To Encourage You

Matthew 22:1-14 “And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come . . .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.  But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”’”

We’ve all heard the term “You can’t take it with you.”  While that is truly the case when it comes to our physical possessions, it’s actually not true spiritually and the parable above speaks to this.  In this parable, Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a wedding feast.  Many are invited, but many will refuse to come.  This speaks to those many people who have been invited to enter the kingdom of God but have refused to respond to the invitation.   

But then there is the case of the examination of those who have tried to enter, but they weren’t dressed properly.  While we can’t take our physical clothing with us into eternity, the Bible speaks much about spiritual clothing.  There are two primary types described.  One type is called “filthy rags” or “polluted garments” depending on the Bible translation you read.   This type of covering is likened to anyone’s righteousness that is rooted in their own efforts.  Isaiah 64:6 says, “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”  On the other hand, there is the righteousness of Christ that is given to those who have confessed their sins, asked Jesus to forgive them, and traded in their “polluted garments” for “white robes” (Revelation 3:5).  In another place the believers are described as those who “have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).  This speaks to the crucifixion of Jesus, by which He paid the price for our sins on the cross and thereby washed our sins away.  This is spoken of in Isaiah 1:18 in these words “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” 

The parable of Matthew 24 makes it very clear that anyone relying on their own goodness, likened to those “without a wedding garment,” will be cast from the kingdom forever.  Hell awaits them, which is the place for those dressed in the “polluted garments” of their own good works.  And they will be shocked, stunned, and speechless, when they come to realize this fact.  These people will finally come to realize that there was no goodness in them, for “there is no one good but God alone” (Mark 10:18).  All their lives they’ve justified their sin by the view that they were “as good as the next guy” or that they were “a good person” and it will not be until it is too late that they will have to face the fact that these views were nothing more than catastrophic lies. 

So, what are you wearing, spiritually, that is – your own goodness, or the righteousness of Jesus Christ?  Jesus has warned us that the clothing we take with us into eternity has enormous consequences. He has given us the opportunity to get ready for the wedding by putting on the proper clothes.  And what we do about that warning will make all the difference in the end.