For All of You Who Were Baptized into Christ Have Clothed Yourselves with Christ: A Baptismal Sermon

For All of You Who Were Baptized into Christ Have Clothed Yourselves with Christ: A Baptismal Sermon
In the ancient church, part of the baptism ritual involved the new Christian dawning a fresh, clean white robe after he was sprinkled or immersed in water. In fact, Saint Paul spoke of the sacrament of baptism using precisely this kind of imagery. He writes: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal. 3:27). In other words, through the sacrament of baptism, the Christian engages in a profound transformation. The key word in this sentence is "transformation" for, at the heart of this reading, lies the following message: The Ephesian Christians are to make a clean break from their earlier lives in paganism and fully embrace the new life in Christ. Or, to stay with the original metaphor, they are to strip off the old pagan self and put on the new “Jesus self.” It is with this in mind that we take a closer look at what Paul has to say to the Ephesian Christian.