| Christian Life and Doctrine | October 1951 |
The Bridal Robe
“His bride made herself ready. And she was permitted to array herself in fine linen, shining and spotless; the fine linen being the righteous actions of God’s people.” —Revelation 19:7,8, Weymouth
WHAT a beautiful and wonderful picture is brought to our vision! We, the church, during the time of our espousal, are said to be clothed in the garment of Christ’s imputed righteousness. But how differently our text reveals the change to us. Now we are called the Lamb’s bride who has made herself ready.
Note that she has been permitted to “array herself” in fine linen. She is no longer reckoned as righteous, but she is actually righteous. Since the days of her consecration, her espousal, she has been working into that robe that her Bridegroom gave to her, imputed righteousness, those beautiful stitches of gold (Ps. 45:13), and now her work is done. The wrought gold represents the fruits and graces of the Holy Spirit. (Gal. 5:22,23) How wonderfully the work we have been doing is described. With patience we have been working into our lives, that which is described as a “raiment of needlework.”—Ps. 45:14
Let us briefly review the words of our text. The bride has made herself ready. She has been permitted to array herself in fine linen. All the time that we were Christians we were clothed only in the garment provided by our Lord, his righteousness, and this we are to keep clean, spotless. But now she is allowed to array herself in the splendor of royalty, for God has now rewarded her for faithfulness. (I Cor. 15:38) She has been laying up for herself treasures in heaven, and now she is in possession of them, being thus arrayed, like her Lord, in glory and beauty. (Matt. 6:20) How can this be? All our righteousness is but filthy rags. (Isa. 64:6) How, then, can they become garments of beauty? The change has been effected by our Lord. This is a work of grace made understandable by the Apostle Paul. We know that we cannot be accepted by God, for there is no one who is righteous, but we who believe on Jesus and follow in his steps, have his righteousness imputed to us. (Rom. 3:10,23) As Paul puts it, “We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have … received the reconciliation.” (Rom. 5:11, margin) Let us stress the importance of the imputed righteousness of Christ our Lord, for we will require it so long as we are in the flesh. But when we are changed into his glorious likeness beyond the veil, we will not be clothed in imputed righteousness when we wear the bridal robe, but we shall be clothed in the “righteous actions of God’s people.” In other words, it will be a righteousness of our very own. We shall then be able to deal righteously, perfectly, with the poor, groaning creation in the age to come.
It is well that we note the difference between the righteousness in Christ and the righteousness of Christ when the Head and body are complete in the glory beyond. Also, it might be said that faith in Christ justifies us, but the faith of Christ sanctifies us. The former is borne out by Ephesians 1:15; Colossians 1:4; 2:5; and the latter by Romans 3:22; Galatians 2:16-20. This is very easily understood when we consider that by faith in the precious blood of Jesus all our sins are freely forgiven, and if we have the faith of Jesus, the same kind of faith that he exercised, we shall walk as he walked.
These two degrees of faith are well illustrated in Romans 5:1,2: “Therefore, having been pronounced righteous as the result of faith [in Christ Jesus] let us enjoy peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is through him that, by reason of our faith, we have obtained admission to that place of favor in which we now stand.” (20th Century) We must have faith in Christ before we can exercise the faith of Christ. Now remember that while we, according to the flesh, are really imperfect, God, in his mercy and that he might deal with us, imputes Christ’s righteousness unto us. “Mentally, I am a slave to God’s law, but physically to the law of sin.” (Rom. 7:25, Goodspeed’s translation.) Imputed righteousness is what God has granted us in order that he might deal with us, but the righteousness with which we shall be invested is what we shall have gained by faithfulness.
The apostle enjoins, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Phil. 2:12) The matter of working out our salvation through the exercise of faith is further emphasized by the statement, “For we by the help of the Spirit are eagerly waiting for the fulfillment of our hope, the being right with God as a result of the faith. If a man is a Christian, neither circumcision or the omission of it are of any importance, but faith working through love is all-important.”—Gal. 5:5,6, 20th Century
Let us retrace our steps and see the remarkable grace of God. We know that we were sinners without God and without hope, but have seen the grace which God effected through Christ. As Paul relates, “For what was impossible to the Law—powerless as it was because it acted through frail humanity—God effected. Sending his own Son in a body like that of sinful nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, he pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature in order that in our case the requirements of the Law might be fully met.”—Rom. 8:3,4, Weymouth
Think of that! We get by faith that which Israel was unable to get by the Law. And why? Because we Christians exercise the faith of Christ. And how does the faith of Christ operate? By doing as Jesus did. He said, “I do always those things that please him.” (John 8:29) And thus exercising the same faith as Christ we will eventually become like him, transformed into his image. As Jesus exemplified complete confidence in and loyalty to his Heavenly Father by the course he pursued and the works he did, just so should it be with us, his followers. The Apostle James makes this apparent when he writes: “You see a man is made upright by his good deeds and not by faith alone.” (Jas. 2:24, Goodspeed) And those “good deeds” are to be in accordance with and by virtue of our faith.—James 2:17,18,22,26; Rom. 9:30-32
Summing up briefly, then, we are embroidering our bridal robe to be, by doing the things he did. Our glorious garment will be prepared for us when we reach that blissful shore. How inspiring, then, the words “She was permitted to array herself in fine linen, … the fine linen, … being the righteous actions of God’s people.”