Earlier this week, I did some painting. I wore old clothes that already had been “decorated” during previous painting jobs.
Today, I wore a coat and tie to church. I didn’t wear them for painting, nor would I wear them for gardening or changing a tyre. That would be silly. I have old clothes for that kind of stuff.
You don’t do messy, filthy stuff in your best clothes. That’s daft.
But sometimes Christians do that. We’ve been given the garments of salvation, robes of righteousness, a heavenly gift from a Holy God:
Isaiah 61:10
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
Revelation 19:8
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
We know it doesn’t make any sense to paint in a coat and tie, to roll around in the mud in your best clothes. But somehow, even though our old, filthy clothes have been taken away and we’ve been covered with the resplendent robes of the righteousness of Christ, sometimes Christians still get into the spiritual mire. It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s what we do.
If you really are a Christian, you’ve been cleansed. Your sins have been washed away, and in their place you are wearing a God-given robe of righteousness. What kind of fool would sin while wearing that? Keep out of the muck in God’s clothes!
The third verse below tells where we belong when we wear His righteousness.
I hear the Saviour say,
‘Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.’
Chorus:
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim,
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.
And now complete in Him
My robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.
Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.
When from my dying bed
My ransomed soul shall rise,
‘Jesus died my soul to save,’
Shall rend the vaulted skies.
And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
‘Jesus died my soul to save,’
My lips shall still repeat.
Elvina M. Hall, 1822-1889
Music: John T. Grape, 1834-1915
