Paul’s Ego

Paul’s offers this description of his experience at the end of Galatians 2: He died to the law. Immediately he adds that he himself was crucified with Christ, so it seems that he died to the law when he was crucified with Christ (whenever that was). 

Yet though he died to the law, he still lives on, or lives on again, still in the flesh. But something has changed, so that while living in flesh he lives by faith in the Son of God. Christ seems to be living His life through Paul. At least, Paul finds the center of His life in Christ now, rather than in his flesh.

What sort of anthropology is this, with this dying without death, this rising to live in another?

One might well use the trendy term “decentered” to describe this. Paul apparently lives outside himself in both phases of his life. Prior to his death to the law, his life is bound up with the law. Otherwise, he would not die when he died to the law. He could say, “I died to that old way of life, but at least I’m still alive. My Ego is continuous from the old to the new situation.” That’s not what he says: When he died to the law, he himself died, crucified with Christ. That old self died because the old self was co-defined by Torah. He couldn’t die to Torah and continue living. When he died to Torah, Paul died (or, perhaps, Saul).

His life after death is more explicitly centered in Another: He lives in the flesh, but he lives by faith in the Son of God. As Paul writes elsewhere to the Colossians, he died and his life is now hid with Christ in God. 

For Paul, individuals always live outside themselves.