Getting Our Change of Clothes
Washing my clothes is one of my weekly chores now. I am getting pretty good at it, but it is still a challenge to know how to get everything as clean as possible. This is especially true when I get my clothes very dirty, or when they get stains from blood and other things. Then, I have to use some special detergents and do it in the right way to really get them clean. In a spiritual sense that is what happens to all of us when we get saved.
The Lord used this analogy with the high priest, Jeshua, in the time of Zechariah the prophet. Zechariah wrote in symbolic language in a lot of what God showed him. (Zechariah 3:3) "Jeshua's clothing was filthy as he stood before the angel. So the angel said to the others standing there, 'Take off his filthy clothes.' And turning to Jeshua he said, ' See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.'" Let's take a few minutes to understand these symbols for our own lives.
The Bible is clear about our own righteousness. It tells us that our righteousness is as "filthy rags." Because we sin, we spread filth all over us that God can see. We can't get into heaven with our filthy rags. We have to have a change of clothes. Christ died and rose again to pay for our sins, so we could be cleansed. When we repent of our sins, we are turning away from trying to be righteous on our own, and we are asking Jesus to cleanse us and enable us to live in the right way.
Jesus does that for us by giving us His righteousness. Jesus is sinless, and His righteousness is perfect. Once we repent of our sins and trust Him, we are cleansed because of Christ's work and His righteousness.. When God looks at us, He sees that our filthy rags are gone, and He sees the righteousness of Christ in us. The Bible speaks about this as us having on clean, white linen clothes. We have been washed in the blood of Christ and come out totally cleansed of our sins forever. We have our new clothes for all to see.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Zechariah 4-6.