In Romans 7, Paul is trying to articulate to his readers what their relationship to Torah is like now that Christ has been raised from the dead. He describes a husband and wife's relationship. If the wife marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But she can marry another man if her husband has died because death has released her from that arrangement. Paul is basically saying that although it may feel like his readers are 'cheating' on Torah by being Christians, its not true. Torah is gone. Torah isn't anywhere anymore. This arrangement no longer exists anymore. We will explore in this post how transformative this is for how the world works.
We have seen that any attempt to change the world that didn't put flesh to death would inevitably share Torah's fate. Torah, though enlisted to be God's ally in the war against flesh, was given under condition of flesh, and so eventually became flesh's not-so-secret weapon. Our most basic sense of why Jesus had to die is because of this. Without it, we could compare it to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. There is something about Jesus' sacrifice that changes the very nature of existence in this way. If the power of death and flesh at all affect the physical arrangement of things in this world, then this same arrangement would have to be completely different now, because Jesus' sacrifice has undone this power structure.
Early on in his letter to the Galatians, Paul wants to say that Christ's sacrifice has brought nothing short of regime change to the world. Part of what this entails is a changed nature. He is no longer part of the world order of death, but is part of the world order of resurrected life. By the time he gets to Galatians 3:23-4:11, Paul is telling both Jews and Gentiles that they are a new nature which takes hold through new practices. They are not to divide themselves as they used to. No more Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. They are all one in Christ. (Gal. 3:28) To go back from this to their "slavery" under the "elemental spiritual forces of this world" would be to leave the faith because they are not slaves anymore, but heirs. This is his word for Jews: Torah is a reversion to an old creation that doesn't reflect a new reality.
But then he says something similar to Gentiles. He tells them not to turn "back to those weak and miserable forces" which "enslaved them." (Gal. 4:9) Both Jews and Gentiles alike have been given a new nature and new practices. Instead of two divided humanities, God has made one new humanity in Jesus.
Compared with the ancient world, it isn't clear to us that nature and practice are linked. Nature consisted of four elements primarily - earth, water, wind, and fire - and practices constituted something like a fifth element, a circular quality in which the extremes of each of the four elements were brought into a great harmony. Because the elements were untamed and unsafe, and also because the elements gathered up mythological and spiritual qualities, sacrificial practices related to policing various boundaries of pure and impure became central to understanding what the world is and who people are. We aren't like this anymore. We don't equate nature and practices. But Paul did. To be Jewish, for Paul, was to be "by nature," a Jew. This is not because the person was born a Jew. A Gentile who converts wouldn't be any less 'natural' a Jew. Rather, it is because the social practice of Torah functioned as a fifth element to harmonize and work out the four elements that make up physical reality for Jews. It protects societal order. It keeps chaos at bay. Other ancient societies worked similarly.
Why does this matter? It matters because the transformed humanity around Christ doesn't consist in something magical. Introverts haven't become extroverts. We aren't able to make corpses come back to life. The new humanity has to do with re-arranged elements, new lines drawn, which reflect a changed nature. Peter Leithart writes:
"Jesus threw the world into crisis: How can the human race continue after Jesus and the Spirit have tampered with the physics of religion and society? If earth is no longer earthy, fire no longer fiery, air no longer aerial, water no longer wet and heavy, then the world as we know it no longer exists. If you destroy the elements of the socioreligious cosmos, then can there be a cosmos at all? If you rearrange the elements, how will the world stay together? Will not things fall apart? Will not chaos engulf us all?" (Delivered, 218)
In Colossians, Paul describes the orienting role that Christ now holds with regard to all things - whether natural or cultural:
"The Son is the image of the invisible God, the first-born over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." (Col. 1:15-17)
Christ's authority here is depicted as the source and center for all things. He is the best place to look for wisdom not only about the religious side of one's life, but also wisdom about what things are - what money is, what a government is, what trees and soil are. He is the core element beneath the entire periodic table. He is also the true fifth element which brings harmony to all creation.
As I write this, the spire of Notre Dame in Paris is in flames. This goes to the heart of this topic, as the elements are often in conflict with one another. One ancient nightmare scenario consisted of all the other elements being devoured by fire. Where will we go to find order when we fear that earth, water, and wind will be engulfed by fire and all turn to chaos? Paul would tell us the same thing he told the Galatians: Jesus himself sustains earth, water, wind, and fire when they appear to be chaotically devouring one another. When the social order of the world breaks down, Jesus is the ground of a new humanity that lives a different way because it has a different nature. Peter Leithart writes:
"By the cross, Jesus takes the two (natures) of Jew and Gentile, mixes the elements and comes out with a new chemical combination: Christian (nature), a spiritual community made up of those born by Spirit." (Delivered, 287)
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