You are God's Costume

“And you were dead . . .”
“But God . . . even when we were dead . . . made us alive together with Christ.”

Take a few moments to meditate on the depth of this truth ~

WE WERE DEAD

YOU WERE DEAD!

I WAS DEAD!

Many have experienced the pain of death.  Outside of hearing the news and accepting the finality of the truth, death means dead—separated, and therein lies the sting.  Separation is the most devastating part of dead.

Paul tells us that dead is where life begins for every single believer.  We all start out dead – completely separated from God.  We have absolutely no life, spiritual life that is, apart from Christ in us.  We cannot hear Him, see Him, feel Him, touch Him, or even (brace yourself) choose Him!  WOW . . . is that really true?  Is it really impossible to choose Christ without Him choosing us?  Scripture confirms this reality making the awareness of God’s grace so glorious, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit…” John 15:16.

Ephesians declares that this choosing took place even before time began, “He predestined us to adoption as sons, through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”  Ephesians 1:5-6

To illuminate this truth, let’s reflect on Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was…just the Mom!  I know many may want to argue with that fact; however, she really was one chosen by God to be just His Mom. Motherhood of Jesus was Mary’s role in destiny.  It really wasn’t about Mary as much as it was about God. God so desperately wanted us to be able to understand the key message of the gospel that He gave us a picture in the flesh of what He wants to do in us through salvation.

God put Himself in Mary (just the Mom).

God chooses to put Himself in us…just His vessel!

But remember, in making you His vessel, He chose you to be His treasure.  We are His treasure and He is ours!  The peace that comes through grasping that truth and living it is life changing – (or life exchanging)…God exchanges our ability to wear a yoke and carry a burden for His power to make it easy and light!

To illustrate, let’s consider a character familiar to most—Santa Claus.  Ole St. Nick is perplexing for many Christians and confusing to some children.  What do you do with this creature that seems to be so much a part of Jesus’ birthday, like it or not?  As parents, we have never struggled with who Santa is or how to share him with our children because we felt that telling the truth regarding his identity was best.  Plus we prefer to give God the glory for what He does on Christmas morning, rather than giving praise to Santa.

However, even though we have constantly told the children that Santa is a dressed up man, and Mommy and Daddy bring the gifts – they love to believe that there is an actual Santa.  Because of this, we began to use this individual as a way to explain The God Costume.

Santa would not be Santa without the beard, belt and boots just as Mickey Mouse would not be Mickey without his donned attire.  The person who puts on his costume bringing him to existence portrays the personality and life of that special character.  The person inside the costume makes Mickey or Santa a jolly, happy soul!  Pictured below brings back costume memories as my brother and I dressed up as Little Bo Peep and her sheep!

Simplified, this is how it is to be the chosen vessel of God.  We are God’s Costume!  Without God awakening our spiritual soul and filling us with Christ….we would be nothing more than a costume, separated from God—dead.  In fact, that is the truth to build your life upon – you were dead.  The good news, however, is in that separated state of deadness, God chose to make us alive!  “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.”  Ephesians 2:4-5

In order to put on God’s Costume, we must surrender our flesh to His Spirit.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”  Ephesians 2:8-10

Charles Spurgeon put it this way, “I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love.”

It’s just not about us, but about Him. 

It always has been and always will be

and that is what makes grace so amazing.