A new self

The crucifixion of Christ — not just a death, but a cursed and scandalous execution ([Gal] 3:13; 5:11) — marks a radical disjunction. The reference to the “Christ who lives in me” gestures to the resurrection (1:1), which founds a radically new existence. For believers, these are not past events contemplated from a distance: they are imprinted onto their very existence (“I have been crucified with Christ”) in a way that collapses the distance between past and present.” “Living to God” is not just a reorientation of the self, but a mode of existence founded on, and shaped by, the life of another, the life of “Christ in me.” The Christ-event therefore founds not only a change of vision and value, but a change of self. Out of that newness, every value is newly evaluated and every norm reassessed.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 386