Robes of righteousness



I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10

 

 

Some one posted this cartoon on my facebook page and of course I smiled when I saw it. Is it not typical of cats to have inflated egos? :) Is it not typical of ourselves to think more of ourselves than we really should.

Anyway, as I was enjoying the cartoon I also thought, "But wait a moment, is this not how God sees those he has saved?" See, when we are saved, God transforms us and adorns us with robes of righteousness, and those robes are what he sees when he looks at us.

Nothing we do can get us saved - it's our faith in Jesus Christ that saves us. Nothing we do can make us right with Christ - it is only through faith in Christ that we can become right with God. Jesus calls us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Is it possible to be perfect as God is perfect? As human beings I think not! And yet Jesus would never have said these words if he knew that we could never be perfect. Truth is, we can be perfect! How you may ask? Well when we accept Christ, he does two things for us:

• He clothes us with garments of salvation
• He arrays us with a robe of righteousness

What we try and do for our own salvation here on earth is like filthy rags ("All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." Isaiah 64:6). We cannot save ourselves and any effort to do so will be in vain.

Our worth is in God alone. Our jobs cannot give us the status we want. Our relationships cannot fulfil our deepest needs. Our worth comes into its own when we turn to Christ. He changes us from being mere human beings into heavenly creatures with potential beyond our imagining. This makes life worthwhile and the best is that it is all free! Once saved, we are shaped into something new and all of this because of what Christ did. We do not have to strive any longer. In fact we can sit back and smell the coffee.

Here is a youtube link to ponder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR4CCLnmf1Q