what not to wear July 28, 2009

(New International Version)9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

As I have been studying a lot this past week on taking off the old self and putting on the new, I was drawn to the idea of dressing. I guess as a woman it is a natural train of thought for us. But what does that mean exactly? What does it truly mean to take off the old and put on the new?

I was thinking about our clothes. When we come to Christ we stand there dressed in our dirty, filthy garments of sin. Look at Ephesians 4:22 “Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life…” What does this throwing off mean? A friend of mine likened this to being sprayed by a skunk. If we are sprayed by a skunk we are quick to rip and tear those clothes off of us. In the same way, we as sinful creatures have been sprayed with the stinch of the enemy. Once we are drawn to Christ, we should be ripping off those stinky rags in order to stand before God. But do we have the right thinking…. Do we really see how stinky we are and how Holy he is?

But if we take that that one step farther, Christ, in his death has already stripped us of those clothes. Why do we want to keep wearing them?

It has been taught for so long that salvation requires only the “sincere” praying of a prayer. And then we are to try to live a better life. In essence we are saying, bring your clothes to God let him wash them and then you can put them back on.

The one thing I have learned this week is that we have the concept all Wrong! When we stand before God in our filthy sinful clothes, the death of Christ is the stripping away of the old clothes but we must stand there in a naked shamefulness of our filth before a most Holy and Just God. It is in seeing ourselves as we are without clothes at all (dead to the old way) that he clothes us in Robes of Righteousness (the new self)

You see, we do not stand before our closet of life and choose what to wear, if you are alive in Christ, God has already clothed you. We do not have the same selection in our closet that he has in his. Why would we want to clothe ourselves? Why would we settle for our cheap knock off clothes of God (us TRYING to be good enough) when he has already clothed us in Royal Robes (through Grace).

Those old clothes are gone…. They no longer exist why should we wear them? I reckon it to a woman who has lost a large amount of weight.. Let’s say 100lbs or more. Would you walk around in “fat girl” clothes. No, you would want to dress in a way that would complement your new body. You would want to project the image of the New you by what you wore.

That is exactly what the taking off the old and putting on the new is. God has already clothed us in his heavenly clothes (Colossians 3:10 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God). He has already equipped us with everything we need. Namely the Spirit.

I love this quote ” If we “Live by the Spirit (salvation- new life wrought by the Spirit),

Let us then “Walk in the Spirit (sanctification- allowing the Spirit to command and control our lives)” unknown

Are we settling for our own clothes or are we allowing God through the Spirit to clothe us out of his heavenly closest.

In our own clothes we are weighted down with the deeds of flesh - jealousy, anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife,envying, drunkenness, and carousing.

In the Robes of Righteousness we are now dressed with the Fruit of the Spirit -kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self, control, love, joy, peace, patience.

It is not a choice. Do you see that you have already had a Heavenly make-over. Praise God that I no longer have to choose what to wear. I stood ashamed and naked before a Just and Righteous God. Through the death of his son my debt was paid and I have now been Made Over in Christ. What a Price was paid for my clothing! They are priceless! Why would I desire anything else?