... for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galatians 3:27
... clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 13:14
My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you... Galatians 4:19
I’ve plucked three little snippets from Paul’s letters, about 40 words in all. Yet how much they give us to think about!
The basic theme is clear enough: being like Jesus. Going a little further, they are suggesting that Jesus should be seen in us - that when people look at us, they should see him.
Putting it like that makes us aware of the massively high calling we have - to be “clothed with” Christ!... to have Christ “formed” in us! There’s plenty of scope for reflection there: is that how I see myself? (More to the point, is that how others see me?)
Take the “clothed with Christ” picture first.
In Galatians 3:27 Paul links this with baptism: “When you got baptised you put on Jesus,” he seems to be saying. It was a one-off event, in which you declared to everyone who saw it that you now have a new allegiance, a new identity.
When I was baptised, many years ago, it was the custom for the men to wear a white shirt and trousers, and the women to wear a long white gown. (Some experts think that something similar happened in the early days of the church, though we don’t come across it in the New Testament.)
It was, in fact, strangely moving, seeing people you knew well wearing clothes that you had never seen them in before, and never would again (except, perhaps, on the cricket field). It prompted the thought of a new-found purity; it highlighted the fact that something very special had happened to these people.
Why not take a few moments to look back to the day of your baptism, or the time when you first pledged to follow Jesus? Is it time to shake off weariness and sluggishness, to renew the promises you made that day - to “clothe yourself with Christ” afresh?
In Romans 13:14 Paul uses the same picture, but in a rather different way. He is comparing the way of Jesus with the way of the world, and says that instead of “carousing and drunkenness, sexual immorality and debauchery, dissension and jealousy” (verse 13) we should clothe ourselves with Jesus.
In other words, he is telling us that we have a responsibility to take ourselves in hand, so to speak, and consciously make it our aim to reflect the purity of Jesus right in the middle of our godless, immoral and corrupt world. Not self-righteous, of course; but certainly “righteous”.
In a word, this verse is not about a single landmark event - baptism - but about our general behaviour and life-style.
Perhaps it would be good, again, to pause and ask ourselves the question: Is there any aspect of my day to day life where I wear the grubby clothes of sin rather than the beauty of Jesus?
What about Galatians 4:19? This is a different picture altogether and, I think, even more challenging.
Paul is seriously troubled about the members of the church in Galatia: having come to faith in Jesus, they are now slipping back into their old ways of thinking and acting. Remarkably, he actually compares himself to a woman in labour: “I am again in the pains of childbirth(!) until Christ is formed in you.”
The reason I find this specially challenging is that Paul is speaking here of something going on inside us - Christ being “formed in us” - rather than something outward and eternal - being “clothed with Christ”.
Isn’t there something truly profound about the idea of Jesus being formed in us? - our very inner essence being shaped according to his likeness. I find it very thought-provoking in the sense that it’s not something we do, like getting dressed, but something that happens to us - quietly, secretly, mysteriously - as we grow in Christ, and are more and more filled with the Holy Spirit.
Yes, this is something that “happens to us”. But that doesn’t mean, of course, that we are purely passive in the process. No: as followers of Jesus it is our responsibility to make sure that the conditions for this “formation” are maintained day by day - and this means prayer and reflection, Bible-reading and worship, all the different “means of grace”.
It means being daily “filled with the Holy Spirit.” For what this is all about, in a single word, is holiness.
I asked earlier if perhaps we need to renew our baptism vows; and if we need to review our daily behaviour patterns.
But I won’t ask if we can sense Christ being formed in us. Why not? Because if he is... we won’t be aware of it.
But other people will. Oh yes - other people will! And, ultimately, isn’t that all that matters?
Lord Jesus, I humbly pray that as people look at me, they will, amazingly, see something of you. Amen.
... clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 13:14
My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you... Galatians 4:19
I’ve plucked three little snippets from Paul’s letters, about 40 words in all. Yet how much they give us to think about!
The basic theme is clear enough: being like Jesus. Going a little further, they are suggesting that Jesus should be seen in us - that when people look at us, they should see him.
Putting it like that makes us aware of the massively high calling we have - to be “clothed with” Christ!... to have Christ “formed” in us! There’s plenty of scope for reflection there: is that how I see myself? (More to the point, is that how others see me?)
Take the “clothed with Christ” picture first.
In Galatians 3:27 Paul links this with baptism: “When you got baptised you put on Jesus,” he seems to be saying. It was a one-off event, in which you declared to everyone who saw it that you now have a new allegiance, a new identity.
When I was baptised, many years ago, it was the custom for the men to wear a white shirt and trousers, and the women to wear a long white gown. (Some experts think that something similar happened in the early days of the church, though we don’t come across it in the New Testament.)
It was, in fact, strangely moving, seeing people you knew well wearing clothes that you had never seen them in before, and never would again (except, perhaps, on the cricket field). It prompted the thought of a new-found purity; it highlighted the fact that something very special had happened to these people.
Why not take a few moments to look back to the day of your baptism, or the time when you first pledged to follow Jesus? Is it time to shake off weariness and sluggishness, to renew the promises you made that day - to “clothe yourself with Christ” afresh?
In Romans 13:14 Paul uses the same picture, but in a rather different way. He is comparing the way of Jesus with the way of the world, and says that instead of “carousing and drunkenness, sexual immorality and debauchery, dissension and jealousy” (verse 13) we should clothe ourselves with Jesus.
In other words, he is telling us that we have a responsibility to take ourselves in hand, so to speak, and consciously make it our aim to reflect the purity of Jesus right in the middle of our godless, immoral and corrupt world. Not self-righteous, of course; but certainly “righteous”.
In a word, this verse is not about a single landmark event - baptism - but about our general behaviour and life-style.
Perhaps it would be good, again, to pause and ask ourselves the question: Is there any aspect of my day to day life where I wear the grubby clothes of sin rather than the beauty of Jesus?
What about Galatians 4:19? This is a different picture altogether and, I think, even more challenging.
Paul is seriously troubled about the members of the church in Galatia: having come to faith in Jesus, they are now slipping back into their old ways of thinking and acting. Remarkably, he actually compares himself to a woman in labour: “I am again in the pains of childbirth(!) until Christ is formed in you.”
The reason I find this specially challenging is that Paul is speaking here of something going on inside us - Christ being “formed in us” - rather than something outward and eternal - being “clothed with Christ”.
Isn’t there something truly profound about the idea of Jesus being formed in us? - our very inner essence being shaped according to his likeness. I find it very thought-provoking in the sense that it’s not something we do, like getting dressed, but something that happens to us - quietly, secretly, mysteriously - as we grow in Christ, and are more and more filled with the Holy Spirit.
Yes, this is something that “happens to us”. But that doesn’t mean, of course, that we are purely passive in the process. No: as followers of Jesus it is our responsibility to make sure that the conditions for this “formation” are maintained day by day - and this means prayer and reflection, Bible-reading and worship, all the different “means of grace”.
It means being daily “filled with the Holy Spirit.” For what this is all about, in a single word, is holiness.
I asked earlier if perhaps we need to renew our baptism vows; and if we need to review our daily behaviour patterns.
But I won’t ask if we can sense Christ being formed in us. Why not? Because if he is... we won’t be aware of it.
But other people will. Oh yes - other people will! And, ultimately, isn’t that all that matters?
Lord Jesus, I humbly pray that as people look at me, they will, amazingly, see something of you. Amen.
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