Garments of Splendor
By Stephen Terry
"For the moth will eat them up like
a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness
will last forever, my salvation through all generations." Isaiah
51:8, NIV
Have you ever reached for that favorite
sweater from Grandma only to find when you put it on that
moths got to it while it was in storage? How devastating it is to have a
beautiful gift destroyed. The garment we wanted to wear proudly to an important
event is now little more than rags. Maybe we could wear it to work on the car or
in the garden, but not to anything special. We were counting on wearing the
sweater, but its usefulness is at an end. It must be replaced with something
more suitable.
While our sweater experience is
disappointing, it symbolizes something spiritual as well. Whether a pull-over,
a cardigan, a cable knit, or some other style, all sweaters are man made. We
can knit them by hand or machine, but they will not last forever, eventually
they will wear out. The Bible talks of clothing that lasted for a very long
time with God's help. "Yet the LORD says, 'During the forty years
that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did
the sandals on your feet.'" Deuteronomy 29:5, NIV However, even forty years
meant they eventually wore out.
This clothing that wears out represents
our inability to provide completely for ourselves. We like to talk of self-made
men who are self sufficient, but in reality there is no such thing. We all need
help. We may want to rely on ourselves, but the Bible tells us this is
impossible. "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, NIV No matter how much we want
to rely on ourselves and our own ability to do right, in the end we have
nothing but rags. We end up little better than the moth-eaten sweater. We find
that we are useless to ourselves and others. But is that the end of the story?
Are we doomed to be tossed aside without value, our usefulness at an end?
Fortunately, it does not have to be that
way. We have a choice. Because of His love for us, God has invested the
infinite resources of heaven to give us that choice. He sent Jesus to provide a
better option. God's closet has clothing that is immeasurably better than
anything we can find to wear on earth. Jesus is the key to unlocking that
closet.
We were all destined to be tossed aside
like that worn out sweater, but Jesus took our place and was "tossed
aside" on our behalf. He was willing to become "filthy rags"
that we might wear clean clothing, and that we might be clean. And
because God wants it that way, we might have that clean clothing forever.
Scripture says "...the LORD your God goes with you; he will
never leave you nor forsake you." Deuteronomy 31:6, NIV
Wouldn't it be great to have beautiful
clothes that would last forever? One day we will have clothing like that.
The Bible says of that garment, "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..." Isaiah 61:10, NIV This robe was purchased
through the blood shed by Jesus on the cross. Tinged with His blood, it is
nonetheless white as the purity of His righteousness. We could find no more
beautiful garment to wear. God's love is woven into every fiber. John
3:16 tells us that. "For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall
not perish, but have eternal life." NASB
Why does God love us so much? Because that is His nature. John the Disciple, who was often
referred to as the disciple whom Jesus loved, put it this way, "Dear
friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves
has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God,
because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one
and only Son into the world that we might live through him." 1 John 4:7-9,
NIV
You see, as John says, "God is
love." He could no more stop loving than He could stop being God. As
humans we have such a limited understanding of love that we have a hard time
grasping the significance of that statement. That kind of love is beyond
measure, and since it derives from God's nature it has all the divine
attributes. His love is all knowing and yet loving. His love is all seeing and
yet loving. His love is omnipresent. No matter how dark the valley, deep the
ocean, or vast the universe God's love is there. That is why King David could
write "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will
fear no evil, for you are with me..." Psalm 23:4, NIV
He knew the
power of God's love.
That love has the power to sustain us
for all eternity. Not only does God not forsake us as we previously read in
Deuteronomy, but His love is the reason why. Paul the
Apostle wrote, "For I am convinced that neither death nor
life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any
powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be
able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our
Lord." Romans 8:38-39, NIV So the robe of righteousness is really a robe
of love. That robe is God's loving arms enfolding us in an eternal hug of joy
and peace. And unlike our moth-eaten rags that continually let us down when
they fail to clothe us, His robe will last forever.
One day, I want to stand in God's presence,
clothed in His loving robe of righteousness. I want to thank Him for His gift
of love. I want to share with Him how His love has comforted me and uplifted me
through my walk here on earth. I want to see you there also. I want to
hear your story of how His love has been there for you as well. Won't it be
great to spend eternity with a God like that?
Bible texts marked NASB, are from the New American Standard Bible and used by permission of The Lockman Foundation.
This Commentary is provided by Still Waters Ministry
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