Putting On Christ: The Seamless Garment of Complete Transformation

"Have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27). The investiture of Christ operates on two levels: the clothing of a garment and the clothing of a person.

First, the garment itself. Some attempt merely the outward name and profession of Christianity—wearing Christ's livery at noon but living as libertines afterward. God sees through this deception. Exell warns that such hypocrisy affronts Christ himself. True putting on requires removing our old clothes entirely, standing naked before Elohim, then receiving His righteousness through imitation and conformity. We are not to wear Christ as a coin bears the king's image, but as a son embodies his father's nature.

Second, the person itself. When we truly put on Christ, we bear His very name and person. Elohim regards us as His own Christ; we are accepted as though we ourselves were He.

Crucially, this investiture must be complete and seamless. As Christ's own garment had no seams, so must His righteousness cover us entirely throughout our whole lives in constant perseverance. We cannot practice hospitality only at Christmas or sobriety only after the sacrament. No one may take the frame of Christ's merit to pieces.

Those who accomplish this investiture through faith, love, and obedience receive threefold assurance: comfort in trial, invincibility in temptation, and absolute confidence before the throne of judgment.