For as many of
you as were baptized into
Christ have put on
Christ. (Galatians 3:27 ESV)
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no
provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Romans 13:14 ESV)
...and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of
God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:24 ESV)
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold
together. (Colossians 1:17 ESV)
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.
In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the
world." (John 16:33 ESV)
Do not lie to one another, seeing that
you have put off
the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the
image of its creator. (Colossians 3:9-10 ESV)
And those servants went out into the
roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall
was filled with guests. "But when the king came in to look at the guests,
he saw there a man who had
no wedding garment. And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here
without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the
attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In
that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called,
but few are chosen." (Matthew 22:10-14 ESV)
That
word, translated “put on” is used in terms of clothing. The interesting thing is that it literally
means, “to sink into.” It’s a Greek
idiom. We say something similar when we
say, “I’ll just ‘slip into’ some old clothes.”
The Greeks “sank into” their attire.
I
love the relationship in Galatians 3:27 between “sinking into” (putting on) and
being “immersed in” (baptized). It says,
“For as many of you as were submerged in Christ have sunk into Christ.” In other words, what you did you did on
purpose and you are now, as promised, engulfed in the Being of Jesus.
When
I sink into something, it envelopes me.
It covers me completely. Christ
doesn’t just “have my back,” he’s got my sides, my front, he’s over me like a
shelter, and under me as a foundation. I’m
“in” Him, and “in Him all things hold together.” That’s me that He’s holding together, and I
need the holding desperately. And when
we are in Him as a body, a group of believers, He holds us together too.
In
Broken In, the idea of being held together is a crucial one. The goal of our community is to immerse
ourselves in Christ by praying together, holding each other accountable, and
exploring His word together. In so doing
we submit ourselves to Christ and He holds us.
Where once our sin and pain were our “common denominators,” now our
common denominator is Jesus. He binds us
together.
How
do we do this in a real sense? When we
are exposed to temptation, we declare the Word. By doing this we put on Christ and He
protects us from the onslaught of the enemy.
He “provides a way out” (1 Corinthians 10:13) according to His
promise. When we are exposed to attack
from others we can turn to each other and pray together
for courage, strength, grace, and favor.
This puts Him on as our defensive shield. When abuse from the past triggers resentment,
bitterness, anger, helplessness, and self-hatred, we can cry out to
Him just like the psalmists did.
“Put off” these old, ragged clothes that stink and offend, and sink into
His garments of peace and rest (Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,
for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [Matthew 11:29
ESV])
In
our broken state, our spirits, emotions, and hearts are full of tribulation,
anxiety, and distress. But when we persistently and boldly
declare His word against the darkness of this world, we “sink into” Him, and
the tribulation, instead of raging within us, passes around outside of us
spiritually because He has “overcome the world” (John 16:33) and we overcome it
too, from within
Him.
This
process must be repeated often, much as we put on fresh clothing daily. This is our new self which is being continually
renewed as we draw closer to Abba in time spent with Him. The visualization of sinking into Him is
powerful when combined with reading His word and calling out to Him.
In
Christ’s story of the wedding feast (Matthew 22:10-14 ESV), after those
who were first invited (the Jews, historically) had spurned the invitation, the
groom sent out invitations to everybody (that’s us). But when they had come in to the hall there
was one who had not put on Christ. He
could not remain because his arrogance and self-righteousness condemned
him. He was not willing to put off his
old self and declare his allegiance to Jesus.
He thought that his relationship to the groom was unimportant, that all
he needed was to “be a good guy” on his own and he’d be fine. He was wrong.
We
are not saved by being a “good guy”, but by friendship. Sinking in to Christ is the deepening of that
friendship. It takes time, just like
getting dressed in the morning takes time.
The more care we give it, the more our “dress” expresses His love, joy,
peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control
to those He brings to us during the day.
Just as we dress many times to make a “statement” about ourselves; our
individuality, our commitments to a cause, our emotional state, so we dress
spiritually to express our devotion to the One who loves us more than being
God, more than living outside of time, more than anything in His heaven.
It
is just as important to wear Him on the outside as it is to have Him dwelling
on the inside. Sink into Him. Give in to His protection, His healing, His
love. When you do this, leaving self
behind seems the smallest price to pay.
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