Derek Thomas

And so Paul is saying, how do I view myself as a Christian?

Well, I view myself as someone who

who is in union with Christ.

I view myself as someone who has died.

There's been a death in my existence, and it's the death of my Adamic self.

I've come to understand that through the doings and works of the law, there is no justification.

There is no salvation.

So I died to the law.

I died to its demands.

I died to its threats.

Through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

You remember that that's how Paul began the epistle to the Romans in the very opening verses when he says that Jesus was somebody who was given for us.

given in death, given as a substitute, given as someone who met the law's demands in all of its fullness where we could not.

And then in verse 19 again, and go back to the second half, through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.

We're asking the question, how should you think of yourself as a Christian?

It's been brought about by Peter's incident with bacon in Antioch and his refusal to allow Gentiles who weren't obeying the Jewish kosher laws to be included within the family of God.

And he's introduced then a damnable plus.