Dec 06, 2024 The Imagery and Reality of The New Self – Words of Grace Blog – December 6, 2024
Images are used to help explain realities, but it’s important that we interpret them well so that we know what is real.
This is the case with Colossians 3 and the clothing imagery used to communicate the new self in Christ and the practices that are consistent with it.
Paul says that we have “put off” the old, pre-conversion self, and have “put on” the new self that we are in Christ. He also says we are to “put on” the practices of the new self. Peter, also, uses this image when he says we are to clothe ourselves with humility toward one another (1 Peter 5:5). They are using the image of changing clothes.
This is where we must be careful to interpret the clothing image accurately. Reading Paul’s “put off” and “put on” language, we could imagine ourselves standing at the doorway of a closet asking which clothes we will wear today. If the weather of our hearts today is partly selfish and temperatures in the high sinful desire range, then we might choose old clothes. If today is sunny and warm with a good mood and pleasant circumstances, then we might put on the new clothes of niceness. Do we have that choice? Is that what the clothing imagery of the apostles is designed to communicate?
By no means (Romans 6:2)! Here is where another image is used. Paul said in Colossians 3 that we are to “put to death” the practices of the old self because it died with Christ. So, death and resurrection (pictured in baptism), and putting off and putting on (pictured in clothing) come together to show us the reality of the new self in Christ.
Before Christ, we were old selves living in sin, like wearing old clothes. In Christ, the old self died, and the old clothes are to be taken off, taken out of the closet, and burned. The new self now stands before a closet of new clothes and adorns itself with the qualities of holiness, which are the characteristics of Christ in whose image we are being conformed.
The imagery of putting on new clothes is to show the reality that we are new people whose new wardrobe is like Christ’s. Every day, in all things, we are to put on Christ and our new clothes. That is the proper choice for all who are in him.
This weekend, read Colossians 3 and think on these things. Pray for our congregation as we gather to worship Christ on Sunday.
-Scott