When we think about putting on Christ, our mind goes to Paul’s writings in the New Testament but in his words in Ephesians 1: 3-4 we have to take a much broader view of the work of Christ. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah. He chose us in the Messiah before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before Him in love.” God’s plan for Christ was already in place before creation of mankind! The last book of the Bible opens with “the revelation of Jesus Christ,” and this may well be taken to be the title of the entire Bible, from the very first verse of Genesis, Chapter 1, until the close of the Book of the Revelation. It is one continuous, progressive revelation concerning the Altogether Lovely One, the Son of God, and the Son of Man. The phrase “put on Christ” means to figuratively clothe oneself with the Lord Jesus Christ to reveal the glory of God to the world! This indeed was God’s purpose from the beginning, and the key word “Lord” is primary in our study this week.
The first mention of “LORD” in the Bible occurs in the book of Genesis 15: 1-2 when the LORD came to Abram in a vision and said: “Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” The primary meaning of LORD in Hebrew is “Adonai” or “Master.” This passage highlights Abram’s interaction with God and addressed Him as LORD God indicating a recognition of God’s authority and sovereignty. The term “LORD” refers to YHWH, the personal name of God in the Old Testament. Therefore, when we see the title “LORD” in all capitals in the Old Testament it is the preincarnate Christ—the second member of the Trinity who became Jesus of Nazareth and the one seeking to reconnect with humanity. This week God brought me back to a book written by Dr. M.R. Dehaan written in 1966 entitled “Portraits of Christ in Genesis” that sets the stage for our study. He quotes the advice of a godly minister early in his ministry. “Son, you have never found the true interpretation of any passage of the Scriptures until you have found in it somewhere a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you search long enough you will find Him standing somewhere in the background, sometimes clear and unmistakable, sometimes faintly and dimly, but He is there.” I will be gleaning some nuggets from his book that will truly make it clear that Christ is the object and end of all Scripture.
Jesus Himself made this claim when He said in John 5: 39 to those who questioned His authority: “Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.” And again, in John 5: 45-46 we read: “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of Me.” We also have the familiar passage in Luke 24: 25, 27 when Jesus spoke to the two disciples after His resurrection on the road to Emmaus: “…O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken; And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” The Bible is a progressive revelation of one central Person—the Lord Jesus. The Bible is the “Unfolding Drama of Redemption” beginning in the very opening chapters of Genesis with the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent and climaxing into full glory in the last book of the Bible—the Revelation of Jesus Christ. At first, we see Him faintly in the distance, but as the Bible is built, book by book, it becomes more and more clear as each picture of Him gives a more detailed portrait of Him as the Eternal Son of God, Son of Man, Redeemer and Savior of the world!
The first verse in the Bible is a picture of Jesus Christ: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) This picture is brought into full focus when we read John 1: 1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” Christ is the Creator of all things. The record of the seven days of creation is an expansion of the word of the Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ as the Word of God is the Creator of Heaven and earth, and all that happened afterward was by Him as the Word of God. The second day of creation, God separated the waters on earth from those in the heavens. Jesus, the Light of the World, is the great Separator between the things of earth and the things of heaven. And so in the separation of the waters as the result of the light we see a picture of the work of Jesus Christ spoken of by John in 3: 19-21: “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil for every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” In John 8: 12 we read that Jesus spoke to them saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Many men in the Scriptures are types of the Lord Jesus, such as Abel, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David and many others, but very few ever think of Adam as a type and portrait of the Lord Jesus. While Adam slept, God created from His wounded side, a wife, who was part of Himself, and He paid for her by the shedding of blood. And after Adam awoke, he said: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2: 23-24) The Apostle Paul connects this passage with believers as the Bride of Christ; “For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.” (Ephesians 5: 30) Then Paul in Ephesians 5: 31-32 makes this connection: “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.”
Adam is a picture of the Lord Jesus, who left His Father’s house to gain His Bride at the price of His own life. Jesus, the last Adam, like the first, must be put to sleep to purchase His Bride, the Church, and Jesus died on the cross and slept in the tomb for three days and three nights. His side too was opened after He had fallen asleep, and from that wounded side redemption flowed. In the creation of Eve, Adam gave his literal blood. God opened his side, and this implies a wound and blood shedding. Here then at the dawn of creation, even before man had fallen, we have an implied reference to a new creature taken from the side of a man and becoming a part of him, even of his flesh, and of his bones. The Church, which is His body, was also purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ. It meant His death asleep for three days and three nights. His side too was opened, and the cleansing water and His justifying blood flowed forth. The Church, like Eve, was a new creation, not by a natural birth, but by a supernatural operation of God, and this “rib” was builded into a woman who was to become the helpmeet and bride of the husband. How long a time elapsed between the operation on Adam’s side, and the completion of the task of building the rib into a wife we are not told, but it is implied that there was a period of time between the removal of the rib, and the completion of Eve and her presentation to Adam. Between these two steps is the record, “And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made He a woman.” And when the building of the woman was complete, He brought the man and the “rib” together. This is the picture of our great Redeemer in Genesis as Jesus died on the cross, His side was opened, and by the Holy Spirit today a Bride is being prepared, and when the last member has been added He will bring her unto the man the Lord Christ Jesus. God has been “building” the Bride, purchased by His blood, for the past 2000 years, and soon she will be presented to her Lord. Paul said in Ephesians 5: 25-27; “Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
The Church is being made ready for Him and by Him—sanctifying, cleansing, removing spots and wrinkles, without blemish and holy or separate from the world. Paul in Romans 13: 11-14 gives the Body these instructions: “Knowing the time, that now it is high time 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 reveling and drunkenness, not in immorality and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” Paul was talking about putting on spiritual clothing, but it has a fuller and deeper meaning when we go back to Adam and Eve in the Garden after they disobeyed God and sinned. The image of the Triune God in man was marred as God’s Holy Spirit was removed from them. It was for this reason that God slayed animals—most likely lambs, to provide clothes or a covering for them. God’s redemption plan of the ages was set in place pointing to the ultimate sacrifice of His Son—"the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” We see it set forth in Leviticus 17: 11: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” And in Hebrews 9:22 we read, “In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.” God loved the world so much that He was willing to send His only Son to die for sin so that whoever believes and trusts in Him will not perish but have eternal life with Him. (Jn. 3: 16) Putting on Christ paints a vivid picture of moving into the new life in Christ as trading the darkness of night for the light of day. In Galatians 3: 27: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” To the church in Colossae, Paul echoes the teaching: “Put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like Him.” (Col. 3:10)
We have come full circle as God’s plan for mankind was to be in His image. That image was marred by sin and mankind came into conflict with the Spirit of God. Romans 8 reveals a vivid picture of how we can become like our Creator and Lord again. When we are baptized into Christ, we receive the Spirit of Christ who sets us free from the law of sin and death. Paul brings it into focus in verses 10-11: “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” It is a daily battle between the flesh and the Spirit and believers are taught “to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4: 24) Putting on Christ means letting the Lord be our armor, embracing Him over and over, and daily trusting Him in faith, thankfulness and obedience.
Paul instructs us in Ephesians 6: 10-18 how to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might each day and stand when everything is going the wrong way. The devil is our enemy and we have examples of Satan’s devices from Genesis to Revelation. We must learn to listen to the Holy Spirit and put on the armor of God so that He fights for us and with us. In each piece of the Armor, we see Jesus our Lord:
Belt of truth—Jn. 14:6; Breastplate of righteousness—Phil. 3: 9; Shoes of the gospel of peace—Eph. 2: 14; Shield of faith—Rom. 10:17; Helmet of salvation—Jn. 11: 25-26; Sword of the Spirit—Heb. 1: 1-3; Pray in the Spirit on every occasion, and with all kinds of prayers and requests—1 Thess. 5: 17.