NEW COATS

"But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof" (Romans 13:14).

 

Scripture compares the putting off our old, carnal nature, and putting on our new nature in Christ with changing clothes.  The picture I have in my mind is like when I would come home from work and take off the dirty, smelly clothes that I had worked in all day, bathe, and put on clean, fresh clothes that were free of spot or wrinkle.  The simplicity of this picture is arresting.  God does not suggest that we try to clean, patch up, or press the old garments - He tells us to put them off altogether and discard them because He has a brand new garment for us.  God says that "...we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6).  There is nothing salvageable about our old nature: it is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts that rule it.  The Apostle Paul was convinced that there was not one good thing dwelling in his flesh (see Romans 7:18).  The only remedy is to replace it with something altogether new and clean.  That is the Lord Jesus Christ.  We are to put on Christ and no longer cater to the lusts of our old sinful nature.

 

In the book of Genesis, after man had disobeyed God's one command and fallen into sin, Adam and Eve realized that they were both naked, and sewed fig leaves together to form aprons to hide their nakedness.  These were not suitable to cover them so God made coats for them from the skins of animals.  What this illustrates is the futility of man's efforts to cover his own sinfulness.  The fig leaves were from some of the trees in the garden that Adam and Eve cared for.  They also put forth their own labor to sew the leaves together to form aprons.  All of these efforts were useless to God, just as all of our best efforts to cover our sins with good works, resolutions, or best intentions are meaningless and ineffectual.  God's solution was blood.  In order for there to be atonement, and in order for there to be life, there must first be death.  An animal had to die before the coats could be formed that would cover Adam and Eve's sin.  This is the first picture in the Bible that foretells the passion of Christ, and the necessity of the shedding of His blood to take away the sin of the world. Our efforts to cleanse ourselves are vain – it takes the grace of God to make us clean.

 

The Old Testament uses the priesthood to illustrate the importance of being clothed upon by the righteousness of God Himself and not our own righteousness.   "And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.  And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto Me in the priest’s office" (Exodus 28:2,3).  These garments were necessary in order for Aaron and his sons to be consecrated and complete the service of the priesthood before the Lord.  These garments would adorn them with both glory and beauty.  We believers have been called "...a royal priesthood" in Christ (1 Peter 2:9), so in order to fulfill our priestly office, we must be clothed with the garments of God's choosing, and not of ours.  Only the new man in Christ is created by God in righteousness and true holiness, and is full of glory and beauty.  Only dressed in this new garment can we accomplish our service to God.  See also Zechariah 3:3, 4 for another clear illustration of this. 

 

Paul admonishes us, "That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 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" (Ephesians 4:22-24).  Our mind must be continually renewed by the Word of God.  We need God's Word daily in our lives in order to combat the influence of the old man (our fleshly, carnal inclinations) on our senses.  And we cannot put on the new man UNTIL we are willing to make a conscious effort to put off the old man.  "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:6-8).

 

Jesus spoke the following parable to the people: "No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old" (Luke 5:36).  It is tempting to just take the teachings of Jesus that we like, and that aren't too demanding, and try to patch up this old nature of ours.  After all, we reason, we're not all bad - there are good things about me that I will hang on to and just "fill the holes" where I need to.  Anyone who knows fabric will tell you that if you patch a hole in an old garment with new cloth, the first time the garment is washed, the new piece will shrink and pull away from the old material that it's sewn to, and the hole will end up bigger than it was to begin with.  We cannot pick and choose our morality based on what we think is righteous.  We must trust and comply with the values that are laid out for us in the Word of God, and we must completely discard our old ways in order to put on the new man who is created in Christ Jesus.  There can be no half or partial measures here, we must be willing to put on all of Christ, and put off all of self.  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).  It is better for us to be all in, or all out with Christ.  Or, as Jesus tells us in Revelation 3:15, 16, “I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth.”  There’s nothing worse than a hot drink that has gone lukewarm when you go to drink it, or a cold drink on a hot day that has warmed to room temperature. 

 

So, knowing that our sins have made us unclean before God, let us put off our filthy garments, be washed in the pure water of the Word of God, and put on the clean, white robes of righteousness that the Lord has provided for us.