“For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).
Christmas has come and gone so quickly. The presents have been given and received, and many children are hard at play with new treasures that delight their hearts. As they return to school, Mom and Dad are left with the somewhat melancholy task of taking the decorations down and putting the tree away. They think to themselves, “Wasn’t it only yesterday we put all of this out to enjoy, and the time has slipped by so fast?” Christmas flies that way, almost as fast as Santa’s reindeer streak across the sky. If only there were a device that could lengthen the season beyond its tiny boundaries.
Children are not the only ones who have new gifts to enjoy at this time of the new year. Adult presents of jewelry and laptops, books and appliances, iPhones and other electronic gadgets are given to those we love. One of the most popular and best loved gifts for adults is new clothes. I always appreciate a new flannel shirt each year and my wife loves a new dress. Clothing like this is a very personal gift that reflects an individual’s taste, so you must know someone very well if you are going to buy them clothes they will truly love.
What we wear communicates something about who we are. This is not only true physically; it is also true spiritually. God uses clothing in scripture to portray spiritual truths about humanity. Even the original absence of clothing in the Garden of Eden communicated a powerful message about humanity. When Adam and Eve were first created, there was no need for them to be covered. They were pure and holy. Sin had not entered their domain, so they could stand exposed before God in their naked holiness and be completely accepted: “And the man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25).
Adam and Eve began their existence in holiness, but that soon changed. When God placed the man and the woman in the garden, He gave them a command: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16–17). Adam and Eve disobeyed this command and ate from the forbidden tree. In this disobedience, their world was turned upside down. Suddenly, their nakedness, which was completely acceptable to them and to God only a short time before, brought a sense of shame upon them. The relationship between the Creator and His creatures changed, for Adam and Eve had become sinners, and there was a need to cover their naked sinfulness.
When Adam and Eve lost their innocence in the garden, God provided skins made from animals to cover that sinfulness. “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). These animal skins carried a spiritual significance. Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with fig leaves, but they needed more than simply a covering for their physical bodies. They needed a covering for their naked souls which had been stripped of their original holiness. Fig leaves could not do this. Only the God-provided skins were sufficient. And in this sufficiency, we find their spiritual significance.
God had warned Adam and Eve that if they disobeyed Him, they would enter death. And now, death was the only answer to their actions. But God transferred Adam and Eve’s death onto an innocent sacrificed animal, and they would wear the mantle of that sacrifice as a constant reminder of their need of redemption. Only by being clothed with death could they re-enter a relationship of life with God. In such an interchange we see that God’s holiness and our sinfulness was no small matter with God, and yet God made accommodations.
There is an old saying, “Clothes make the man.” In the spiritual sense, it is so true. Apart from these God-provided garments which covered the sinfulness of our first parents, the shame of their disobedience would be nakedly displayed before all creation.
Since that time, clothes have spoken of the fallen human condition. They cover us, and to be found within that covering gives us a sense of safety and security, both physically and spiritually. This is why we use specific clothes in distinct covenant ceremonies like a christening gown or a wedding dress. The white of those garments speak of the cleansing and original innocence we wish we possessed apart from being clothed with them. And yet in being clothed, that innocence spiritually becomes ours to own through faith. For there is a higher spiritual component to those garments, one which brings to pass the realities they represent. That higher spiritual component is what gives the garments their ability to cover more than just the physical body. They truly do cover our sinfulness before the eyes of God. Therefore, as we enter such covenant relationships with God as marriage and baptism, we are clothed from the shame and consequences of the fall.
But how do skins or gowns have the ability to cover our sins? It is by their connection with what they represent. For the skins which covered our original parents, and the gowns which we use in our covenant ceremonies, are not an end in themselves. They have a greater prophetic fulfillment in the life and death of Christ. He is the higher spiritual component of these garments. For in His death, Christ wore the naked shame of our sin. And in His life, He clothes us with His perfect sinlessness. When we find ourselves brought into Christ by grace, we find that the nakedness of our sin and shame has been clothed with His righteousness. The Apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:27). We have “put on” Christ in our baptism. We have been given the robes of His righteousness to wear. And as we find ourselves clothed with a new identity in Him, we enter the presence of God with no fear of shame and no dread of death. And so, the Apostle John tells us in Revelation:
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands . . . Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9 and 13–14).
What a beautiful gift of clothes is this garment Christ gives His bride! He knew exactly what we needed to wear. He knew the exact size and shape. And He purchased that gown with His precious blood.
“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure” (Revelation 19:6–8).
The clothing of Christ’s righteousness is all we need. It is all we will ever need. Earlier, I said that we almost wish we had a device that could lengthen the Christmas season beyond its tiny boundaries. That wish will come true one day. For there is a day coming when the boundaries of time are going to end; we will then see that the righteousness Christ clothes us with is an eternal garment. But as we look toward that threshold of eternity, we look toward an even greater fulfillment of that clothing. For, Paul tells us in his second letter to the Corinthians:
“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:1-4).
Even though we are already clothed with the righteousness of Christ, there remains a physical corruption in our current bodies—the relics of our fall. This is why we get sick. It is why we have aches and pains as we age. It is why we still sin. And it is why we eventually die. Paul calls this corrupted condition the “tent which is our earthly home.” It is our other set of clothes that we are bound to wear until we pass from this life. Only at death will we put off the heavy garments of this mortal flesh and our souls will be made perfect in Christ’s righteousness.
But Paul would not have us set our hopes on that day of death in which we will be unclothed of our mortality. Rather he has us focus on a greater day at the end of time itself, in which we will be further clothed with immortality. For he tells us that our corrupted physical body will one day be raised, clothed in incorruption. On that day, the fullness of the beauty of the garments of Christ, which now are only translucently perceived, will be seen in a splendor never witnessed before. For our mortality will finally be “swallowed up by life.” Hallelujah!
