Revelation 19: 7-8
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give
the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride
has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in
fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous
acts of the saints.
Revelation 19 is full of clothe
imagery, and it starts with the bride, the church, meeting with her
bridegroom, dressed in white. This is probably where the western
tradition of wearing white for weddings came from. It is not this way
in many foreign, non-Judeo-Christian cultures. (No judgment here,
just observation!) Many of our “traditions” have Biblical roots
that have long been forgotten. But I digress...
So here are the saints, and they are
preparing for the wedding day. I don't know about you married gals,
but we almost all went out and found the dress that was “Us.” We
picked the style, the plainness or the miles of lace and ruffles,
beads and sequins, that we thought would make us beautiful in the
eyes of everyone, but especially our husbands-to-be. This will not be
the case when we enter into eternity...we will be given the best of
the best, the whitest of white, and the dress that we earned, to a
point...we do not earn our salvation...Christ bought that for us, but
we will wear our righteous acts as a thing of beauty, covering any
shame, shining brightly for the GLORY OF GOD. We look at the bride as
the centerpiece of the wedding. We talk of HER dress, not his tux.
What HE wears seems insignificant in comparison to the dress and
head-covering (or lack thereof) of the bride. Being a woman and seeing
other women at weddings, we all wait to see what she picked to adorn
herself. She is the star of the show. Her glow, her tears, her
dress...
But not so in heaven...we WILL be
gorgeous, but the focus will be on HIM, not us. We are presented to
Him as a spotless, valuable treasure, bought with His blood and saved
by His grace. The righteous acts, those done to glorify Him on earth
and not ourselves, will cover us...therefore the scriptures about the
beauty of holiness in Psalm 29:2, 1 Chronicles 16:29, and 2
Chronicles 20:21. All of these can also be translated “in holy
attire.” When we praise Him, we are to do it dressed in holiness,
in the clothing He gives us to wear. He makes us worthy to come into
Him presence and praise Him and give Him the glory that He deserves.
He knows the best dress, the right fit, the level of adornment that
will make us the most beautiful in His sight for His good pleasure.
We don't have to worry that He won't like what He sees as we approach
the altar for the wedding, because He provided it for us!
I have a feeling that some will be
wearing white, but the adornment level will be pretty low. If there
was no concern on behalf of the Christian on earth to act in
righteousness for God's glory and not self-gratification, attention
from fellow believers, or to make a good impression on the
non-believing world for self-aggrandizement, they will be shocked when
they compare their attire to one who has lived for God's glory and
pleasure instead of their own. If we desire God's pleasure...like
Eric Liddell who ran because he “felt God's pleasure” when he did
it...and in doing so testified of his willingness to forego the glory
of man by not running on Sunday in the Olympics, and instead won a
race he didn't train for on another day...He was gifted to run for
God's glory and will wear that righteous deed, along with many others
on the day of the wedding. For that one act, simple as it was,
testified to a God much greater than the talent of Eric. No one
thought that his form was good...no trainer of today would take him
on because his way of running the race was totally different...head
back, arms flailing about, and the fact that he could still out-run
the fastest men in the world testified to a Greater God. His
insistence that God wanted him to do it, gave him the ability, the
love for it, and the place and time to do it in, all testified to
God's working in his life...he was different...and he was different
because he did all he did, from preaching and missions work, with
which we expect people to gain reward in heaven, to running, not just
into the history books and later an Academy Award winning movie, to
everyday activity and sport. He did it all for God, not for the name
of Eric Liddell. Whether we quilt or sew, donate tied blankets or
scrap quilts, when we give a cup of water in Jesus name, we are
glorifying God in heaven somehow. The angels look on in wonder, our
friends and family who have preceded us cheer us on in heavenly
arenas (Hebrews 11), and more importantly, our wedding dress gets
another piece of adornment so that when we are presented to Christ at
the wedding, He is glorified with angels standing around gawking in
amazement that those frail, ugly earthly creatures have become
treasures in the storehouse of the God they have been in the presence
of since they were created. They will marvel. Admit it, people, when
you look around, not many of us look like movie stars. Some of us are
quite unattractive, even when we try to doll ourselves up. But on the
wedding day of the Lamb, we will be stunning, made that way for God's
glory. I wonder if those destined for hell will get to see the grand
procession of adorned brides and see what it was we were sacrificing
for here on earth, those that condemned us for our “conservatism,”
political talk for our holiness, those who saw evidence of holiness,
separatedness to God in word and deed and thought we were crazy
lunatics in the process and condemned us for it. I think they just
might ponder the beauty that could have been theirs as well, had
their hearts only submitted to the one who would call them to be
beautiful brides as well. But we will shine in ways we could never
imagine, bringing delight to our Husband. Are you getting your dress
ready? Will it be a plain-Jane, or a piece of work worthy of the
Great Garment Maker? He is willing to work His fingers to the bone
sewing on jewel after jewel if we will just provide them for Him to
put on!
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