Galatians 3:27 — For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
We are tracing out the implications of the cleansing from sin that is effected in believers as the Holy Spirit applies the work of Christ to them - something that is outwardly represented and signified in the act of baptism. These are all things that baptism proclaims to the candidate and the congregation each time it is performed.
One of the major blessings that arises from that cleansing is the joining of the believer with the Lord Jesus Christ, a process in which the believer is "clothed" with Christ, as our text indicates. This joining with Him extends to joining with Him in His life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension. As a result, certain things that are true of Christ become true of the believer also (Jesus lived a perfect life on earth, died to sin, was buried and rose to new life, then ascended to heaven), and certain things that were true of the believer (such as the guilt of their sin) are made over to Jesus and dealt with on the cross.
We are going to want to delve more deeply into this whole topic of the believer's union with Christ, so we can understand more clearly what it is, why it should be a cause of great praise and gratitude from each Christian, and why baptism should bring it to mind for the believer.
For now, though, let's think about this one aspect in order to whet our appetites: if you have been cleansed from sin through the blood of Christ, and have been "clothed" with Him, when God looks at you, He no longer sees the filthy robes of your unrighteousness, but rather the pure and spotless robes of the righteousness of Christ. This is because you are counted as having kept the law when Jesus kept it in your place. In fact, it is true to say that almost everything Christ did on earth, He did for and on behalf of His people so that they might be saved to the uttermost in Him!
So when we are witnesses to baptism, or think back upon our own, we should include in our reflections that being baptized spiritually into Christ we have clothed ourselves with Him, and we should rejoice!
