169. Clothes of Beauty
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.
I will greatly rejoice and my soul will be joyful in God, because He promises me a wonderful, new, beautiful wardrobe. The clothing is a metaphor for something real; it Mis not a fantasy or a dream: it is salvation and righteousness in reality. The garments of salvation must be beautiful, for it covers the ugly nakedness of sin. We don’t always realize how beautiful salvation is because we don’t always see or even accept the terrible filthiness of sin. Satan, the world and our flesh make ugly sin appear attractive and alluring. It isn’t at all, but the human heart is deceitful above all things and so we don’t see how repulsive it is. If we don’t really see the ugliness of sin we cannot really see how beautiful salvation from sin is. If we could see, the contrast would be stunning. The transformation these garments generate is far more remarkable than any Cinderella story that one can fantasize.
And the Lord has promised a covering with a robe of righteousness. The beauty of holiness is awesome; the ugliness of sin is terribly frightening. If we could only see! The man who came to the wedding feast in the parable could not see how out of place and ugly his own clothes actually were in a group where everyone is clothed in beautiful wedding garments. No one will be out of place at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom, because all participants will be wearing the “robe of righteousness,” white robes washed sparklingly clean in the blood of the lamb. If only we could see! If we could only see the beauty of holiness and the white robe of righteousness as it looked in the Transfiguration of Jesus, we would abhor sin and never want to think, do, or say anything sinful ever again. And we will love holiness. And this will actually be the case in the eternal heaven and new earth.
Until then, during this age, it is the garment of salvation and the robe of righteousness that God sees in us, and on us. He sees us as a beautiful bride adorned and decked out with ornaments and jewels. And, praise God, when we look at ourselves through faith in Christ we see what God sees. By faith we can see what we look like both with and without the Robe. Thank God we have this promise