How do you or your church understand the relationship between redemption in Jesus Christ and continued progress in obedience, or holiness, or sanctification? Are we supposed to get better as Christians as we go along?
For Paul the “fleshly” life seems to have included confidence in circumcision and some kind of dietary mistake—maybe gluttony. Where are places in our own lives when we seem to have put our trust in passing (and even self-centered) values?
Is the suggestion that our stories participate in Christ’s story—his death and resurrection—still a persuasive way of thinking about the Christian life? What other understandings of our relationship to Christ might seem persuasive to you?