Strike a pose …

Getting a new outfit to wear to church was nearly as much a tradition as receiving an Easter basket was when I was a kid.

That was quite a feat for my parents to pull off, considering they had eight children to clothe!

But when Easter Sunday rolled around, the Scott family would walk into church with me decked out in a new suit, and my sisters in new dresses, and often new hats as well (the photo above is a photo of my family decked out on easter morning).

We looked good! We looked fresh!

New clothes was something we usually got only at the start of the school year or at Christmas, so our Easter outfits gave us a new look.

We weren’t new, but our clothes were.

Clothes can give you a new look, but they can’t give you a new life.

But what happened on Easter can!

Because the tomb is empty — because Christ conquered death on our behalf — we can have something better than a new look, we can have a new life! Because of the empty tomb, we can be clothed with something better than a new outfit …

“For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes,” Galatians 3:26-27.

When we “put on Christ,” we’re putting on an entirely new life. The Apostle Paul explains it like this in Romans 6:1-11:

“Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.”

As kids, we thought it was a blessing to have new clothes to put on. As children of God, we know a far greater blessing than a new look. It’s a new life when we are clothed with Christ.

Have you been buried with Christ in baptism? Have you been raised to walk in newness of life by being clothed with Christ? Are you looking for a new look, or a new life?

Scotty