“Clothed in Christ”
What does it means to be clothed in Christ? This is a rich and deeply biblical image found throughout the New Testament. To be clothed in Christ is to take on His identity, to live as His representative, and to be continually formed by Him. We read this imagery in Galatians 3:27, Ephesians 4:24, Romans 13:14, and Colossians 3:10,12. We’re not talking here about the clothes we put on every day. We might chose to wear a cross necklace or a T-shirt with a religious message, and they might start a conversation about Christ, but that doesn’t clothe us in Christ. Remember the WWJD bracelets? What Would Jesus Do? By the 1990’s there were tens of thousands of them being produced and it was great to see that message displayed, especially by young folks struggling to make good decisions for their lives. But the What Would Jesus Do? bracelets were only a reminder that we’re to be clothed in Christ. They were never themselves able to clothe us in Christ. There is rich teaching about being clothed in Christ, and it is more than a single theme, so as always, let’s go to the Bible and find out together what it really means to be clothed in Christ.
To be clothed in Christ is to share His identity: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”-Galatians 3:27. In the early church, and today, the act of baptism was and is a choice to declare Christ as Lord in the life of a believer, and to seek the grace of God on the the believer’s family. Acts 10:48 tells us that Peter baptized the entire household of Cornelius, babies included, in part, because of Cornelius' choice to commit to Christ, and God’s grace being poured out on the household. You saw today was parents declaring Christ as Lord in the life of their child, and the Holy Spirit identifying not just with the parents, but also with the baby. Hear this church, to choose and declare Jesus Christ as Lord in your life and the life of your family is Good News worth celebrating! That, was a decision that I finally made in my own life years ago, I had to choose what kind of Christian I was going to be. I grew up in a Christian home, my parents loved the Lord, and I will always be grateful for my time in Lubbock. Yet, the word that I would sometimes hear from loving voices was be yourself. I used to listen to that advice, but It created a problem. I didn’t always make the best choices! If I continued to “be myself”, that wasn’t going to be a sustainable way to live. Then I read Psalm 27 when I was in college. In the Psalm, David uses the image of staying in God’s tent. In the ancient world, if you were invited into a tent of an opposing army, or invited into the tent of a King, it was considered an invitation of belonging and identity. You were no longer seen as an outsider or a threat, but one of the King’s own. That night, I applied Psalm 27:5 to my own life “For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.” Hear me church, I no longer had to live life according to the unsustainable desires of what I wanted : I shared an identity with King Jesus, who gave me a new name and a new outlook! My identity, and yours is in Christ, who defeated our sin on a cross and gives us a new outlook, and a new name. Christ has, and can do that for you, today!
To be clothed in Christ is to represent Him: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”-Matthew 5:14-16. Interestingly, Jesus is described as the light of the world in John 8:12, and in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, he tells the disciples, and us, that we are the light of the world! In other words, we now have the light of Jesus within us, and represent the light of Jesus in the world. We wear his coat, if you will in our daily lives. Representing Jesus was illustrated beautifully by a writer, which is worth repeating. This story teaches us that it is not the physical clothes we wear that speaks to who we are in Christ. One day at a church in Yugoslavia in a tense and political time, an evangelist by the name of Jakov arrived in a village. Jakov commiserated with an elderly man named Cimmerman on the tragedies Cimmerman had experienced and Jakov talked to him of the love of Christ. Cimmerman interrupted Jakov and told him that he wished to have nothing to do with Christianity. Cimmerman had told Jakov of the dreadful history of the church in his town, a unfortunate history of plundering, exploiting, and indeed with killing innocent people. “My nephew was killed by them,” he said, and angrily rebuffed any effort on Jakov’s part to talk about Christ. “They wear those elaborate coats and caps and crosses,” Cimmerman said, “signifying a heavenly commission, but their evil designs and lives I cannot ignore.” Jakov, looking for an occasion to get Cimmerman to change his line of thinking, said, “Cimmerman, can I ask you a question? Suppose I were to steal your coat, put it on, and break into a bank. Suppose further that the police sighted me running in the distance but could not catch up with me. One clue, however, put them onto your track; they recognized your coat. What would you say to them if they came to your house and accused you of breaking into the bank?” I would deny it,” said Cimmerman. “‘Ah, but we saw your coat,’ they would say,” retorted Jakov. This analogy quite annoyed Cimmerman, who ordered Jakov to leave his home. Jakov continued to return to the village periodically just to befriend Cimmerman, encourage him, and share the love of Christ, with him. Finally one day Cimmerman asked, “How does one become a Christian?” and Jakov taught him the simple steps of repentance for sin and of trust in the work of Jesus Christ and gently pointed him to the Shepherd of his soul. Cimmerman bent his knee on the soil with his head bowed and surrendered his life to Christ. As he rose to his feet, wiping his tears, he embraced Jakov and said, “Thank you for being in my life.” And then he pointed to the heavens and whispered, “You wear His coat very well.” Hear this church, when you wear Jesus’ coat well, others take notice! How you wear the coat of Jesus and represent Him won’t only change your life, but can also inspire the life of someone else!
Finally, to be clothed in Christ is to be formed by Him: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”-Galatians 2:20. We are happy to have Christ save us. Are we prepared to have Him shape us? To be formed by Him? That formation happens best in community. I have found this teaching plays out the most in our small groups and my own clergy Lifegroup. These are what John Wesley called “Classes” and “Bands.” We don’t just share insights in Lifegroup; we encourage, pray, and challenge each other. We seek to help one another be formed by Christ. Coming to Lifegroups and Band meetings, not to gather information, but to talk about what we are learning and reading, has been a lifesaver for me. I need an accountability group to encourage me, pray for me, and even sometimes say “John, what were you thinking?!” This kind of formation in Christ is a means of accessing the grace of Jesus that I could never do by myself. I want to encourage you to join a Life-group, or at least have a group of 2-3 Christians you can confide in weekly to twice a month. If being clothed in Christ is God’s intention, then union and being formed by Christ through other Christians is His means to be a people that live by His word.
To be clothed in Christ is to have His identity, to represent Him, and to be formed by Him. Church, that is a trilogy worth living by. So whose coat are you wearing? Share His identity, represent Him, and let His Spirit form you. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
