Many different kinds of garments are spoken of in the Scriptures, a few of which we shall look at. Space forbids consideration of the wonderful garments of Israel’s high priest that indicate the glories and perfections of the Lord Jesus in relation to the place He now fills in heaven above, glories that are both moral and official, and the graces that came out in Him in Manhood down here. Then there are the garments of the queen, and of the king’s daughter, in Psalm 45, that look forward to the day when the earthly glory of Christ will be displayed in Jerusalem, and the new generation of Israel, under the new covenant, will bring joy to the heart of Christ.
Sinners Clothed
Adam and his wife in innocency were naked, and were not ashamed (Gen. 2:25), but it was very different when they sinned, for they knew that they were naked, and sought to cover their nakedness with fig leaves, and hid themselves among the trees of the garden. This is a solemn picture of what man is in sin, and at a distance from God. Conscious that he is not fit for God’s eye in the nakedness of his sinful condition, man attempts to clothe himself in garments of his own making, his own self-righteousness, yet when brought into the nearness of God’s presence he has to confess that his own words of righteousness cannot hide his nakedness from the penetrating gaze of a righteous and holy God.
After pronouncing His righteous judgments on the sinners and on the serpent, God, in the riches of His mercy, made “coats of skins, and clothed” Adam and Eve. In this God indicated that if man was to be suitably clothed to meet His eye, it must be through the death of an innocent victim, for Adam and his wife were clothed in the one that died for them. This is indeed a beautiful picture of what God had in His mind and heart for the blessing of the sinner, for the Lord Jesus Christ has died for us, dealing in righteousness with the question of our sin and guilt, and now every one who trust in the Lord Jesus, and rests upon His finished work, stands before God in Christ, clothed in Him who died for them.
Servants’ Garments
When the queen of Sheba heard of “the fame of Solomon concerning the Name of the Lord” (1 Kings 10), one of the things that impressed her on her visit to the king was “the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel” (verse 5). The way in which the servants of Solomon were attired may have seem to have been a small matter compared with the many great things the queen of Sheba saw, yet even this detail did not escape her notice, for in it the wisdom and glory of the king were seen.
Solomon provided garments for his servants that were in keeping with his greatness and glory, and the Lord Jesus has given to His servants the features that manifest what He is. In all our habits and ways, wherever we are, and at all times, we are to manifest in testimony for Christ the traits that he has given us, the meekness, gentleness, lowliness, kindness, compassion, and every other moral feature of grace that was seen in perfection in Him as He passed through this world. It is a great privilege to attend on the Lord as ministering to Him, and every bit of service to Him should be undertaken with this before us, realising that we are serving under His eye.
Festival Robes
How unsuitable were the “filthy garments” of Joshua for the high office that he filled as God’s high priest (Zech. 3:1–3), but the state of his garments manifested the low moral condition of the nation and priesthood of Israel after the return from the captivity in Babylon. There was nothing of the “glory and beauty” of the holy garments of Aaron to be seen in the clothing of Joshua, for ruin and decay had marked the nation and the priesthood for so long. In this chapter we see how God comes in to restore worship in Israel that would be in accord with His holiness. There is also the pledge of the removal of iniquity from the land of Israel through Christ, and of rest and blessing for His earthly people.
First of all the Lord says, “Take away the filthy garments from him,” for God cannot allow such to remain on His high Priest. Then He adds, “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee” (verse 4). It was the sin of the priesthood, and the sin of the nation, that had brought this vile condition, and God deals with this. We had known that it was by the death of Christ that God dealt with the question of Israel’s sins, just as He did with our sins, but that is not dealt with here. Having removed the foul garments, and taken away the iniquity, the Lord adds, “I will clothe thee with change of raiment (or, festival robes).”
The festival robes have in mind the day of which the Lord speaks in verses 8–10, when He will bring forth His “servant the BRANCH.” In Him there will be the seven eyes, the perfection of discernment and wisdom, the Stone upon whom are written all God’s thoughts, and who will remove the iniquity of the land, and enable every man to have fellowship with his neighbour in the promised land, a land of peace and prosperity under the reign of Christ. Although this beautiful Scripture can be used in relation to God’s way of blessing for the sinner now, it has Israel particularly in view as blessed of God.
The Wedding Garment
The parable of the marriage of the king’s son in Matthew 22 teaches that God will have His Son honoured in spite of His rejection by Israel. When Jesus came to Israel, those who had been invited to rejoice in God’s delight in His Son, but they refused. God’s servants who went our after the feast had been prepared, at infinite cost to God through the death of His Son, were ignored, spitefully entreated and slain. Peter and his fellow apostles were put in prison, beaten and reproached, while Stephen and James were slain. God’s judgment fell upon Israel, and Jerusalem was destroyed, according to the prediction of the Lord in verse 7, and God sent His glad tidings, His invitation to the Gentiles, and many accepted it (Matt. 22:9-10).
Alas! there was a man who had accepted the invitation, but who had not a wedding garment, the only dress that could make him presentable to the king. This is the state in which many professed Christians are found; they are not suitably attired for God’s presence. While calling themselves Christians, they are not “in Christ,” they have not a real, living faith in the Son of God, nor have they realised their own unworthiness, or accepted the provision of God’s grace, His righteousness, which alone can make the sinner acceptable in His sight.
The Best Robe
There is no mention of the kind of garment the prodigal wore when he returned to his father in Luke 15, but the garment in which he had been feeding swine was certainly not suitable for the home of his father. Whatever he wore, it did not hinder the father running towards him, and falling on his neck and kissing him, for the state of his heart, as having repented, was the first thing in his preparation for his father’s presence. After the father had so warmly received him, the prodigal was able to speak some of the words he had prepared, but he could not say, as he had intended, “make me as one of thy hired servants.”
Then we learn of the wonderful provision that the Father in His wondrous grace, had reserved for the repentant prodigal, as He said, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him” (verse 22). The best robe came forth from heaven; it had been in reserve in the Father’s counsels from eternity, and was the very best that God in all the infinitude of His riches and wisdom could provide, for it was nothing else than His own blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God, according to God’s eternal purpose, came forth to make Him known, and to die upon the cross, He “who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21), yea, that we might be “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6).
Arrayed in Fine Linen
The false church, which professed to be the spouse of Christ, had not been mourning during the time of Christ’s rejection by the world, but had been “arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls,” and had been living in debauchery and fornication. Instead of receiving blessing at the coming of the One she professed to love and serve, she is destroyed at the hands of those with whom she lived a life of dissolution (Rev. 17:1–6, 16–18).
After the false church is destroyed, there are great rejoicings in heaven, not only because the false church has been judged, but because “the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready” (Rev. 19:7–10). The Lord has not been unmindful of what the true church has been for Him during the time of His absence, so that when the marriage day comes, it was granted “that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (verse 8).
The garment of the bride is composed of every little detail of what the church has been for Christ in the time of His absence. Every stitch in that bridal dress is being wrought through the grace that Christ gives, but it is the practical righteousness evinced in the ordinary ways of the saints, under His eye. The weaving and the stitching are noticed by the Son of God, though much has been hidden from the eyes of men. What has been done in affection for Christ will find its part in the wedding garment of the bride, and much that has been forgotten here will be seen there for the delight of Him who has been watching the preparation of the bride for that day.
A Bride Adorned
The heavenly Jerusalem, described in Revelation 21:9 – 22, is the “bride, the Lamb’s wife,” not now only for Christ’s eye, but for the display of the glory of God in the millennial day. The divine glory shines like the light from “a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” There will be nothing about the church in that day to hinder the shining of the divine light, as it is seen refracted to the earth in the many colours of the precious stones that form the foundations of the jasper wall in the city of pure gold, like unto clear glass (verses 18–20). What is being formed in the saints of God today, in the new creation workmanship of God, will be found displaying what God is in the shining out of His glory.
After the millennial day has passed, and the new heavens and the new earth are brought into being, the church will be seen as “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:1-2). This is an eternal scene, and the adornment of the church is for the eye of Christ. She comes from God as His workmanship, and out of heaven as bearing a heavenly character. God Himself has been preparing the church for the eternal day, and the adornment is what He has put upon her, and it is delightful to the eye and heart of Christ.
The church will be God’s tabernacle in which He will dwell with men, and in that eternal day every tear will have been wiped away, and all the sorrows and distresses of the present will be unknown in that scene of bliss, where God dwells, and where Christ is satisfied and where all is the fruit of God’s eternal purpose and the work of His Son upon the cross.
R. 23.1.70