Garment of Salvation

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness”
Isaiah 61:10

Over the past few years as I have grown in my ministry and relationship with Christ there have been many questions that I have wrestled with. Often times these questions will sprout from curiosity in how my brothers and sisters in Christ relate to the world. Not so much as to what they abstain from, but how they testify and exhort the Word of God.

Anyone who has heard me preach will know that I firmly believe in “Salvation, not Condemnation.” The thought in this phrase is that all to often we attempt to judge or even clean a person up before we share the true glory of Christ. Over the years this has done nothing to advance the Kingdom. Instead it has made the faith into bigotry full of judgment, something Christ Himself taught against.

People often quote John 3:16, yet neglect to read the very next verse where it states that Jesus did not come to condemn but to save. It is true that there is a day of judgment, but that day has not yet come and WE are NOT the judge or even the jury. We have been told to do two things, love God and love others. How is our judgment accomplishing either of those tasks?

In reference to the quoted scripture at the top of this scrawling I want us to take note of the order of things. Isaiah reports that we are first clothed in garments of salvation and then covered in a robe of righteousness. This order is essential for us to understand.

We must first be saved before we can be righteous. Without salvation we cannot even begin to understand righteousness. A well-respected friend once said that the dictionary has very little to say about righteousness, and that is because man has very little to say about righteousness. (Terry, it would appear I listen to you as well). This statement could not be anymore true. The people of the world are incapable of being on or understanding the righteous path because righteousness does not reside in man, but in God.

In summary, what I am leading to is the old idea of “cleaning a person up” or attempting to get them to live a “right life” before they know Christ is fully illogical. Let us first get them to meet our Savior and then let Him wash them. After all did He not wash the feet of His disciples? Is He not willing to cleanse us as well? Let us today reflect on how we share our faith in hope of improving not only others, but ourselves.