But put on the Lord Jesus Christ…
I once heard the phrase, “clothes makes the man.” Someone else once told me to “dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” Yet another person told me, “the shoes someone wears tells you a lot about them.” I think that the summary of what all these people were trying to tell me was that what you put on tells others something about you.
Whether they are right about clothes and what they communicate or not, Paul tells us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. What does this mean and how do we do it?
To put on the Lord Jesus Christ is more than just making an effort to perform virtuous acts.* It’s more than just doing the right things and appearing “Christian.” Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ is equivalent to living by the Spirit.* Yes, living by the Spirit leads to virtuous living and Christian character, but living by the Spirit is the goal and the means to this.*
Living by the Spirit (aka clothing oneself in Jesus Christ) is not a once-for-all event, but it is a process of making Him the Lord of your life each and every day.* The process of salvation is becoming conformed to the image of Christ over time, one day at a time.* The believer has a responsibility to enter into that process each day by their choice and through the grace of God that empowers them to do so.* We must choose to live by the Spirit and not according to the flesh.* Again, this isn’t just choosing not to do bad things and choosing to do good things; it’s making a choice to live from and by the Spirit versus living from and by the flesh.
Paul invites us to take off the old and put on the new; he invites us to walk away from our old way of living, a living consistent with the sinful actions of common culture. Paul invites us to put on Jesus Christ each day.
As Saint Patrick prayed,
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me.
May you be in Christ, as Christ is in you.
Put on Jesus Christ.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to put on Jesus Christ today. Perhaps He wants you to do that again tomorrow. Maybe God is asking you to surrender to His lordship. Perhaps God desires for you to allow His Spirit to empower you to live for Him. Maybe He wants you to win the struggles you have been walking through by putting on Jesus Christ.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.
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*Kruse, C. G. (2012). Paul’s Letter to the Romans (D. A. Carson, Ed.; p. 506–507). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos.
Osborne, G. R. (2004). Romans (pp. 354–355). InterVarsity Press.
Morris, L. (1988). The Epistle to the Romans (pp. 473–474). W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.
Moo, D. J. (2000). Romans (pp. 440–441). Zondervan Publishing House.