"iN CHRiST" [a book on pauline theology soon to be published by john paulling and myself]

I'm finding, the more I read the Apostle Paul, that his ultimate picture and primary means of articulating the majority of God's salvific activity is by alluding to the concept or directly using the phrase "in Messiah" [or "in Christ"]. Not only do I see this as Paul's principal reference point, but I see it as the place where people could come to terms each other. Tom Wright and the New Perspectival brothers ought to go out of their way to highlight the reality that God's "covenant faithfulness" is only "in Christ." In the same way, all the hyper-Reformed brethren with the Westminster confession tattooed on their back and a Romans 9 plaque in their living room - they must take their grasp of imputation and justification here as well. It is too huge of a theological and rhetorical emphasis in Paul not to do so. Living "in Messiah" and being "in Messiah" both individually and corporately seem to be the fountain of his soteriology, ecclesiology, and much more. Hopefully, this helps....