what does it mean to put on christ
Sometimes familiar linguistic communication in the Bible loses its pregnant because it is so familiar. One case is Paul'south command to "put on the new man" (Eph iv:24). What does that even mean to put on Christ? And why should it be so important for how we live our lives as the context of Ephesians indicates?
To answer that question, we demand to consider how paul uses "put on" language in the New Testament.
What practise we put on?
If we compare Romans 13:fourteen with Ephesians 4:24, we tin can get closer to Paul's meaning in Ephesians iv:
(1) "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 13:14)
(2) "Put on the new man being who was created according to God in righteousness and the holiness of truth" (Eph 4:24).
In both contexts (Rom 13 and Eph 4), Paul exhorts his audiences to live holy lives. The rationale for living holy lives arises not out of a pure moral imperative. Rather, information technology flows out of putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What does it mean to put on Christ?
In Ephesians 4, Paul's command to put on the "new man" (lit: the new human existence) means to put on Christ—because Christ is the firstborn of all (re)cosmos. Past putting him on, nosotros are new creations (2 Cor 5:17).
Now nigh of us read Ephesians 4, I doubtable, every bit a sort of moral imperative towards good behaviour (and information technology is that). Nonetheless the underlying reason for our holy behaviour *is* putting on the "new human being" that Christ is. Conversely, nosotros put off the old homo which is full of corruption (Eph four:22).
Note: Paul claims that Christ'south humanity was created "according to God" (as Gregory of Nyssa observes in his response to Eunomian's confession of faith). This I retrieve, incidentally, confirms that Christ did not take a fallen nature (contra Barth).
Christ'south nature was fully human—yet without sin (Heb iv:xv). And this is because his humanity was created "co-ordinate to God"—like it was at the get-go before the Fall into sin and corruption.
Christ, the Living Spirit
So while Adam and Christ parallel each other in cardinal respects, they exercise not parallel exactly. In Adam we all came to life, but in Adam'due south fall, we entered into a fallen state. In Christ, we motion from this fallen state into a new creation "according to God."
Paul explains in one Corinthians 15:45–46:
"And then also it says, 'The first homo beingness, Adam, became a livingpsuxan'; the final Adam became a life-givingpneuma. Subsequently all, the first (human being) was notpneumabut psuxikon,and then followed thepseumatikon."
His betoken here, although using words at present unfamiliar to us, is that Adam became a living human being (psuxan) whereas Christ became a life-giving spiritual being (psuxikon). That is, Christ'south mankind is spiritual and so can give us life by spiritual marriage with him.
Equally Jesus explains, "And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh" (John 6:51). He continues, "It is thepneuma that gives life; the flesh profits aught" (John 6:63).
This parallels what Paul says in i Corinthians: "I tell yous this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable" (one Cor fifteen:50). Since flesh and claret (i.eastward., the fallen Adamic mankind and blood) cannot inherit the kingdom, so simply apneuma or spiritual person tin can. Hence, "nosotros shall all be changed" (ane Cor 15:51).
Paul explains what this spiritual transformation looks like: "For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality" (ane Cor 15:53). It hither becomes obvious that a spiritual trunk means an incorruptible and immortal body.
Hence, when Paul says that "flesh and blood" cannot inherit the kingdom of God, he does not deny the bodily resurrection. Rather, he denies that our resurrected bodies volition exist in an Adamic state—they volition exist inverse into a Christological country through the life-giving spirit (pneuma), Jesus the Messiah.
Christ, through his resurrection, became the firstfruit plucked for the new cosmos (one Cor fifteen:20). We follow him. He is the firstborn of all (new) cosmos (Col 1:15). We are created in his image (Col 3:10; Eph 4:24) because Christ has summed upwardly humanity in his human torso. He did so for us and for our salvation.
Conclusion
In Ephesians four, Paul then commands us to alive out our time to come in the present. We are new creations in Christ Jesus equally the Holy Spirit seals and guarantees (Eph one:13–14). The total reality of putting on Christ ways beingness totally recreated into the image of Christ, thepneuma, the life-givingpneuma.
So while we conceptualize the fullness of new creation, nosotros still have information technology in part—through the Spirit's indwelling. So Paul tin totally disbelieve the old age in Adamnow: "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means annihilation; what counts is the new cosmos" (Gal half-dozen:15). Aught else matters simply Christ in usa; Paul no longer identifies with the old but entirely with the new human formed in him (Gal 2:xx). And then should we all. And then should this transform our lives.
This article originally appeared here.
Source: https://churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/367564-when-paul-says-put-on-the-new-man-what-does-that-mean.html
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