Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, Part 1
Romans 13:11‑12
Well, let's look to the scriptures as we open God's Word to Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13 verses 11 through 14, I want to read the text so that you'll have it in mind and then we'll begin to look into its great truth, Romans 13 beginning at verse 11:
"And do this knowing the time that now is the hour to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in immorality and shamelessness, not in strife and envyings, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts."
Now this text contains one of the most practical, one of the most direct exhortations in all of Scripture and that is found in verse 14, the first half of the verse, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ." That is really what a Christian is to be, one is who is cloaked, who is clothed, who is garmented with the character, the disposition, the attitude, the habits and the virtues of Jesus Christ.
When there was a search among unbelievers for a title even for those who followed Christ, the title chosen was "Christians, little Christs." That's still true. We are to put on Jesus Christ. That's what Christian means. Even the ancient rabbis used to talk about the true worshiper of God putting on the cloak of the Shekinah. In other words, becoming like the one he worshiped.
Now this whole concept of putting on Jesus Christ is so rich that we need to begin in verse 14 and then back up because we need to have the concept in mind and then we'll see the other verses and how they relate to that. But the heart of Paul's exhortation is here in verse 14. In fact, I would like to suggest to you that you maybe put a little asterisk by it because I really think it's the heart of the whole exhortation from chapter 12 verse 1 to the end of chapter 16. I think it's the essence of all the exhortation that Paul says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, you really cannot say any more than say to believers, be like Jesus Christ, can you? That's the supreme exhortation.
Now the practical teaching given to the early Christians was very heavily engaged in vivid imagery. As our Lord, of course, taught in parables, so the Apostles used analogies and images to express their teaching. And one of the most vivid and continuous images that was used in teaching in the New Testament and in the early church was this idea of putting on a garment...being clothed with something, taking something off and putting something on. It appears in many many New Testament passages. And it encompasses justification, that is salvation, as well as sanctification, that is spiritual growth. But the idea of putting on is an oft‑repeated picture. Just as an individual puts on garments, he is to put on Jesus Christ.
Now as I said, this imagery is used in reference to justification or salvation and also in the reference to sanctification or spiritual development. And I want to just point that out because I think it's a very good place to start.
Turn with me for a moment to Colossians chapter 3 verses 9 and 10 and we're going to get a little lesson in theology as we go along here. In Colossians 3:9 Paul has been telling the Colossians that they are to put off certain things. Verse 8 says put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, lie not one to another. Again you see the same imagery, don't you, put off this garment, put on this one. But what he says is put this off and then verse 9, "Since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man that is continually being renewed in knowledge."
Now there's a past tense reference to a time, a point in time when a believer puts off the old man and puts on the new man. And that is a reference to salvation so that Paul sees a very vivid picture in salvation. It is like throwing off an old cloak and putting on a brand new one, so you are clothed in an entirely new way from head to foot. Now there the past tense reference in Colossians 3 views the salvation work.
Now I want you to go back to Ephesians chapter 4 for a moment and verse 22. And here we have a similar use of this same image. Verse 22 says that you have put off concerning the former manner of life the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind so that you have put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And again the imagery here is that at salvation you have put off the old man, just like in Colossians, and you have put on the new man. Therefore, verse 25 says, you want to put away this and put away that and so forth.
Look at Galatians, backing up even further in the epistles of Paul, Galatians chapter 3 and verse 27. "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ," that's salvation, placed into Christ, baptized not in the sense of water, this is a dry verse, but using the word "baptized," using the word "baptized" in the sense of placing into, placing into...we even use it that way. Boy, he had his baptism of fire, or whatever. We don't necessarily mean it was real fire, he was placed into a difficult situation. We were placed into Christ at salvation. So he says, "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have...what?...have what?...put on Christ."
So there again is a reference to this same image in reference to putting on Christ at salvation. Each of those three passages then refers to the putting on of righteousness, the putting on of Christ's likeness, the putting on of a new creation, the putting on of a new man created unto holiness which occurs at salvation. That is the initial putting on the righteousness of Christ in justification. When you became a Christian in a sense then, and this is so important, you did put on Christ. That's right what it says in Galatians 3:27, you have put on Christ.
Now it's important that we make this distinction or we're not going to understand what Romans 13 means when it says to Christians "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ." How can you say put on Christ in Romans 13:14 when in Galatians 3:27 you say if you're already in Christ you have put on Christ? Must be two different things..and it is.
So, first of all, at salvation we put on the Lord Jesus Christ in the sense of taking on His righteousness...taking on His holiness. In Romans 3:22 we read, very simple, "The righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe." In other words, when you believe the righteousness of God which is in Christ is placed on you. In Romans 4:5, "But to him that works not," that is you don't attain salvation by works, "to him that works not, but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." There again saving faith results in a cloak of righteousness.
Chapter 5 verse 17, and there are other verses, I'm just selecting some, "For by one man...if by one man's offense death reigned by one," that is by Adam's one sin all men fell, "much more they who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ." As we received the cloak of sin in Adam, so we received the cloak of righteousness in Christ.
Chapter 6, the very same thing. Starting in verse 1 he talks about the fact that we don't sin because we know God will forgive it. Then in verse 3, "Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized," and again that's a dry verse, placed into Christ, "were placed into His death, we were buried with Him by baptism into His death and as He was raised from the dead so we will be raised to walk in newness of life." Why? Because we were planted in the likeness of His death, we'll be in the likeness of His resurrection and we know therefore that the old man is crucified with Him, the body of sin is destroyed, henceforth we are not the slaves of sin, we are freed from sin because if we're dead with Christ we believe we also are alive with Him. And so what's happened is the old has died and there is a new creation, a new creation.
Paul writing to the Corinthians says, "If any man be in Christ he is a...what?...new creation, old things have passed away, all things have become new." In that same chapter, chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians, verse 21, "He hath made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made...what?...the righteousness of God." So when you come to Christ you are garmented in the righteousness of Christ.
Now one other illustration of that is in Matthew 22, would you look at that for a moment? In Matthew 22 in verse 11 we have a picture of a marriage feast that God is giving for His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. People are invited to come to the marriage feast. And the King comes in to see the guests who are there and He sees a man, verse 11, who doesn't have on a wedding garment. He is not properly clothed. And He said to him, "Friend," actually it means fellow, it's not a word of any kind of intimacy or infinity at all, "Fellow, how did you come in here not having a wedding garment? And he had nothing to say, he was speechless. And the King said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, take him away, throw him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Now what is this saying? That you can't crash the Kingdom without the proper robe. You can't get in unless you have the garment. And what's the garment? You know what the garment is? It's what? It's righteousness. And that's Isaiah 61:10, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness."
And so, when you came to Christ you put on Christ in the sense that you put on His righteousness, you put on His holiness, you put on His nature. And God sees you as righteous in Jesus Christ. It's a beautiful beautiful picture. And you will notice, won't you, from the parable on, even through the Pauline epistles, this imagery of putting on a garment as emblematic of putting on the righteousness of Christ. So when you became a believer you did that...and the best word to use is in a positional sense. You did that before God and God sees you in Christ. We receive then a declared righteousness. The old theologians used to call it a forensic righteousness. It is a declared righteousness. Inherent in it is also a real righteousness because in 2 Peter 1:3 it says we have received or become partakers of the divine nature. So God sees us as righteous and we have a new capacity to really be righteous.
So when you read then in Ephesians or Colossians or Galatians about the fact that you already have put on Christ, you already have put off the old man put on the new man, you already have put off the old man with its sin and put on the new man with its holiness, that means in salvation that in fact is what happened. God sees you as holy in Christ. And there is a new capacity.
But that brings us to the second dimension. Putting on Jesus Christ also is an exhortation given to believers. How can you say to a believer who has already put on Christ, put on Christ? Very simply. What he is saying is this has happened to you positionally, let it happen to you practically. I used to think of it in terms of an athlete who puts on the uniform of a great team. It's one thing to wear the uniform and be on the team, it's something else to play up to the reputation of the team. So act like it. Or I think of it in the terms of someone who is given a responsibility to be a judge and he puts on the robe of a judge, it's one thing to wear the robe of a judge and be in a position of a judge, it's something else to act as a judge ought to act, right? It's one thing to be a teacher and something else to act as a teacher ought to act. It's one thing to be a preacher, it's something else to act as a preacher ought to act. And may I suggest to you it's one thing to possess the personal gift of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and it's quite something else to live up to that.
So as I've said through the years, you know what the Christian life is all about? You know what spiritual growth is all about? It's all about becoming what you are, becoming in practice what you are in...what?...position. And that's the objective of our growth.
That takes us then to the idea that even though we have put off an old man and put on a new man, we still have to keep doing that. And so the picture of this taking off and putting on fits the believer just as well. For example, let's go back to Colossians chapter 3 and let's look at it from that angle and we'll find both of those aspects included here. He says in verse 9, "Since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and," verse 10, "have put on the new man..." You say, "Well, doesn't that end the issue?" No, you back up to verse 8. He says, "Now, put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, dirty talk out of your mouth and lying." Wait a minute. He goes right on to say, "Since you have put off the old man with his deeds, put off these things." So he's making a very clear contradiction in terms...unless he has two different things in mind and he does. You have put them off in position, put them off in practice. When the Lord sees you He sees you as righteous in Jesus Christ. But when you see yourself you know you're not all God sees you to be in that sense. And so since you have put off the old man before God, since you have a new capacity for righteousness, then continue to put off those things.
Look at verse 12. "Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, patience, forebearing one another, forgiving one another," and so forth and so on. "And above all things," verse 14, "put on love which binds everything perfectly together." So here he is saying to people on the one hand, you put off this and you put on this, now put off this and put on this. One is positional and the other is practical.
Now go to the sixth chapter of Ephesians, backing up again to Ephesians. And we read earlier in chapter 4 that we have put off the old man, we have put on the new man, but here's another of the same kind of thing in verse 11, Ephesians 6, "Put on the whole armor of God." And here's another picture of the Christian who has put on the righteousness of Christ in a positional sense before God, but still needs to put on the practical armor that's going to make him be what God wants him to be.
And then to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5...we'll come back to this later if we have time...verse 8, "But let us...1 Thessalonians 5:8...who are of the day...that is who are believers...be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for an helmet the hope of salvation." And again it's the same idea. He's talking to Christians. You Christians who are of the day, not the darkness but the day, put on these things. So on the one hand we have put them on, on the other hand we have to put them on. So there is an indicative and an imperative. There is something that is true about us and something that ought to be true about us. There is something that has happened and something that must happen. And that's what he's saying.
So, in Colossians...pardon me, in Romans...we go back now to 13, in Romans chapter 13 verse 14 when he says "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ," he is not calling for salvation, he is calling for sanctification. He is calling for the believer to be in practice what he is in in position. I mean, we know he's talking to believers, that's the whole essence of this exhortative portion. And in verse 3 he says, "Let us...let us." He knows who he's speaking to and he's speaking here to those who have in position pout on Christ and need to do so in practice.
Then he looks at the same basic command from the backside. Look at verse 14 again. And he says, "And do not provide, or make provision, to fulfill the lusts of the flesh." That's the backside of it. On the one hand, put on Christ. The backside of that is don't make provision for the lusts of the flesh. Obviously the two go together. If you put on Christ, you won't do that. If you do that, you'll put on Christ. Christ and sinning in the flesh are mutually exclusive, right?
Now the word "provision" is a fascinating word. May I just draw it to your attention for a minute? The word means forethought, or thought in advance. It has the idea of planning something, the idea of setting your plans for the purpose of fulfilling your desires that are evil. Don't plan to sin, he says. Don't make your plans to sin. And may I suggest to you that that is precisely what a sinful person does? Plans out, maps out, strategizes, conceives his sin. Before he sins he conceives the sin. And the sin conceived in the mind is attracted to the lusts and therefore the sin is played out in the action.
In Psalm 36, "The transgression of the wicked says within my heart, there is no fear of God before his eyes, he flatters himself in his own eyes until his iniquity is found to be hateful, the words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit, he has ceased to be wise and do good." Here it comes, verse 4, "He devises mischief upon his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good." Psalm 36:4, that's right. He plans it and he sets himself in the track that he has planned and he pursues the sin on the track that he's devised in his own mind. What the Lord is saying through the Holy Spirit in the Apostle Paul is don't plan your sinning. There are those times when we're caught in a paraptomas, Paul calls it in Galatians, where we're tripped up inadvertently. Those things are going to happen. But we will not do anything in our own thinking if we're going to put on Jesus Christ to plan for that to happen.
In Psalm 52 the psalmist says, "Why are you boasting yourself in mischief, almighty man?" Verse 2, "Your tongue devises mischief." Verse 3, "You love evil more than good and lying rather to speak righteousness." You devise mischief because you love it.
In Proverbs 6 there's another word from the Old Testament that speaks directly to this issue, Proverbs 6...I think it's verse 12 where we ought to start, yes..."A worthless person, a wicked man walks with a perverse mouth, he winks with his eyes," in other words, he tells you one thing and winks at somebody else meaning he's lying, he's deceitful. "He speaks with his feet." What does that mean? He says, "Oh sure, I'll do that," but he kicks the guy next to him to let him know he's not really telling the truth. "Perversity he teaches with his fingers," he plays all kinds of games. "Perversity is in his heart. He devises mischief continually, he sows discord." Verse 16, "These six things does the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination to Him, a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood...here it comes...a heart that plans wicked imagination and feet that are swift in running to mischief." That's characteristic of a person who engages in sin, they plan it out, they map it out, they strategize it and then they follow the track that their strategy has laid. In Proverbs 24 verse 8, "He that devises to do evil shall be called a mischievous person."
So what is he saying? There's no place for evil planning, no place for evil devisings, no place for evil strategy if you're going to put on Jesus Christ. And can I take it just a bit further? He also says in this verse, "Make...and make, literally, no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts." He identifies that the problem lies in one area of our being...what is it? Make no provision for the...what?...the flesh. And do I need to remind you from our series on Romans 7 of what the flesh is? That's your humanness. The flesh is that part of you that is still bent on sin. It has a proclivity to do evil. It is your humanness. And it is in your flesh, and that's not just your physical body, that's your humanness, it covers your thinking, your mind, your emotions. Yes you have in you a new creation, yes you have in you a new nature, you have in you a new man, as it were, but that new man is encased in your humanness. Until our humanness is transformed, the redemption of the body of Romans 8:23, we're still going to have a problem, aren't we? And the problem is in our flesh...our humanness. That's why in Romans 7 Paul says the things I want to do deep down in my heart, the things my new nature wants to do are restrained and restricted and retarded by my flesh...he uses that very term. And so he even says it is not I but it is sin that is in me, that is in my flesh, Romans 7.
So the flesh is our humanness. In Romans 6 he calls it our members, our bodily parts. So the point that he's making is that we do make no provision, we make no plans to pander to the lusts of our humanness if we're committed to putting on Jesus Christ. So you can look at it both ways, put on the Lord Jesus Christ is positive and don't make provision for the flesh is negative.
You say, "How do you deal with the flesh?" Well Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9 verses 25 to 27, "I beat my body into submission," didn't he? I mean, I have to stay on top and control it or the flesh will run away.
Now let me suggest to you that to feel lust or to feel a desire to sin is evidence of the presence of sin in us. To fulfill that desire is evidence of the power of sin over us. And as long as we are in our mortal bodies and in our flesh we will feel the presence of sin in us. But at no time do we need to yield to the power of sin over us by virtue of the provision of Christ in the power of the Spirit of God.
So putting on Jesus Christ is absolutely essential. I mean, frankly, folks, that is THE essential part of all practical Christian living right there. Put on Christ...put on Christ. Just a marvelous thought. And I want to develop that thought. And I'm not worried about how far I get cause you'll be here next week, so will I by God's grace.
First Corinthians chapter 1, and I want to just develop that thought, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30, just a beautiful statement, "But of Him are you in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Oh, wonderful thought. Wisdom that leads to righteousness that leads to sanctification that ultimately leads to our full and final...what?...redemption. Christ is all that to us. So we put on Christ as our righteousness. We put on Christ as our sanctification. And some day we will actually put on Christ in our new glorified body and we will be like Him, right? Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ is what it's all about. You put on the Lord Jesus Christ when you're saved. You put on the Lord Jesus Christ as you're sanctified. And you put on the Lord Jesus Christ as you're ultimately glorified because you become like Him.
Look at Colossians chapter 2 verse 6 for a similar thought...similar thought. And this brings together some of the things we've said already. Verse 6 of Colossians 2, "As you have‑‑past tense‑‑as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, you've put Him on, so...what?...walk in Him." And that's what we've been saying, isn't it? If this is true about you then act like it. "Rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith..."
Look at 1 John chapter 2 verse 6, it says this, "He that sayeth he abideth in Him," you say you abide in Christ, you say you've put on Christ, you say He's your garment of righteousness, "then you ought also so to walk...what?...even as He walked." If that's true about you it ought to be manifest.
Go back to Galatians chapter 3 and verse 19. In Galatians 3:19...I'm sorry, it's 4:19, I knew that wasn't right, Galatians 4:19. This is a marvelous statement, too. Paul writes, "My little children, of whom..." and he's saying by saying my little children that they're what? They're Christians, they're his children in the faith. But he says, "I travail in birth," he uses a very strong verb meaning like a woman having birth pains to bring forth a child. He says, "I'm in birth pains until Christ be formed in you." Isn't that a great statement? That should be the heart of every pastor, the heart of every disciple, the heart of every mother, the heart of every father, the heart of every husband, the heart of every wife toward the one God has given them. I have pain, I feel pain until Christ be formed in you. Yes you have put Him on in justification, but oh, my pain is that you would put Him on in sanctification. You see, we are to be stamped with the image of Christ. We say we abide in Him, we ought to walk as He walked. We say we're His children, He ought to be formed in us. I mean, if I'm His child, I ought to look like Him, right? There ought to be a manifest family resemblance.
He should be in us our beauty...over us our comfort, around us our defense. There are other passages and I don't want to exhaust you with them but they're so rich. Second Corinthians 3:18 needs to be drawn into this discussion. It says this, "We all with unveiled face," Moses in the Old Testament had a veil on his face, but in the New Testament the veil is taken off, we see, we see. What do we see? The glory of the Lord. And as we look at the glory of the Lord, and this is such a key thing, that's why every time I sign an autograph, every time I sign a book, I always write 2 Corinthians 3:18 under my name, always. If you've ever received anything from me that I've signed, that's what you'll always find because this verse is so monumentally important. We gaze into the glory of the Lord. And are changed into the same image from one level of glory to the next level of glory by the Spirit of the Lord.
You say, "How do you do that? How do you put on Christ? How do you become like Christ? How do you walk like Christ walked? How do you have Christ fully formed