Garment and putting on

Meaning

To put on Christ like a garment occurs within the main treatise's account of baptismal regeneration through water and spirit. The image follows cleansing in Christ's blood and becoming one body with him. It therefore signifies incorporation and a changed relation, not merely adopting an outward appearance or costume. The passage attributes the expression to Paul in Colossians and immediately returns to the analogy of tincture joining with imperfect metals. Garment, body, and building are adjacent images of union; they should not be forced into a single literal description.