Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me”. A decisive break with the past has taken place. He has already been crucified.  His previous life is now over.  Once he lived as a man under the law striving to keep the law.  Now, he no longer lives as that man.  He now lives as a new man with an entirely new orientation. And yet, it is not Paul himself who lives, but Christ who lives in him. The new life is not humanly generated by human effort or because of human merit. The Spirit of Christ gives the new life as Christ living within him.

We also have been crucified with Christ. Life in Adam under the dominion of darkness  is over.  We have also been raised with Christ into newness of life.  And now we live by the Spirit of Christ expressing our new life as we keep in step with the Spirit. This new life in the Spirit is worked out in the new community.  We have all been crucified with Christ.  Christ lives in all of us.  We are his new community expressing his life together on the public stage. And as Christ’s new community, in the Spirit, we enjoy freedom and the sure expectation that we and all creation will be brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God through Jesus, who is alive and reigns with his Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.