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Clothed in His Righteousness, April 17
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.
Isaiah 61:10
.
Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us
meet to appear in God’s presence. This covering, the robe of His own
righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul. “I
counsel thee,” He says, “to buy of me ... white raiment, that thou mayest
be clothed....”
Revelation 3:18
.
This robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has in it not one thread of
human devising. Christ in His humanity wrought out a perfect character,
and this character He offers to impart to us. “All our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags.”
Isaiah 64:6
. Everything that we of ourselves can do
is defiled by sin. But the Son of God “was manifested to take away our
sins; and in him is no sin.” Sin is defined to be “the transgression of the
law.”
1 John 3:5, 4
. But Christ was obedient to every requirement of the
law....
By His perfect obedience He has made it possible for every human
being to obey God’s commandments. When we submit ourselves to
Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will,
the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into
captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed
with the garment of His righteousness. Then as the Lord looks upon us
He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not the nakedness and deformity of
sin, but His own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to
the law of Jehovah.
Those who ... accept of Christ are looked upon by God, not as they
are in Adam, but as they are in Jesus Christ, as the sons and daughters
of God.
We are not to be anxious about what Christ and God think of us, but
about what God thinks of Christ, our Substitute.
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