of their old identities through the cross. The aorist verb apethanete (you died) points back to baptism-confession as the moment of identifying with Christ’s death and resurrection. The life that is hidden with Messiah in God stands for the structure of their existence. It is a life that is lived out in the world through an exterior resource (Rom 6:4; 2 Cor 4:10–11; 13:4). Such a life has its center with Christ in God (Phil 1:21). It is lived for God and his Messiah (Rom 6:10–11; 14:8; 2 Cor 5:15)
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