The nature and scope of the transformation
Further evidence for the nature and scope of Paul’s transformation
language may be found by investigating his use of the concept of ‘putting on
[clothing]’ (ενδυω). . . . There
are certainly similar themes at work here and in the writings of Paul, where it
seems to be significant for Paul that humans ‘go beyond the boundaries of the
earthly world, and transcend the limits of their human condition’.
To put on [clothing] (ενδυω), appears
in Paul as a transformative event, as well as in the language or process. At conversion,
the term describes how believers put off the old and put on the new (Colossians
3:9-10). It also occurs in Paul’s baptism language (Galatians 3:27), where it
is specifically related to the Galatians’ death and resurrection life in Christ.
Furthermore, it is used in the sense of a future transformation to an
incorruptible body: the mortal puts on immortality and the corruptible puts on
incorruption. There are four occurrences in 1 Corinthians 53:53-54, where the
believer will gain a heavenly body, bearing the image of the man of heaven (1
Corinthians 15:49).
But Paul’s use of ενδυω also
has present, ethical implications, and any interpretation that fails to take
this into account does not do justice to Paul here. The term is also used to
describe putting on virtues—compassion, kindness, humility (Colossians 3:12); faith
and love (1 Thessalonians 5:8); and in Colossians 3:9-10 believers are to put
off the old self with its deeds and put on the renewed self (τον νεον τον ανακαινουμενον), which is
being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator, a passage resonating
with Romans 12:2. Believers are also required to ‘put off the deeds of darkness
and put on the armour of light’ (Romans 12:13). Where the concept relates to
putting on Christ himself (Romans 13:14; cf. Galatians 3:27), we perhaps have
the climax of Paul’s thought.
Betz
says the term ‘put on Christ’ (Χριστον ενεδυσασθε)
describes the Christians’ incorporation into the body of Christ as an act of
clothing, where Christ is understood as a garment. This ‘presupposes the
Christological-soteriological concept of Christ as the heavenly garment by which
the Christian is enwrapped and transformed into a new being’. Yet having determined
this aspect of divine transformation, Betz does not draw any moral
implications. Finding the categories exclusive, Betz comments that we must differentiate
between the saying used in baptism, in Christian parenesis and as future hope.
But that we should, or even can, keep our categories separate does not seem to
be supported by the evidence. (Sarah Whittle, Covenant Renewal and the
Consecration of the Gentiles in Romans [Society for New Testament Monograph
Series 161; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015], 98-99)
