Putting on Christ

What is the endgame of God’s transforming work in human beings?



Putting on Christ is the first volume of the Getting Changed trilogy, which offers the first sustained study of New Testament clothing metaphors. This volume examines passages where the apostle Paul speaks of “putting off” the old self and “putting on” the new self to illustrate the past and present spiritual transformation of God’s people. Paul also speaks of “putting on” an immortal, brilliant body like Christ’s to illustrate the future bodily transformation of God’s people. Through these vivid clothing metaphors, Paul hints at a variety of other biblical and cultural images that help us imagine the transformation that God is working within his saints.

Spiritual and bodily transformations take place by—and ultimately for—seeing God in his glory. Yet this promise may feel foreign to many Christians who have been taught to think of God as eternally invisible. Putting on Christ invites readers to biblically explore the ultimate ends for which God created and changes human beings.