PUTTING ON CHRIST

“For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.”   Galatians 3:26-28

     Paul is telling the Galatian believers the same thing Peter told Cornelius, the gentile centurion in Caesarea¹, that God doesn’t favor one group or individual over another.  If you place your faith in Christ then you are His child.  It’s thru our faith in Christ and subsequent trust in God that we are free from our past sins.  Once forgiven, we’re to put on Christ as if He were a new suit of clothes. 

     If God loves and accepts us while we were still sinners and shows no favoritism toward Jew or Gentile and so on, then why do we show favoritism toward some and avoid or even shun others?  We tend to steer clear of the unsaved among us.  Those are the very ones we are to engage.  Remember Jesus words as spoken to the Pharisees in Matthew 9:12 "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.”  We must become Jesus to those we encounter each day.  We must lay aside our personal agendas and seek the will of God.  We need to know Him so that we can emulate Him.  Christ died so that we could be forgiven, yet it is simply not good enough to only be forgiven and nothing more.  A change is supposed to take place in us. Christ died so we could live our lives as free men.  He did not die so we could go forward unchanged.  We are to take our walk with Christ seriously.  We are not of this world, yet are in it to make a positive difference for Christ. 

     With all the nuts that call themselves Christians in the world today tarnishing the name of God by their foolishness, it behooves us to be the one true light of truth to a sin-sick and dying world.  Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing!

NOTE:  Today’s translation – the NEW LIVING TRANSLATION; Publisher:  Tyndale House.

¹ Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism.  In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.”  Acts 10:34-35