Pentecost onwards a short series that builds upon the Witness series and explores the ways that the coming of the Spirit changes how we live out faith in the ‘new life’ in Christ.
Paul often uses the language of being ‘in Christ,’ as well as related phrases like being ‘with Christ.’ ‘In Christ’ seems, in fact, like a basic description of what we would simply call being a Christian. (there are many occurrences for eg in Romans 16.) Participating in Christ is simultaneously dying and rising with him and such cross-shaped living, infused with the life of the resurrected Lord, is life giving.
The cross is not only the source but also the shape of our salvation, and cross-shaped living (cruciformity) means that all Christian virtues and practices are cruciform: faith/faithfulness; love; power; hope; justice and so on.(M. Gorman)
This is more about the transforming work of the Spirit and what the new life consists of and looks like. What is the new life we have in Christ? The aim is not so much ‘behavioural’ first, so much as looking at the core life that is rejuvenated, freed and en-lived and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
