SWORD OF THE SPIRIT                                                                                          1012

“The Wedding Garment”

But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. (Matthew 22:11)

Jesus taught a parable comparing the kingdom of heaven with a wedding feast hosted by a king for his son. It was a custom of the times that the wealthy, such as a king, would provide all their invited guests with garments suitable for the occasion. Although not explicitly stated in the Scripture, theologians consider this custom to be the basis of the parable.

As we unpack this parable we see that the king invites everyone both bad and good to the feast after being rejected by those initially chosen to attend.  Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. (Matthew 22:8-10)

The comparison is clear. The king is Father God and Jesus is the groom. We are the church and the church is the bride of Christ. All of us, good and bad, are invited to come to Christ. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God;

And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him; For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people… (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 5:9; Titus 2:11)

The wedding garment is free and supplied to us by God through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We cannot come to the wedding feast clothed in a counterfeit garment.

The only wedding garment acceptable to God is the robe of righteousness of Jesus Christ. …be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith;  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…(Philippians 3:9; Isaiah 61:10)

I am comforted and rejoice in the fact that I was invited while still steeped in sin. …but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) There was nothing I could do to earn the invitation. I could not fabricate my own righteous garment and by the grace of God I did not have to. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment…(Isaiah 64:6)

We all have a choice to make concerning Jesus Christ. The invitation has been extended. We can either choose to remain busy with the affairs of this world and reject the invitation or accept the free gift of salvation through faith in Jesus. We cannot be lukewarm and try to have it both ways by continuing to live in sin and attend the wedding feast wearing a garment of our own making.

May this new year be your born-again year – a new creation in Christ. Happy New Year!