AN INNER GARMENT REVEALED OUTWARDLY

WHO HAS DESIGNED YOUR WARDROBE

“For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:27).

If I could take a bowl of red dye and put a white cloth into it, then the cloth would be immersed in the dye, but the dye would be in the cloth. There would no longer be a white cloth; there would only be a red cloth. The white cloth is in the dye, but the dye is in the cloth.

We are in Christ and Christ is in us.

Paul, connects being “baptized into Christ” with being “clothed with Christ.”
We are now dressed in the garments of His righteousness!
We have a brand new identity in Him.
We are saturated with His power and presence.

We are totally identified with Him no matter our race, as he says , in verse 28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

It doesn’t matter if we are rich or poor: “there is neither slave nor free man.”
It doesn’t matter whether we are male or female: “there is neither male nor female,”

Why? “For ye are all one in Christ.”

The garment that Christ gives us to wear brings about a behavior that is Christ!

This behavior looks the same in all believers.

It causes us to have the same character from within.
We all wear the same uniform!
It is His character in us!

Now the question that must be asked then is this.

If believers are clothed with HIS GARMENT, if Christ truly now lives in us, why is it that so many believers live as if this is not true?

How can people in the body of Christ be cruel to others?
How can they pass by those in need, spiritual, physical, emotional, even financial?

We must understand: believers are dressed inwardly with Christ; He has come to live in us!

But for this life to be seen outwardly by others, then we must live totally by faith, trusting only in Him and His Word.

That is why Paul instructed believers “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lust thereof.” (Romans 15:14)

Even though they had put on the garment inwardly, they needed to learn to put it on outwardly, by giving no provision to the flesh.

The inward garment being revealed outwardly has never been better explained than in the manner seen in (Galatians 2:20) “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Faith is a choice to believe and trust only God and His Word.

God graciously allows us to have a choice in the way we live.

But if we choose to fulfill the lust of the flesh, which is simply our will to do as we please, playing some religious game with God, then we need to seriously re-evaluate whether or not we have ever been truly born again.

I will safely state that if a person lives habitually unwilling to allow God to change him, then that person is not a believer.

A true believer may be in temporary bondage to his sin, but his sin will torment him and he will cry out for deliverance.

The characteristics of one who does not wear the garment of Christ are always the same.
He will become decisive in the body of Christ.

He becomes a detriment to all that Christ is seeking to do.

In fact he lives no differently than the lost when it comes to his behavior toward others.

Whose garment are you clothed in?

The garment of your self will, or the garment He is willing to clothe you with, both inside and out.