Galatians and Romans

Michael Gorman makes the interesting suggestion ( Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul’s Narrative Soteriology , 73-4) that “the first half of Romans is essentially an expansion of Galatians 2:15-21,” moving from “justification” to “participation.”

From that he concludes that, contrary to common treatments, Romans 5-8 is not about the consequences of justification, but are, like the latter verses of Galatians 2, a filling-out of the meaning of justification. As he says, “Romans 6 does not supplement justification by faith or merely explain its effects or consequences; rather, it defines justification by faith . . . . Following 5:1-11, Paul provides three sets of quite fully developed antitheses that contrast pre- and post-justification existence: life in Adam vs. life in Christ (5:12-21), slaver to sin vs. slaver to God (6:1-7:6), and life in the flesh vs. life in the Spirit (7:7-8:39) . . . . The first part of ch. 6 is an extended definition of justification by faith as resurrection by co-crucixion that explains what happens in baptism when one moves from Adam to Christ, from sin to God, from the flesh to the Spirit – that is, when one is justified by faith, restored to right covenant relations, and crucified, buried, and resurrected with Christ.”