8.2 Put on Christ
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Abide, live, dwell inside of Me, and I inside of you. AS the branch is not capable of bearing fruit of itself, if it does not remain in the vine, so neither can you, if you do not live inside of me (John 15:4).
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, enclothe yourself with, sink into the Lord Jesus Christ as into a garment or into the covers of your bed, and do not give thought {one way or the other} regarding the desires of the flesh (Romans 13:14).
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ – Put the Lord Jesus Christ upon yourself. How do you do that? And what does this mean? As Jesus said, no doing can be of God except it comes out from abiding in Jesus.
Two Options. As always, the issue of “how” we put Jesus upon ourselves is between faith and works, between option one and option two. Faith sees, speaks, knows, and lives in what God has already fully accomplished, calling it to be so, but against the sight of the eyes and against the judgment of the human.
Option two continues in the same way as before, “You can put Jesus upon yourself if you try really hard.” This second option first positions Jesus far away from you and then places everything upon your own human performance guided by the sight of your eyes and your human judgment. Option two is always a living hell; option one is always the joy of your Salvation, Jesus Himself fulfilling all that God speaks.
Christ Sustaining You. Before we talk about the practical ways by which you “put on” the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to show you two workings of Christ, the first towards you and the second within you.
Christ – sustaining all things by the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). Here is a model of this continuous action of Jesus towards you. You exist only by the good-speaking of Christ.
Every Good Speaking. This good-speaking that is Christ sustaining you, causing you to exist and to live, is always coming out of God. – We bless and speak well of the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the One having blessed and spoken well of us with every spiritual speaking of goodness and blessing in the heavenly realms inside of Christ (Ephesians 1:3).
Then here is our continuous response towards this good-speaking that is Jesus continuously coming “out from” Father towards us and inside of us. – That the sharing and fellowship of your faith may be energeoed by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is inside of you inside of Christ Jesus (Philemon 1:6).
Energeoing in You. The one who is acknowledging the good things of Christ inside themselves is the one “putting on” the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then we must look at Christ inside of you, living as you. You see, the huge question of symmorphy, of you living inside another Person and another Person living inside of you is the question of, “Who is in charge?” Who makes the decisions?
For God is the Energeia inside of you, both to desire and to energeo for the sake of good pleasure, of satisfaction and delight (Philippians 2:13). Energeia is the continuous, swirling, living action of God working or “energeoing” inside of you, directing your desire by His good pleasure, that is, entirely as He wishes.
Synergeoing Together. You see, this is one of the many reasons why Jesus lives in-between you and God. Jesus is continuously causing your choices and God’s desire to be one. God never intends actions that hurt other people, but He always intends you in spite of those actions. And through your faith, you, together with God, are turning even that which was outwardly hurtful, even your mistakes, into the end result of goodness.
This action of God and you together turning all things towards good is what Paul calls “synergeoing” or “energeoing together as one” (Romans 8:28). This faith is central to your putting Jesus upon yourself.
One Spirit with Christ. Your task towards God, as a believer in Jesus, is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and to do so entirely by faith. You are calling those things that do not appear outwardly to be the only thing real (Romans 4:17).
Now, put on the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be figurative or symbolic. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ is 100% literal, spirit, soul, and body – heaven, human, and earth. Let’s start with your heavenly spirit. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). Put one drop of water into a tub full of water and instantly, it is all one water. Your human spirit and the Spirit of Christ are one, that is, they are one and the same.
One Flesh with Christ. Paul also said, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 6:15). And elsewhere he says, “For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones… joined… into one flesh the two will be” (Ephesians 5:30-32). To put the Lord Jesus Christ upon yourself is to call your own spirit by Christ and to call your own body by Christ, and entirely by faith regardless of outward appearance.
But you are neither your heavenly spirit nor your earthly body; you are you, your heart, the story you tell yourself about yourself. Your spirit causes you to be self-aware; your body gives you the frame and context of your life; but you are the story of your soul.
Sinking into Rest. The Greek word translated “put on” is enduo, which means to clothe one’s self with a garment, but it includes the idea of a sinking into rest. And thus to “put” the Lord Jesus Christ upon your own soul is to sink every moment into the rest that He is, in fact, sharing Himself with you, that everything you are finding in your present story of self is one story with the Lord Jesus.
Jesus has taken your soul, your story of self, upon Himself as His own. And He has given you His soul, His story of self, to be your own. You do not lose yourself in Jesus’ self; rather, you find yourself, real and true, in the joy of being the human expression of His own story.
Call It to Be So. You put on the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself in Person, here and now as your very and only life. Your flesh is God’s flesh; your flesh is filled with God!
There is no part of Jesus that is not found in you; there is no part of you not found in Jesus, including your sin and your shame. There is no part of you not filled with Jesus Himself in Person; there is no part of Jesus in which you are not found.
To “put on,” to enduo, is to call it to be so, to ask and believe you have received the full enclothing of Jesus, to speak to yourself and out loud that everything you are is Jesus sharing Himself with you, regardless, and to give thanks that the Lord Jesus is sharing your life with you through all circumstances.
You Have Always Belonged. Then, here is what you find. What is true now, has always been true, for you have always belonged to Jesus and He has always been sustaining you by every good Word coming out from Father’s thoughts regarding you.
And so, as you put Jesus upon everything you are right now, so you will see Him there in every moment of your past, living as you, sharing all things with you. Even when you did wrong things, He did not intend the wrong, but He did intend you in spite of your actions, and He does take all responsibility for your wrong actions entirely upon Himself. See Jesus there with you, part of you, in every moment, circumstance, and memory of your past.
One Seamless Story of Christ. As you put the Lord Jesus upon every particle that you are and upon every present circumstance, “Jesus, this is You, sharing Yourself with me,” and as you put the Lord Jesus upon every moment and occasion of your past, something begins to happen in your knowing. Your whole life, all the way through and every present moment, regardless, becomes one seamless story of Christ.
What was once pain becomes glory. What was once wrong becomes pure. What was once confusion becomes God’s perfection showing itself in your humanity. As you know Jesus, so you know yourself, and as you know yourself filled with Jesus, so you know Him as well.
Making God Happy. Now, the thing that really makes God happy is that you put the Lord Jesus Christ upon yourself, upon all that you are, with all confidence, even reckless certainty.
Reckless certainty, in the tender knowing that Jesus is already all that you are as you find yourself to be, including your limitations and your abilities, your sorrows and your joys. Reckless certainty that Jesus wants with all desire to share your life with you as you and that you share His life with Him as Him.
Reckless certainty that you live only inside of Jesus and He inside of you in all ways and through all things of your past and your ongoing today, this absolute certainty that you are part of Christ and He is part of you is the only thing that pleases God.