Paul’s Apocalyptic Ethic in Romans 6

Abstract Romans 6:1–14 is a dense exemplar of Paul’s apocalyptic theology that has challenged many interpreters. But unpacking Paul’s theology in this text is only half the story. Paul employs his Christian apocalyptic framework to reconceptualize moral agency, refashioned in connection to Christ in his death and resurrection. Participation in Christ creates a new “self-in-relation” whose identity is constituted and sustained by an ongoing connection to Christ. For Paul, Jesus’s death and resurrection provide the outline of the Christian life, the form of Christian moral reasoning, and the motivations for moral action. This new moral impulse is not simply a new moral code or a new set of motivations, but it centers on God’s apocalyptic triumph over the powers of Sin and Death, which creates a new moral self connected to Christ in his victory over the powers in his obedient death and triumphant resurrection. This is what characterizes Paul’s apocalyptic formulation of moral identity and redeemed moral agency.