Colossians 3:5, 7, 10 NLT
[5] “So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world….
[7] You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world…
[10] Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.”

Change your clothes! You used to wear selfishness as your garment of choice. You used to pander to every desire of your evil nature. Now you have a new nature. Christ lives in you, and He has a change of clothing for you…righteousness, His gift to those who believe in Him.

Your old clothing reflected who you were, self-aware and self-absorbed.

Colossians 3:7-9 NLT
[7] “You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. [8] But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. [9] Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.”

You have a new nature now. Wear the garments of righteousness that show who you are.

“Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.”

What does it mean to “put off” and “put on”?

The theory of salvation, all that God has done through Jesus before the beginning of time, must have a counterpart, actively responding by faith to the promise of transformatiom. The Bible says, God has done everything to bring you back into fellowship with Him. Your part is to believe and live out what God has done.

David understood the process.

Psalms 116:12-13 NIV
[12] “What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me? [13] I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”

Living out means refusing to do, saying no to what our old nature demanded. “Putting off” means choosing not to lie, steal, or act in any way that reflects who you used to be. It’s deliberately discarding the old “clothes” of sin.

Jesus made this possible by forgiving our sin and putting His own nature in us.

“Putting on”, means choosing to live out His nature in us. Love is the wrapping in which this gift of righteousness comes to us. Every thought and action that expresses His love is the “clothing” we now wear.

Why is it imperative that we change our clothes? We must live out the righteousness Jesus gave us as a witness to the transformation the Holy Spirit is working in us. This is the only evidence that we have that we have been supernaturally born into God’s kingdom.

Romans 8:12-14 NLT
[12] “Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. [13] For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. [14] For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”

Not to put to death, not to put off the old clothes of the flesh is to deny that we are God’s children. The evidence that we are members of His family is real only as we are being recreated in the image of our Creator.

Colossians 3:10 NLT
[10]”Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.”

The tragedy is that many people think that answering an altar call or praying the “sinner’s prayer” is evidence of their salvation. It doesn’t work that way. The real evidence is a transformed life through the work of the Holy Spirit in them.

Remember, Paul is writing to ex-pagans who were right up there with the best of them when it came to living out their old nature.

Colossians 3:7 NLT
[7] “You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world.”

Paul urges them to understand that they are now part of a new species, not just participants in another religion. They are a new creation in Christ Jesus, citizens of a new realm, members of a new family made up of transformed people from every group on earth.

Galatians 3:27-28 NLT
[27] “And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. [28] There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Colossians 3:11 NLT
[11] “In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.”

This union with Jesus cut us loose from living the old way. Jesus gave us the power to say “No,” and make “no” happen.

1 John 3:9-10 NIV
[9] “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. [10] This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.”

So, let’s live out who we are, in the power of the who is in us by His Spirit, Christ in us, the hope of glory.