Clothed part 3
There's this idea that we need to change. To stop being who we are and be someone else. To somehow make ourselves better than we are. But the truth of the matter is that anything that needed to happen... happened. 2,000 years ago on an old rugged cross. That's why Colossians 3:9-10 are in the past tense. "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." Again--past tense. We HAVE put off the old man. We HAVE put on the new man. We ARE clothed in God. In love. And the key is simply to renew ourselves in the knowledge of Him. If we want to experience love we have to stop chasing it. We have to instead receive it and release it. Let God love the hell out of us and then love Him back by loving each other. We HAVE put on the new man. Look at Ephesians 4:23-24, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." And this is what I love so much: The phrase "put on" is number 1746 in Strong's Greek Concordance and means, "In the sense of sinking into a garment; to invest with clothing (literally or figuratively)." It's not about getting new clothes. It's about getting comfortable IN your clothes. Sinking into the new man. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing it's in there. Getting comfortable with love... by loving people. Testing the height and length and depth and breadth of God's love by loving people bigger and stronger and harder than we ever thought we could. See, from our perspective we wanted to be clothed because we were ashamed of our nakedness. But from God's perspective HE wanted us to be clothed--yes, so we wouldn't be ashamed, but more than that. God wanted us to be clothed so that we could clothe each other. He covered us so we could cover each other. He gave us what He wanted us to have so that we could share it with each other. So putting on the new man (that we have already put on) is simply using the gift we've been given. Giving it away. Sharing it with each other. We are blessed to be a blessing. We ARE a new creature in Christ. We HAVE been conformed to His image. When Jesus cried out from the cross, "It is finished," that's what He meant. HE did the work. HE did the heavy lifting. And now we can enjoy the fruit of HIS labor. We don't have to finish the work. It is finished. We don't have to change. We are who we're supposed to be. We always have been. What we needed was to KNOW who we really are--Jesus, God in the flesh, love in a body. God in OUR flesh, love in OUR body. We needed the light to shine. We didn't need new clothes. We simply needed--and to some degree still need to--sink into the clothes we've been clothed with. Stop trying to be someone we're not and embrace who we really are. By knowing and believing that we are who God says we are. Knowing and believing that we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Knowing that we can love because we are loved. Because we are love!