Clothed in His Righteousness

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.
The Faith I Live By p. 113
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Prayer Requests
—-Pray for Kenny who has meningitis with serious complications. Joyce
—-Please pray I do well on my first day on my new job and I will get a full night sleep. Thanks Ann
—-please pray for my grandson Michael he had a seizure due to a change in medication and had a bad fall I believe, trust, and have faith that our dear Lord will heal him. Roxy
—-Please pray for me I am on my way to the emergency room. I think that I caught that bad flu because I got very very sick real fast and am having breathing problems. Thank you. Connie
—-Driving today to California for my aunt’s funeral. prayers for safe travel. and a peaceful heart. It is hard to drive when you are crying. Jacqueline
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Dear Friends,
While walking the two and a half blocks to my car one evening after work some years ago, I noticed a workman across the street. There was nothing special about the man, but his ladder was rather unusual. At the top, he had put two brightly colored rubber gloves so the ladder’s rails would not scratch the face of the building. It looked so funny!
As I kept walking, I began thinking about the extra effort to which the workman had gone to keep from marring the building’s surface. Oh, that we would take precautions in our dealing with others! Sadly, how seldom we choose our words or actions in such a way that we will not “scratch” the tender heart within them. Instead, we often do that which the Apostle Paul warns against. “Ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” “If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” 1 Cor 3:3; Gal 5:15
James speaks of our “scratching and marring” of one another and it’s inevitable results. “If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” James 3:14-4:3 Think of it! Before we speak, it would be well for us to remember the words of Jesus, “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Matt 12:37 Before we judge, may we remember that “with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Matt 7:2 Before we try to change what someone else that we think is wrong, we must make sure we are not doing the same things. “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” Matt 7:3-5
May we fulfill the desire of our Dear Saviour, Who bids us, “Love one another, as I have loved you.” John 15:12
Rose