PutOnJesus

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ
by Gini Kittle

“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ …” — Romans 13:14

When I was a freshman at Guilford High School, I got the lead in the fall play — The Chalk Garden. It was the biggest part I’d ever had in my young theatrical career. I remember going through all my lines over and over until I had them all memorized.

But memorizing all my lines was just the beginning. I had to do more than say the right words; I had to learn how to respond the way my character would respond to other characters in the play, walk the way she would walk, make facial expressions the way she would … I had to “become” the part. After weeks of study, it was as if I’d become “Laurel.”

This is exactly what we need to do as believers. More than merely going to church or even reading the Bible, we need to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” We do this by studying His Word and spending time with Him in prayer. If we will spend enough time “hanging out” with the Lord, we will be changed more and more into His image.

Given the state of the world in these days, it’s interesting to look at the exhortation just prior to our opening verse: “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Romans 13:11-12). The day is at hand for us to not only read the Word of God but to study it, memorize it, meditate on it until it becomes part of us … until it changes us into His likeness. It is when we have so much of the God’s Word in us and have spent so much time with Him that we will finally be able to say with Paul that “it pleased God … to reveal His Son in me” (Galatians 1:15-16)!