychologically ex-. 'THE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST 407 plicable through the mystical experience of communion with the "Pneuma-Christ." 16 Feine, too, interprets the identification psy­chologically: "Der Glaeubige solI sich dergestaltin das Leiden und den Tod Christi versenken, dass.er mit diesenErlebnissen Christi innerlich zusammenwaechst und sie so stark empfindet, als seien sie auch an ihm yollzogen." 17 All such explanations, while taking away from the hardness of Paul's teaching, at the same time rob it of much of its power. All that we can confidently say is that this teaching of Paul implies a complete overthrow of the usual time relationships. And we must leave it at that. "Angesichts der Be­stimmtheit der paulinischen Aussagen kommt eine unbefangene Betrachtung gar nicht um das Zugestaendnis herum, dass das ex­klusive Verhaeltnis, das fuer das empirische Urteil zwischen ver­schiedenen Subjekten, Raumpunkten und Zeitpunkten besteht, in diesen Saetzen aufgehoben ist." 18 III. THE NEW CREATION "IN CHRIST" We have now to see what the status of being in Christ, of being incorporated into Christ in His death and resurrection, means for the believer. The teachings of Paul on this point form a com­plex whole, yet they can be conveniently divided for discussion purposes. The results of being in Christ are both negative and posi­tive, the negative associated with "dying with Christ," the positive with "living with Christ." According to Romans 6, the death of Christ, in which the be­liever shares, is a death which releases from sin: "The death He died He died to sin, once for all" (v. 10). "Our Lord was identified with us in our sinful state, and we were identified with Him in His death" 19 (d. 2 Cor. 5 : 21; Rom. 8: 3 ). The result for the believer is that the ltaAClLO~ av{tQo)lto~, the aW!-la 't~~ a!-laQ't(a~, has been de­stroyed; and with its destruction the power of sin over him has also been destioyed. In Rom. 7:4 ff. and Gal. 2 :19 the death that we died with Christ is described as bringing freedom from the Law. The implication in both passages is that the Law has power over a man only so long as he lives. 1£ he dies (as we have with Christ), that power is finally and effectually broken. Finally, and in summary fashion, the death with Christ is a death to the world, to the Old Age, to everything that is associated with fallen and depraved aciQ~. 408 THE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST "Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6: 14 ) . "Die Taufe d; XQLO"tov bedeutet abet nicht nur reales Teilhaben am Tode Jesu von dieset Weltordnung, von diesem Aeon und den sie beherrschenden Maechten, Gesetz, Suende und Tad, weg, sandern eo ipso auch Teilhaben an dem, was auf seinen Tod folgte, naem­lich seiner Auferstehung und dem neuen Leben, das er als Aufer­standener lebt: gerade dies ist es doch, worauf es fuer Paulus letzten Endes ankommt." 20 Just as Christ's death would be meaningless if He "be not risen" (1 Cor. 15: 14 ff.; d. Rom. 4:25 ), so "dying with Christ" would be a sorry game without the "rising with Him." Death is but the necessary entrance portal to the new life. We have found this expressed in Rom. 6:5,8, 11, with which we may com­pare Gal. 2: 19 and especially Col. 2: 12: "You were buried with Him in Baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead." When we inquire into the implications of this resurrection to new life, we find that basic for everything else is the acquisition of a new righteousness, a faith-righteousness which will hold its own before the holy God, thus opening the way to fellowship with Him in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 2:17; Phil. 3:9). In Christ this right­eousness is ours. Righteous before God, we are free from the judg­ment of wrath, for "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ" (Rom. 8: 1 ). More, we are now the chil­dren of God in Christ] esus (Gal. 3: 26). As dutiful children, we offer God willing and happy obedience (Rom. 6: 4, 11) and are assured of eternal salvation (Rom. 8: 39) . Finally, identification with Christ in His resurrection gives us a share in the vital forces of Christ's resurrection, forces which, as the living Lord and Savior, He even now gives to strengthen us in our weakness (2 Cor. 4: 7 -15; Phil. 3: 10 ), and which will become manifest in us at that great Day (Rom. 8:11; Phil. 3:11; 2 Cor.4:14). All of these various lines of thought may be summed up in one word: 'Xmv~ 'X't'Ltn;, the eschatological, the new creation of God. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5: 17). "Wenn die Auferstehung von den Toten," says Sasse, "nach der Lehre der juedischen und der urchristlichen Eschatologie die Wende der THE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST 409 Aionen, den Anfang der neuen, ewigen Schoepfung bedeutet, dann hat mit der Auferstehung Christi, insofern sie der Anfang der allge­meinen Auferstehung ist, der neue Aion bereits begonnen, wenn auch verborgen von den Augen def Menschen." 21 The New Age has impinged itself upon the old through the creative power of Christ's resurrection, and the man in Christ has been transferred into the New Age. This implies, as Gutbrod so well observes, not only a new state of being ("Sein"), but a new life ("Leben") in the active sense, a life from God and for God.22 The old world, how­ever, exists side by side with the new. And even the believer, insofar as he is still (jciQ~ (Gal. 2 :20), has one foot in the old world. It is the old story, at once glorious and dreary, of the "even now" and the "not yet," of the "arrived" and the "still afar off." This means. tension for the man in Christ, tension and strenuous effort. Every indicative relating to the new life becomes an imperative; what the :new man is, he must be and, in a sense, become.23 IV. CHRIST, THE REPRESENTATIVE PERSONALITY OF 'rdE NEW CREATION We are now ready to take up Hunter's significant hint as to the meaning of the EV XQl is already contained in the im:E(l !Jf!o)v. "Der paulinische Gedanke des Seins der Glaeubigen in Christus wurzelt also letzthin," says Percy, "im Gedanken der stellvertretenden Selbsthingabe Christus urn unsertwillen; dieser Gedanke ist das Zentrum der ganzen paulinischen Theologie, von dem aus sich diese erst recht verstehen laesst." 26 Paul himself helps us to an understanding of the idea of Christ as a representative Man by means of the familiar analogy of the First and the Second Adam. The comparison and contrast of Adam and Christ is a significant facet of Pauline theology: Adam, the "first," "earthly," "psychic" man; Christ, the "second," "heavenly," "pneumatic" man.27 Paul uses the Adam/Christ. typology to im­plement three different but closely related ideas: 1. graphically to present the fact of universal grace, Rom. 5: 12ff.; 2. to show the certainty of the resurrection, 1 Cor. 15 :22; 3. to make somewhat understandable the nature of the resurrec­tion body, 1 Cor. 15 :44 ft. What did Paul wish to say with his typological analogy? In answering this question we shall attempt to do no more than draw SOme of the obvious inferences. Basic is the view that Adam and Christ, as representative men, determine the fate of the entire race. The heritage of the First Adam is sin and death; the heritage of the Second, forgiveness, righteousness, and life. "In either case," says Thornton, individuals enter a system of relationships which they did not originate, but which was constituted by actions other than their own. Yet in either case the individual is identified with the con­sequences of such acts. In these two organisms there are, as it were, two contrasted biological sequences. Or, again, we might say that from each fountainhead there flows a stream, one for evil and the other for good. The first stream flows from sin to death, the second from death to life. The sinner as a member of Adam's race falls short of the glory of God, for which he was created. He lives "after the flesh," that is, he lives for the aims of natural THE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST 411 self; and these come.to.an end with death. He is therefore under the reign of death,whetl;ler he be aware of his situation or not. The second stream flows from Christ; its starting point is His death on Calvary. For there "one man's act of redress issued in acquittal and life for all." In His death our Lord identified Him­self with the evil consequences of our sins in an act of expiation. In His resurrection the victorious consequences of this act become manifestly effectual; for His resurrection showed that the reign of death had been brought to a close. Now all of this Christ ef­fected in His representative capacity, as the One Man who is Abraham's Seed, "Israel, my Servant." By His self-identification with us sinners in His "act of redress" we may be said to be identi­fied with Him in that act.28 Paul always views man in his relationship to God, be that posi­tive or negative. Man does not and cannot exist outside that rela­tionship. Either he is obedient to God and is taken into fellowship with Him, or he is disobedient and is rejected from that fellowship. But always it is man's relationship to God that determines the whole of his existence. 'Ev t'fP 'AMft :rcciV"[E~ Wto1l-vf]OXOlJOW (1 Cor. 15: 22). Man has denied his right to live; he has sinned himself into a state of separation from the divine fellowship. Sin is the expression of that separation; death its result. But BV "[qJ XQLO"[q> :rcciV"[E~ ~(j)O:rcOLlJ%OOV"[(lL. Something has happened to break the chain of consequences that had its rise BV 'AMfl and to start a new chain of consequences. That something, that everything, we have found to be God's redemptive activity BV XQLO"[qJ. Adam is the "t{,:rco~ "[oil flEAAOV"[o~, the :rcQil)"[o~ clV'/}Q(j):rcO~. He points beyond himself to the EOXU"[O~ 'AMfl, the aE{,"[EQO~ clV-/}Q(j):rcO~: he points to Christ. "Diese Masse der Menschheit," says Stauffer, "die in der Zwischenzeit lebten und starben, zaehlt gar nicht gegen­ueber diesen beiden Menschen xu"[' B~OX~V. In diesem Vollsinne ist Adam der erste, Christus woerdich und wirklich der zweite Mensch . . . . In ibm, dem Antityp Adams, ist der Menschenwelt noch einmal ein Anfang und Prinzip gesetzt." 29 In Christ there is a new crea­tion; He is the Head of a new humanity of which He is Himself the &:rc(lQX~ (1 Cor. 15:20,23) and the JtQ(j)"[6'roxo~ (Rom. 8:29; Col. 1: 18). But Christ is the Beginning in a fuller sense than Adam. The analogy is not a "just as, even so." Rather it is WOl'tEQ, :rcOAAqJ JlaAAOV (Rom. 5 : 12, 17). Christ is not only the first Member of the 412 THE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST new creation; He is Himself its Creator (JtVEU!J.(l ~woJtoLOiiv). He is not only the First; He is the E(Jxa't~, toward whom the entire new creation tends until all things are again summed in 1-:: ... (Eph.1:10). The importance of this analogy for an understanding of the EV X(,ltcrrip is as obvious as it is significant. The central Pauline concept of being in Christ is an extension of the type of thinking which can view an individual as the representative and inclusive personalirj of an entire race of men, with whom he is related by ties of blood or through necessities arising out of the order of creation.so It is in the order of the new creation that Christ be its inclusive Personality. The Representative of mankind in His death, He led man by means of His resurrection into the new creation which His resurrection heralded. To be in Christ is to be in the new creation which Christ represents. To this Oepke lends welcome support: "Die Glaeubigen sind durdl Taufe aus der Suenden~ und ' r rmenschen in die Gerecl ,,-' Lebe v "ersetzt worden. Aus dleser Grundvorstellung laesst sich die gesamte Praegnanz der Formel EV X(lt(rr:cp und ihrer Parallelformeln ableiten."31 With his reference to Baptism Oepke tal-es us back to our argument in an earlier paragraph. Baptism is normally the means of incorporation into the Second Adam and into the new creation, which He creates as well as represents (Romans 6; Galatians 3). Through Baptism a man is in Christ, and "if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17; d. Ga1.6:15). V. THE NEW PEOPLE OF GOD "IN CHRIST" Before closing our discussion, we shall push our argument one step further. The new creation, which is essentially realized in Christ, concerns more than the new life of the individual believer: the new creation is the community which Christ has established and "whiCh has its life and reality in Him. The pregnant £V " QlGTiI>, expac._..:d, becomes ... _ ... _.usive" EV XQLcr'tiI>. The x-drn<; is an intensely personal matter. That is never denied. But it is also and alW3.ys a communal matter. When a man is baptized into Christ, he is at once i [zed into the Church, into the Messianic COmruuuilJ \(; .. i.:;.2~';;., i Cor. 12:13). To belong LV the com· munity is to be in Christ; to is to belong to the com-THE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST 413 munity.32 Thus it is that Paul can speak of the Church as well as of individuals as being the XULVO~ aV{)-Qw:n:o~ Ev XQt: "He is our Peace, who has made us both one and has broken down the middle wall of hostility by abolishing in His flesh the Law of command­ments and ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the tuJO, so muki..'1g peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the Cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end" (Eph. 2:13 ff.). With this we may compare Col. 3:9 ff., where, in the VEO~ ay{}Qw:n:o~, there seems to be-at least in the practical implications -a mingling of the individual and corporate aspects of the new creation: "Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator. Here there can be neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all in all" (d. Eph.4:24). Already Deissmann found the opinion quite congenial that EV XQL