Covenant Reformed News

June 2023  •  Volume XIX, Issue 14

Clothed With Christ (1)

Galatians 3:27 states that all of God’s people “have put on Christ.” To be clothed with Christ is to be covered with the robe of His righteousness (Isa. 61:10), the “best robe” (cf. Luke 15:22). This garment was fashioned by the Lord Jesus Himself through His perfect obedience to His Father during all of His life on earth and it is reckoned to us by faith alone. But this is not all that is meant by Galatians 3:27, for the verse says not that we “have put on righteousness” but that we “have put on Christ.”

We are also adorned with our Saviour’s holiness. We are not here thinking of Christ’s holiness imputed to us in justification, but of His holiness imparted to us in sanctification through the Holy Spirit and by faith. Thus we are clothed with the garments of all His salvation (cf. Isa. 61:10).

The word “Christ” means anointed, for Jesus was called and equipped by the Holy Spirit for His threefold office. Therefore, to put on Christ is to share in His anointing as Christians. We are dressed in the rough garments of camel’s hair as prophets (II Kings 1:8; Zech. 13:4; Mark 1:6). Thus we call men to repent before the Most High God who is the judge of all men. We are attired in the white linen of priests, because we are consecrated to God to offer up sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. We are arrayed in the royal robes of true and godly kings or queens. These are far more splendid than the regal garments of Ahab seated on his throne in Samaria (II Chron. 18:9).

Jesus Christ is the express image of God (II Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3) so those clothed with Him are in the divine likeness. In Christ, we are adorned with the knowledge of God (not merely human traditions), we are attired with righteousness and we are arrayed in holiness (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10).

Let us, first, consider the extent of this wonderful garment. The Lord Jesus is certainly not a patch or two over the old man. In terms of an item of clothing in our culture, we are not speaking here of something akin to trousers or socks or a coat. Our spiritual garment is more like an overall or a boiler suit or a onesie that covers us all over. He is our all-encompassing clothing that leaves no bare skin (as it were) for all is covered.

Notice too that Christ is our one-and-only clothing and not merely one of several garments. We are not attired with Jesus and Adam. We are not arrayed with Christ and the law. We are adorned with Christ alone!

Second, let us contemplate the permanence of this garment. Like Israel’s raiment in the wilderness which did not wax old (Deut. 8:4; 29:5; Neh. 9:21), this is clothing that never wears out. It is extremely hard wearing, even incorruptible, and no moth or worm will ever eat it up or even nibble part of it (cf. Isa. 50:9; 51:8).

This spiritual clothing is never taken off, unlike the attire of Joseph in Genesis. He was stripped of his beautiful coat of many colours by his brothers, he wriggled out of his garment to escape the clutches of Potiphar’s wife and he discarded his prison clothes before entering Pharaoh’s presence.

Christ our clothing is not taken off by our backsliding, though, by such wicked disobedience, we defile our conscience and bring reproach upon His name. We are not even stripped of Jesus our garment at death, for this is the only clothing that is taken with us into the next life!

Third, let us turn to the possession of this garment. We are truly covered by real spiritual clothing that belongs to us personally by God’s grace. We are not wearing the emperor’s new clothes, for we are not naked, as those possessed only of a foolish notion.

The Christian is not an impostor, putting on a garment that does not belong to him, like Jacob, who dressed up as Esau in Genesis 27. In claiming this clothing, the child of God is not merely trying to deceive others or even himself.

The Christian must not suffer from impostor’s syndrome, wracked with an awful insecurity: “I’m not really clothed with Christ, am I? One day I will be found out!” Trust in Jesus Christ crucified and risen for sinners! By faith, you have lawfully and rightly acquired this divine clothing through God’s abounding mercy!

Christ is your personal clothing, child of God! This is not a false claim. It is a divinely given covenant possession, for all true believers “have put on Christ.”

The most astounding feature of our spiritual garment, and probably the hardest thing about it to grasp, is that our clothing is a Person! Our attire is not an external ethical code: the law of Moses, as was the position of the Judaizers in Galatia. Our raiment is not even our Redeemer’s blessings or benefits, or His offices, though these things are included in our clothing and have been mentioned earlier. Galatians 3:27 asserts that we “have put on Christ” Himself—a Person, even the Second Person of the blessed Trinity in our flesh, who died for our sins and is now seated in heaven.

Since we are clothed with Him, we even look like Christ spiritually. As those re­created in the image of God and of Jesus, we bear an ethical resemblance to Christ to some degree in the eyes of other people, whether believers or unbelievers, though they can only see the outside of us and their understanding is imperfect. We look like Christ to God, for He sees us “in” His beloved Son and we are clothed with Christ. As John Chrysostom put it, “He who is clothed appears to be that with which he is clothed.”

Clothed with Jesus, we have His standing and we are the objects of God’s favour. We are clothed with Christ’s character, clothed with His mind and will, and clothed with His graces, sentiments, virtues and life—for we are clothed with Him! Rev. Angus Stewart

Covenant Reformed News

May 2023  •  Volume XIX, Issue 13

The Days of Noah (1)

We have a number of different though related questions from the same reader and, since they all concern Noah and the building of the ark, we will treat them together in this article and the next, DV. The brother first quotes from Genesis 7: “And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark … For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth … And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth” (1, 4, 10). He then summarizes three arguments used by advocates of various forms of universal grace:

1. The “Seven More Days” Argument. God tells Noah to go into the ark but does He then immediately bring the flood? No. He waits seven more days. Why is that? Isn’t this a gracious act of kindness and benevolence on God’s part? For He was, essentially, delaying His judgment upon the earth, even if only for seven more days. From the perspective of election, all the elect were in the ark. It seems that the door of the ark was only shut and sealed by God after those seven days. Do we not see here God giving one more chance for anyone outside the ark to be saved? What else does this seven-day delay mean?

2. The “Size of the Ark” Argument. The sheer size of the ark that God instructed Noah to build was immense and testifies to the availableness of salvation. Although the ark wasn’t big enough to accommodate the entire world, nevertheless, the very fact that it could have held many more people than just Noah’s family testifies that the well-meant offer of salvation is real—that there is room for more to be saved than just the elect; that Christ and His atonement, which are pictured by the ark, are sufficient to save anyone—whosoever—if only they desire to go in. If, as it is claimed, there is no such benevolence, offer or desire of God for anyone other than the elect to be saved, surely God would have had an ark built that would have only enough room for Noah’s family and no one else—indisputably implying that there would be no de facto allowance for other persons to come into the ark, even if they desired to, and that the atonement would not be sufficient for such individuals.

3. The “120 Years of Preaching” Argument. If you want to kill another bird with the same stone, I have an additional point that’s related to the two Noah questions I have presented above. It’s the notion that the 120 years of Noah’s preaching to the world (Gen. 6:3; II Pet. 2:5) is another example or proof for the well-meant offer. For example, why would God postpone the judgment for 120 years unless He was giving the world a chance to repent? Was Noah preaching a well-meant offer gospel to all men? Wasn’t God gracious to all men in allowing them 120 years more? Aren’t these 120 years a sort of divine patience toward all of the predeluvian world? Especially as, in those days, only Noah and his family were of the elect. Was the Spirit’s “striving” an attempt of God to save all?

In answer to the first question (#1) about the seven days between God’s command and the coming of the flood, my understanding is that the divine command to Noah came seven days before Noah finished the business of getting all the animals, as well as his family, into the ark (Gen. 7:7-9), at which time the ark was closed up by the hand of God and the rain began to fall. The main reason for the “delay,” therefore, was the work that Noah still had to do.

Some commentators erroneously view the seven days as a period of longsuffering or grace shown by God toward the unbelieving and reprobate world. The same view is held of the 120 years it took to build the ark (cf. #3 above). Lutheran theologians, C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, in their commentary on the Pentateuch, call the 120 years “the period of grace,” though even they admit that it had passed when God told Noah to enter the ark.

That the seven days (#1) or the 120 years (#3) are God’s grace to the unbelieving and wicked world is very difficult to see, to put it mildly. Scripture tells us that the Lord beheld their great wickedness (Gen. 6:5), repented of His creation of man (6), and announced His intention to destroy humanity, the animals and the birds (7). How then is any “delay,” whether 7 days or 120 years, gracious when God does not grant repentance to any of those who remained unbelieving when Noah and his family entered the ark? How is it mercy, when the “delay” only serves their continuing in unbelief and wickedness? Does grace serve that purpose? With the passage of time, men increase in wickedness and folly, and fill up the cup of their iniquity (Gen. 15:16; I Thess. 2:16), but that is not because God is loving and gracious to them.

The answer of many would be that God was giving them a chance to repent and believe, but repentance and faith are never a mere chance. Repentance and faith are certain, a sovereignly bestowed gift of God to those whom He has eternally chosen in Christ: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8-10; cf. Acts 11:18). Grace, because it is the grace of God, is powerful and saving. It never fails and is never wasted or in vain.

Our reader’s third question has to do with the 120 years (Gen. 6:3) it took to build the ark. These 120 years are alleged to reflect God’s supposed common grace, universal mercy and general lovingkindness towards all those who perished. But the only mention of grace in this passage of Scripture is towards Noah: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (8)! He alone, and he in contrast to the rest of the world, was shown grace. Nor is “delay” grace, unless one believes that salvation is a mere chance, available to all, and that God was giving men the chance to be saved by the right exercise of their alleged free will. In that case, however, why did God wait only 120 years? Why not longer? Is His supposed common grace or mercy really so limited?

One reason for this “delay” is simply that Noah had work to do, the work of building the ark. It was a huge project and would be even today. Another reason for the 120 years is that in the purpose of God only Noah and his family were to be saved in the ark (Gen. 6:18), but others in the line of the covenant were still living. Methuselah died during the year of the flood and Noah’s father, Lamech, departed only a year or two before.

God had His purpose in letting them live so long. The writing of the Bible had not yet begun so the truth had to be transmitted orally. The long lives of the prediluvian patriarchs served that purpose. Methuselah and Lamech would both have heard the story of creation and the fall from Adam himself, and they would have been able to pass it on to Noah. Not only was there merely one link between Adam and Noah, but Noah would have been able to pass it on first-hand to Abraham! But only Noah and his immediate family were to be saved in the ark, and so the others died during the 120 years.

As to Noah’s preaching during the 120 years (II Pet. 2:5), the Word of God does not say that he preached a failing divine love for all without exception or a common grace of God or that he “offered” salvation to those who witnessed the building of the ark. Scripture instructs us that he preached “righteousness,” that is, the righteousness of God which is the condemnation of the world, but which the Messiah merited and revealed, and is given through faith alone in Him. No doubt Noah preached the necessity of repentance towards God and faith in the coming seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15), but that is not common grace. It is simply the call of the blessed gospel.

Hebrews 11:7 bears this out: “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” The building of the ark was the condemnation of the world and only Noah was heir of the righteousness which he preached. I Peter 3:20 says that “the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing,” but the question is, for what was it waiting? Was it waiting for the possible salvation of everyone to whom Noah preached? Romans 9:22-23 is a loud “No” to that idea for the longsuffering of God only endures or puts up with “the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,” while it waits to “make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.” At that time, Noah and those of his family were those “vessels of mercy.”

There are a number of matters that we have not covered in this article, particularly the “size of the ark” argument (#2) and the Spirit’s “striving” (Gen. 6:3), an aspect of argument #3. Thus we will continue our discussion of Noah, the ark and an alleged common or general grace in the next issue, DV. Rev. Ron Hanko