Gal. 3:27 ... "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."
What does it mean to be "in Christ"? The best answer to a Biblical question is a Biblical answer, and the answer to this question is given in II Cor. 5:17, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." To be "in Christ," therefore, means to have passed from one stage of life into another. The transition involves both death and birth. The phrase, "old things passed away" indicates a death in relation to the life of sin, ungodliness, and selfishness in which one formerly lived. The phrase "new creature" points to birth into a new life in which "new things have come." In Christ one has a new Lord, Jesus Christ, rather than himself as before. In Christ one has a new nature, the spiritual, instead of the carnal nature he once knew. In Christ one has a new family, the church of Christ, in place of the company of sinners he once related to. And in Christ one has a new hope, eternal life in heaven, rather than the fear of hell that used to haunt him in moments of sober reflection.
What does it mean to "put on Christ"? The verb translated by "put on" in some versions is one that was used in reference to dressing oneself. Obviously, Christ is not a garment which can somehow be "put on." So Paul, the writer, is using a metaphor here to convey a spiritual idea. We cannot "put on Christ" literally, but we can clothe ourselves in His righteousness. To clothe oneself in righteousness is an explicit Biblical expression. In describing a vision of the bride of Christ (i.e., the church) in Rev. 19:8, John wrote, "It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." When a person "clothes himself with Christ," he is putting on the righteousness of Christ, who confers it upon him at the time when he enters "into Christ." In fact, no one can generate his own righteousness. If anyone ever becomes righteous, it is only with righteousness obtained from Jesus. Paul hoped for himself (and everyone else as well) that he "may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law (of Moses), but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith," (Php. 3:9).
How and when does one "enter into Christ" and put on the righteousness of Christ? The lead text above also answers this Biblical question. The inspired writer says it is by baptism. "All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." This answer is consistent with other New Testament passages on the subject. For example, we read in Rom. 6:3-4, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." Here again there is the idea of transition from a former life of sin (note Rom. 6:1-2) to a new life of righteousness (see Rom. 6:19). Repeated also is the transition process of death and birth, death to sin and birth to a new life. Once more occurs the phrase "into Christ," conveying all the meaning explained above. And, as in Gal. 3:27, baptism is the event where and when all those wonderful changes, from the worst condition of existence to the best, take place. Of course, this is not to say that baptism alone effects these changes, any more than to say that faith alone, or repentance alone, or confession alone, produces them. In fact, faith in Jesus, repentance of sin, and confession that Christ is God's Son, must precede and lead up to baptism. But the Scriptures are very clear that baptism is the place and the time at which God remits the sinner's sin, creates him as a new person in Christ, and clothes him with the righteousness of Christ.
