Putting On Christ
Originally published August 29, 2017
Have you ever had days when you truly wished you could transform? I mean, leave your dysfunctional patterns in the dust and become an entirely different, better person? I know I do all the time. The Bible tells us that this is exactly what can happen with Christ’s help:
[You] have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. (Colossians 3:10)
“Put on” here means to envelope or hide in. In a sense, it is like putting on a garment, such as a coat. It envelopes us and hides most of our body. Yet, the idea of putting on Christ, or our new nature, is much more than that. It is a subtle process, filled with mystery. If you look for it, you won’t see it happening. It is only after the fact, after you have done it (or it has been done to you) that you notice changes. For I believe we don’t even do it – we allow it to be done to us by staying open to the Holy Spirit. What God requires, He gives us the power to do, not in our own power but His.
Suppose you want to “put on the new nature” by exhibiting more of the patience of Christ. You pray to this end. A day does not come when balloons fall from the sky and trumpets sound a fanfare because you have suddenly “become a patient person.” No, what happens is that one day you belatedly realize that you think differently about issues that once made you impatient. You may treat people better – you may treat yourself better. But try as you will, you cannot remember when, or much less how, this change came about. But it certainly did. People will eventually come up to you, as someone did to me, and say, “You know, you are not the person I used to know.”
The work of Christ within us is going on constantly, and it will not stop until we stand before Him. Every time we say, “Help me, Jesus,” He listens and takes us at our word. The Holy Spirit rolls into action and begins to change us from within. A new spirit, Christ’s Spirit, rises unbidden in us, asking new questions, giving new sight, providing new peace and hope. It permeates our being much as a stain sinks into new wood. There is no space in the wood that the stain doesn’t touch. So it is with us. The aim here is that our old nature will be completely hidden by Christ; we will be conformed to His nature, and it will be as if He is walking around in our bodies.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Cor. 5:17)
One of the best illustrations of this profound change is the humble chrysalis, which you see above in the masthead of my website. A chrysalis is the structure in which a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. I’ve always loved butterflies, their carefree beauty as they randomly float around enjoying God’s nectar. But I’ve always been impressed with the fact that their beauty comes at a price. At some point the caterpillar spins a tight chrysalis around itself, then proceeds to dissolve inside it. Not a single cell remains the same; it becomes a liquid, then is transformed into a new creature.
I have come to look at life as much the same process if we humans want to be new creatures. As we are hidden with Christ in the chrysalis, we are utterly changed into a new creature. The old passes away totally. How long does it take? Well, monarchs finish up in about two weeks; humans take considerably longer. I’m 67 and still in my chrysalis, but growing, learning, transforming each day. Some days it’s quite dark, but other days I know I see God’s glorious light in that velvet blackness. I’d be honored if you would visit with me often here and explore living in the chrysalis and all the many ways we may become new creatures!