The Dreams
are fascinating. Sometimes I dream of flying like Peter Pan. On other occasions
I feel uncomfortable even in sleep. Have you ever dreamt, for example, of being
barefoot or improperly dressed for some formal occasion?
In one of
his parables (Matthew 22:1-14) our Lord tells the story of a king who organized
the wedding feast for his son. As the king was greeting and meeting the guests,
he noticed a man who was not dressed up for the occasion. ‘Friend, how did you
get in here without a wedding garment?’ the king asked him. The poor guy was
speechless and he was thrown out.
What about
us? We must be properly dressed when we come in the presence of God. He is holy
and righteous and we must be dressed in righteousness to come before him.
There are
two dresses hanging in the spiritual wardrobe to choose from. The Bible calls
them ‘our righteousness’ and ‘the righteousness of God.’
About our
righteousness the Bible is not very flattering:
‘We have
all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away’ (Isaiah 64:6).
This
righteousness is ‘ours’ because we have worked for it by our obedience to God’s
law. However, we have not obeyed God as we ought and so we are polluted with
much sin. Even our righteousness is unclean in God’s eyes. Our best efforts are
like filthy rags.
On the
other hand, God’s righteousness is most beautiful. Christ worked this
righteousness by his perfect obedience to the law of God. Jesus obeyed the
Father’s will perfectly even to the point of death on a cross. Jesus’
righteousness is what we really need to be made acceptable before God. ‘By the
one man's obedience the many will be made righteous’ (Romans 5:19).
The apostle
Paul was a very devout and religious person. He could have bragged about his
faultlessness in keeping the law (Philippians 3:6). As a child of God, he
didn’t. He willingly forsook all his personal righteousness so that he would be
clothed with the righteousness provided by God in Christ. Paul yearned to ‘be
found in [Christ], not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law,
but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that
depends on faith’ (Philippians 3:9).
The
righteousness of God is given to us by faith when we entrust our salvation in
the hands of the Lord Jesus.
Can we
imagine the shame and despair we would experience if we appear before God
dressed in the polluted garments of our own righteousness? Like the man in the
parable, we will be thrown out to the outer darkness where there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.
We must
take off and throw away the clothes of our righteousness. Instead we should put
on the righteousness of Christ so that we may be dressed properly in the
presence of God. Then we may gladly rejoice and sing of God’s amazing grace to
us:
'I will
greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness’ (Isaiah 61:1).
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