by Scott Rossy
“I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness.” - Isaiah 61:10
“I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness.” - Isaiah 61:10
In scripture, our spiritual condition is often described by the garments we wear. God refers to clothing to describe what we are inside, of how He sees us and how He views our standing before Him. Our clothing is seen as an outward manifestation of what’s truly inside of us. For instance, this was certainly the case of Jesus Christ during the “Transfiguration” when “Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.” (Mark 9:2-3.) Matthew’s account of this spectacular event adds that “His garments became as white as light.” (Matthew 17:2). This was a rare, spectacular glimpse of Jesus Christ being shown in His glory while still here on earth. Both Peter and John would later say in their epistles that what they were witnessing was Christ in His glory. The whiteness of Jesus clothing is described as a whiteness that has never been seen before. A whiteness that is like a radiant light and exceedingly white. No launderer on earth can whiten clothes as this. This whiteness is descriptive of what Christ is inside. His exceedingly white clothes are a manifestation of what He is in His divine nature. They show His absolutely complete Holiness and perfect righteousness. He is without spot or blemish. He is completely pure, through and through. His purity emanates from within Him and shines through Him. He alone is sinless and spotless.
Man’s Garments
Similarly, what is inside of mankind is also depicted as clothing. But in God’s eyes man is seen quite differently than His Beloved Son. God says through the prophet Isaiah that “all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” or as the NIV translates it “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). That’s God’s evaluation of man. He sees us as spiritually clothed in polluted, filthy, rags. This is true of “all of us”. Man in his inner spiritual condition is clothed in filthiness. It’s what we are in the core of our being. He says this of “all our righteous deeds”. The most righteous, good deeds we perform are viewed as nothing but filthy garments, filthy rags before the Lord. It’s what we and our works are. This is because our deeds are a product of our true, spiritually dead, inner condition. Whereas Jesus’ true inner condition is of complete purity and holiness manifested in His exceedingly pure white clothing, our true inner condition is of polluted, sinful, spiritual deadness manifested in our filthy rags. Jesus who “Himself knew what was in man” (John 2:25) said that we are evil and defiled within saying “ For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.” (Mark 7:21-23).
Hopeless condition
Humanly speaking, God’s evaluation of man leaves us in a hopeless condition. He is holy, pure, white, spotless and righteous. He is our Judge and knows full well that we are completely polluted, evil, filthy and defiled within. He’s declared we are unfit to enter into His glorious presence. “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God?” (I Samuel 6:20), whose “eyes are too pure to even look on evil.” (Habakkuk 1:13). The prophet Isaiah, after seeing “the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple” , was completely aware of his own filthy condition when in the Lords’ presence and declared “Woe is me, for I am ruined! because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:1, 4)
Clean Clothes Provided by God
In order for man to enter into the Lord’s presence he needs to be properly clothed. The dirty clothes will have to be removed and the necessary clean white clothes will have to be given to him from God. This is exactly what God has done for those who are His. Man can’t change his own condition. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” (Jeremiah 13:23) The evil within us can’t be changed by self effort. The salvation we need must come from God. “Salvation is from the LORD” (Jonah 2:9). It’s He who provides those who are His with the spotless “white robes” (Revelation 7:9) that are necessary to enter into His presence.
Jesus illustrated through a parable the need to be properly clothed in order for us to enter into the presence of God. Jesus taught this lesson in Matthew 22:1-14 saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.” (Matthew 22:2). The king in this parable is God the Father. He is giving the wedding feast for His Son, who is Christ. The wedding feast is representative of future glory in the presence of God (heaven, the millennium). The king “sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come.” (v.3). For various reasons, those who are the invited guests are unwilling to come. The king responds by calling others. He orders his slaves to “Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.” (Matthew 22:9-10). The slaves are successful in their efforts to fill the wedding hall with guests. The hall now being full, the king now arrives to the feast. “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless.” (Matthew 22:11-12). Upon arriving, the king notices this one man who was not wearing the proper clothes. He is not wearing wedding clothes but is still in his dirty street clothes. This man is not fit to enter into the kings wedding feast. Apparently, all the other guests were clothed properly. Since these guests were last minute invitees, having been gathered in directly from the “main highways” and “streets” they wouldn’t have been able to get their own clothes to change into but instead needed to be clothed by the king himself upon arriving at his feast. The necessary clothes would be provided for the guests from the king. All the guests comply except this one man. He remains in his own clothing. In pride and self righteousness he does not accept the kings’ provision but tries to enter the feast on his own terms. When confronted by the king, “the man was speechless.” The man does not know what to say. He has no defense. He now realizes the consequences of his decision. The king shows no mercy. “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:13-14). Earlier, the king showed mercy by providing these unworthy guests with the necessary clothes to enter into his presence. But now, this proud, self righteousness man is shown no pity. He is cast away from the kings’ presence. He is banished, unfit to be with the king. He is cast into a place of darkness and weeping.
This is a picture of the salvation that God has provided and what happens to those who reject it. It shows man’s need. It shows that man in himself is unfit to enter into the presence of God. It shows man’s need to be clothed properly and that he must receive clean garments from God in order to enter heaven. In Jesus Christ, God has made the provision for filthy, sinful man to be able to appear before Him as righteous. On the cross, Jesus became sin for us; “He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (II Corinthians 5:21) He did this by bearing our sins in His body on the cross (I Peter 2:24) while the Father in heaven poured out His wrath and hatred for sin on Him. The guilt and debt of sin has been taken away in Christ. Those who come to God in repentance and faith, confessing their own personal guilt and spiritual depravity before God, who see themselves as impure and filthy in God’s presence are the ones who will be clothed in the proper clothes. Those who truly can say from the depth of their heart; "I know that nothing good dwells in me" (Romans 7:18) and can only cry, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” (Luke 18:13) will be clothed in the “white robes” (Revelation 7:9) necessary to enter the presence of God. The white robe that the repentant sinner receives and is clothed in is the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. He clothes them in His righteousness. As stated earlier, He is in His entire Being, “radiant and exceedingly white.” He is completely Holy. When the Father looks at them, He sees them as perfectly righteous. He sees them clothed in His perfect Sons righteousness. They are wrapped in His Holiness. It’s given to them by the command of God. He says; “Remove the filthy garments from him…See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” (Zechariah 3:4) The exchange has been made. The dirty, filthy rags have been taken away and the clean white garments of salvation have been given. Those who have been clothed are the children of God and can worship God saying:
“I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness.” (Isaiah 61:10)
They have a righteousness, but it’s not of their own doing “but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Philippians 3:9) They’ve given up all hope and desire to reform their inner corruption and defilement. They’ve given up hope of trying to do things to gain God’s approval but instead gladly receive the perfect righteousness that He clothes them in.
Are you attempting to enter into the presence of God still dressed in filthy garments? Will you be like the man at the wedding feast who the king said “throw him into the outer darkness”? We already know that the Lord calls our righteous deeds “filthy rags”. Are you trusting in your own goodness? Your own works? Are you hoping that church attendance or serving in a church or partaking of church sacraments will gain God’s approval? If so, you aren’t trusting in Christ for your salvation. You haven’t seen your need to be washed of sin and clothed in the righteousness of Christ. How can we come before Him clothed in our own self righteousness which He views as mere filthy rags and expect Him to accept us? It’s an affront to Him. It’s a rejection of the cross of Jesus Christ. It’s a rejection of the only salvation that He has provided. Salvation is in Christ and Christ alone.
“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5)
“There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
“The testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” (I John 5:11-12)
“WHOEVER WILL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED”
Romans 10:13
