Ps. 149:4 For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation. NKJV
Is. 61:10 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 righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (NIV)
This morning during praise and worship at the church we’ve been attending, the verse above came to my mind and spirit. With it came a flood of thoughts that really blessed me, so I’d like to try and share them with you.
Ever feel ugly? I’m thinking about the time I shared with you a while back that I flew to Ecuador and didn’t realize I’d be on TV and radio and received by a bunch of elegantly dressed people, and I was in rumpled, wrinkled casual clothes. If I’d known all that was going to happen, I’d have dressed better! I was embarrassed by my unkempt appearance. Maybe you’ve had unexpected visitors come to your house when it was a mess, and you felt embarrassed? Maybe you’ve just suffered from a poor self-image and felt you weren’t as attractive as you might wish. Surely we’ve all been there to one degree or other at one time or other.
What about your inner beauty? Have you ever seen the ugliness of your own ungodly character? Your selfishness or pride? Have you ever treated others poorly and felt badly about it? Do you have unpleasant memories of times you exploded with rage or spoke very unkind or unclean words? When you come into a worship service or are around really godly people, have you ever felt unclean? Guilty? Unworthy? Do you wish you were more like Jesus, but when you’re honest, realize you fall so very short?
This morning, the presence of God was strong at our church. I guess I was feeling sort of “out of it” and not that worthy, though I’m not sure why. Maybe it was just a natural feeling as I began to sense the closeness of the Lord. But somehow, through the songs and the ministry of the Spirit, God set my mind to thinking of the way in which He beautifies us with salvation. Have you considered this truth before?
When we humble ourselves before God, He forgives and cleanses us by His blood. He washes us with His Word (1 Jn. 1:7-9; Eph. 5:25, 26; John 15:2, 3).
Furthermore, the Bible says He clothes us with garments of praise and salvation. Is. 61:3 says He gives us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Further down in the same chapter, Is. 61:10 says, “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 righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” (NIV)
These verses tell us that salvation isn’t just a legal thing, some kind of forensic forgiveness or absolution of our sins so we can be forgiven and accepted by God. It’s more than that. God actually makes us beautiful with His salvation! We see this in the verses above, but let me mention two others as well…
In Zechariah 3:1-6, we see a picture of the high priest, a man named Joshua, standing before God or God’s angel, and Satan at his right hand to accuse him. Joshua is dressed in filthy garments, which must have made him feel ashamed. Satan wants to magnify that feeling of shame and unworthiness, but the Lord rebukes him and orders that Joshua be clothed in beautiful new and clean garments. That’s a picture of what the Lord does for us by His grace when He saves us. He cleanses us from all sin, all filthiness and guilt and shame. He clothes us with new garments so we won’t have to be ashamed before Him. He makes us able to lift up our heads and stand before Him with joy!
A second passage that illustrates this is Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son. We all know the story I’m sure. The young man left his father’s house and squandered his inheritance with very sinful living. He ended up broke, feeding pigs, which were considered loathsome, unclean animals by Jews. He was totally unclean and disgusting. He was ashamed. But he came to himself and decided to go home and confess what he’d done to his father, and ask to just be allowed to work for him as a common laborer.
You know what happened. When he got near the ranch, his father came running towards him. He made his confession. He followed through on his repentance. But what did the father say? He ordered his servants to clothe his returning son with “the best robe” they could find, put new sandals on his feet, and a ring, representing authority, on his finger. He clothed his son with salvation that day. His shame and uncleanness was covered up. He was made honorable and upright. He was reinstated as a son and part-owner of the ranch. He was beautified and glorified!
In Rev. 19:6-8, we see a scene in heaven at the end of time. It’s called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. There’s a bride and a bridegroom. Jesus is that Bridegroom, but we, His people, are the bride. And it says there that to this bride, it was “granted” to be dressed in a wedding garment, beautiful linen, white and clean. This, we’re told is the righteous acts of the saints. These saints did righteous acts, but they did them because “it was granted unto them.” The wedding garments are provided free, by the grace of God.
When we repent of our sins and turn to the Lord, He grants us to be clothed with these beautiful garments of salvation. He beautifies us! He takes away our sin and shame and our unworthiness, and clothes us with His righteousness. We are clean now. We are beautiful now. We are holy now. And it’s all by His grace. It’s all because we simply humbled ourselves and received that precious gift of righteousness, that precious gift of salvation. It covers us now. It clothes us now. We can enter God’s presence and delight in Him, as Is. 61:10 says. This is a wonderful truth God wants us to understand and accept. He delights in us, and we can delight in Him because of these garments, this beautiful clothing He has made available.
Now I want to close with three exhortations, three things I believe God would urge upon us as our response to this truth about the garments. First, every person needs this garment, this robe of righteousness! If you’ve never received it, you need to! It’s not optional!
In Matt. 22:11-14, there’s a story about a wedding for a king’s son. Everyone was invited, but one guy came in without the proper wedding garment. The king didn’t accept that at all. He asked the man why he wasn’t properly dressed, and the guy was speechless! So the king had him bound hand and foot and thrown out into the darkness. This illustrates for us how important it is that we receive the garments of salvation which God has provided for us. They’re free, provided by God’s grace, because Jesus died on the cross to deal with our sins and provide His righteousness to us as a gift. But we still have to receive them and put them on. That’s our part in this. We must believe and receive, or the gift of God does us no good.
Second, for those of us who have already been saved, we’ve already received this gift of righteousness, God wants us to recognize what we’ve been given and rejoice in it. He wants us to glory in this great honor He has provided. He doesn’t want us looking down at the ground in shame. He wants us to lift up our heads and rejoice, exulting in what God has done for us! You have a beautiful new robe of righteousness, my friend! Don’t discount it! Thank God for it. Recognize it. Rejoice in it. In Exodus 28, we’re told special garments were made for the Aaronic priests “for glory and beauty.” Friends, every believer today is part of a royal priesthood! (1 Pet. 2:9) God has given us royal garments, designed for glory and beauty. He wants us to put those on and be glad! He wants us to rejoice in what He has given. As pastor and author John Piper so often says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”
One last thing. In Rev. 3 and Rev. 7, we find that some people defiled their garments. Others kept themselves clean. Some overcame and to them white garments were given. Some were exhorted to buy white garments from the Lord. Here’s the point. God gives us these beautiful robes, but we “buy” them from Him by simply repenting and asking for them by faith, by humbling ourselves before God and recognizing He alone is the Author of salvation. They’re free, but we need to repent and receive them. And when we have received them, we need to “keep” them clean and “keep” them about us. This is talking about our need to keep ourselves in relationship with God and keep ourselves in God’s love (see Jude 20). That’s not legalism or works. What it’s talking about is just the need to continue to walk in faith with our God day by day. His yoke is easy; His burden light. We just need to keep our eyes on Him and continue to receive from Him. I felt unworthy this morning, but then God spoke to me about the garments, and I was able to rejoice. He wants you to experience that joy as well, today and every day! Halleluiah!