OBJECTION
#5: “WE ARE CLOTHED WITH CHRIST AND BECOME HIS CHILDREN WHEN WE PLACE OUR FAITH
IN HIM.”
Galatians 3:26-27:
“You are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, for
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
The words
“put on” (NKJV) are a translation of the Greek verb enduo which signifies “to
enter into, get into, as into clothes, to put on.” Can we be saved prior to
“putting Christ on” or “being clothed” with Christ? Of course not. But when and
how does one put on Christ according to Paul? When one by faith is baptized in water.
Those who teach we can be saved before baptism are, in reality, teaching we can
be saved while spiritually naked and without Christ! Paul affirms that we “put
on” Christ at the point of our baptism by faith in Jesus, the He will do something for us that we cannot do for ourselves—not before.
Paul
wrote these words to people who were already saved. They had been made “sons of
God by faith.” But how? At what point had they “been clothed with Christ”? When
were they made “sons of God by faith”? When were they saved? Paul makes the
answer to these questions very plain: they were united with Christ, had put on
Christ, and were clothed with Christ—when they were baptized by faith in Him.
Ask yourself if
you have been clothed with Christ the way He dresses new Saints.
