Dead to the World

Dead to the world.   Are you?  Am I?  Are we really?

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We're not talking about physical exhaustion here.  This is about something far more significant...

The Apostle Paul put it like this to believers in the ancient province of Galatia:

Galatians 6:14   
    As for me, however, I will boast only about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; for by means of his cross the world is dead to me, and I am dead to the world. (TEV)

Of course, this is Today's English Version's understanding of what is more literally translated:

    "May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (NRSV)

Yes -- it is "through", or "by means of" Christ's own cross -- but what exactly does it mean for the world to be crucified to us and we to the world?

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It seems that relatively few NT scholars delve deeply into this enigmatic saying.  Why is that?  And what does Paul really mean by these words?  What are their implications, and how can/should we live this out ourselves?

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image credit: iStockPhoto

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Comments

[Seraphim]

Yes -- it is "through", or "by means of" Christ's own cross -- but what exactly does it mean for the world to be crucified to us and we to the world?

Just some surface impressions. The Cross of Christ, and our own Crosses which we are called to take up daily, are not just about death -- but about transformation...

Once we encounter the Cross and then pick up ours our perspectives should have undergone a transformation. So dead to the World System (Kosmos?) Yes. But not just Dead, but a New Man. I'm rambling. But if we look at the Cross at the place where we encounter God and die to self and as the first step in Resurrection & Transformation...

Then it makes sense how we are to interact with and deal with the World. As a New Creature in Christ.

LYB

Seraphim

[Chris Monroe]

Seraphim -

Thanks for jumping in with some good thoughts. I liked how you said, "But not just Dead, but a New Man." The cross (whether Christ's or ours) always points to something beyond itself (e.g. "Resurrection & Transformation").

So, are you suggesting that dealing with the world "as a new creature in Christ" is the ends, while being "crucified to the world" is the means? Is our being dead to the world a "given", something already accomplished for us by Christ? Or is there something we must do in our emulating of Christ by which we are dead to the world and the world is dead to us?

[Bro. Bartleby]

First and foremost I think crucified and cross mean death. Death of what? For Paul (and us?), Jesus' death/cross/crucifixion is the righting of the God-man separation in Eden, that the final sacrifice has taken place, no longer must any living creature need be sacrificed to appease God (or our human thought that God need be appeased). So it is the death of 'living separated from God' that opens the door for a return to God, and for us, Jesus is that door. Jesus is that which makes the unknowable knowable, Jesus makes the invisible God visible. We follow/emulate/model Jesus in order to make right our likeness in the image of God. Paul can no longer follow his old desires -- the desires of the world -- they are death (cross), and so too, the worldly folks see Paul as dead, for he has none of their interests, none of their desires, so for them, Paul is dead -- "I am dead to the world."

Shalom,
Bro. Bartleby

[Chris Monroe]

Bro. Bartleby -

I like what you've said:

"Paul can no longer follow his old desires -- the desires of the world -- they are death (cross), and so too, the worldly folks see Paul as dead, for he has none of their interests, none of their desires, so for them, Paul is dead -- 'I am dead to the world.'"

So... Paul has none of the world's interests or desires, but that doesn't keep him from drawing upon their customs or beliefs when it comes to sharing the gospel (e.g. Acts 17:16-34), right? Because being "versed" in the world and it's ways is not what's at stake here. It's the values we live by and the allegiance we profess (in our case, to God's kingdom) -- it's in things such as these that we are dead to the world and it to us, yes?

Thanks for contributing to the dialog on this one -- your thoughts are quite helpful.

Blessings,

Chris

[Bro. Bartleby]

I would think Paul had none of the world's "perverse" interests or desires, it is as though one day you are tempted my many tempters and temptations, yet the next day "all that" tempts you not. What can cause such a dramatic change in how one perceives and experiences life and the world? Of course for Christians it is making that great turn-around, that being born again -- Christ replaces all former worldly standards -- Christ is your carpenter's level and plumb-line to measure yourself against. In my youthful folly, my standards were cool movie actors and fast hot rods and sexy girls, and if I could only emulate a cool actor, own a muscle car, date a sexy girl, then all would be right in the world, for I would have heaven on earth! Yet a seemingly simply altar call transformed me overnight, all the former standards were reduced to what they were and are, actors are actors, they act; hot rods are shiny machines that entice and transport, nothing more; sexy girls are females not taken seriously. The next day friends are heading to the drag races while I head to the mountains to meditate and pray ... their world dead to me, my "new" world dead to them.
Shalom,
Bro. Bartleby

[Dana Ames]

This passage has been perplexing to me, but I'm gaining some clarity. I don't think Paul is so much condemning the world as identifying with it in suffering- not substitution, but being with the world as "Jesus with skin on" at whatever place of pain the world is in. This is an NT Wright concept that I find very freeing, because I don't have to be all tied up in knots about whether some particular thing is "worldly" or not, trying to figure out what "worldly" is to begin with. I also like how Wright links this quote to the following two sentences in "The Resurrection of the Son of God", not commenting so much about Paul being crucified to the world and the world to him, but pointing to New Creation, the goal of it all. It makes better sense to me to think about this portion of scripture in those terms.

Dana

[Chris Monroe]

Dana -

Good thoughts. And I appreciated hearing how NT Wright continues to influence your thinking. There still seems to be a paradox at work. Yes, our crucifixion "points" to a new creation and a new (and better) way of relating to one another and the world. And in addition to this, the message and work of Christ continues to be subversive -- undermining and working against the powers-that-be in order to establish peace and usher in a very different sort of "kingdom". Perhaps it is in this sense that we must "die" to the world in order to be free to "love" the world in ways that are transforming.

How does that strike you?

[Bro. Bartleby]

In John 17:14-17 Jesus prays for his disciples:
"I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."

And this reminds me of a Buddhist saying that goes something like, "be in the world, but be not of the world" which is illustrated by, "out of mud a lotus blossom blooms" ... in other worlds, the nirvana of the Buddha blossoms out of the mud of earthly desires, but like the lotus blossom, is not stained by earthly desires.

This is my understanding of Paul, he is surrounded by earthly desires, but God through Jesus protects him from the temptation of these earthly desires -- he is no longer tempted by them, they are dead to him. Of course I am not Paul, so what may be dead to Paul may certainly tempt me, and that is when I pray "sanctify 'me' through thy truth: thy word is truth." And with the 'truth' I too can seek to be like that lotus blossom, unstained by the surrounding mud.

[Dana Ames]

New creation- transformation- Strikes me just fine :)

One of the major reasons I believe Christianity is true is because it's the only "worldview" (not the best word, but there really is no "best" word for this) that so fully includes paradox and allows us to live in such a way as to hold certain tensions together.

Dana

[Chris Monroe]

Dana -

"Christianity...fully includes paradox and allows us to live in such a way as to hold certain tensions together."

You're sure scratching where I itch!
:D