To Encourage You

Matthew 25:36 “I was naked and you clothed me.”

Have you ever heard the saying, “Do as I say, not as I do”?  It’s often said in jest as a response right after it’s been pointed out to someone that they aren’t following what they’ve been telling someone else (such as their own children) that they should do.  It should be patently obvious that we serve a God who would never say such a thing. In fact, anything He’s told us that we should do for others, He’s already done for us.  We are to forgive others because He’s already forgiven us. We are to love others because He so loved us.  We are to comfort others with the comfort we’ve already received from Him. And we are to be merciful to others, because our heavenly Father has been merciful to us. 

But what about a statement like the one above from Matthew 25. Here Jesus is telling us that at the final judgment of all mankind, people will be separated from one another like sheep being separated from goats.  The “sheep” here is a metaphor for those who have obeyed Him; the goats, those who have not.  He will tell each group that “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” That’s how closely He identifies with us. That’s how closely He’s watching us.  But, again, it’s all in a response to what He’s done for us first.  He leads; we follow.  That’s the way it always is.

So, how has He clothed us? Well, in one sense, He has literally clothed us with the things we physically wear. No matter how we’ve come about these things, He is the source of it all.  Remember how in Matthew 7 He said this: “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!” With these words He’s telling us not to worry about such things, for He knows our every need and has promised to meet them. 

But I think that there’s another, deeper sense to which the verse above speaks.  Throughout the Scriptures “nakedness” points to the issue of shame, i.e., the shame of sin. We see it from the very beginning after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, for “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” (Genesis 3:7).  Shortly after this we are told that “the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21).  It was God’s first act of covering man’s nakedness, but it certainly would not be His last. In chapter 3 of the last book of the Bible, Jesus is speaking to the church at Laodicea. It was filled with proud people who said of themselves, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.” But Jesus rebukes them and tells them, “You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”  He’s exposing their sin, although it had been hidden up to that time from their own eyes.  In Hebrews 4:13 we are told that “no creature is hidden from his (i.e., God’s) sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”  You see, God, through His Word, exposes our sin, and if our conscience works as it should, we feel guilt and shame because of it.  We stand naked before Him. We are exposed. Like Adam and Eve, although we may try to hide our sin, no one can hide from God. 

But what can be done about it?  What answer is there for the shame of our own sin? For the answer, we again turn to the picture of Adam and Eve.  Remember that God clothed their nakedness with coats of skin. For Him to do this, an animal had to die. What a wonderful shadow this is of the One Who sacrificed His own life for our sins so that we could be wonderfully covered and not live in shame.  That’s exactly what Jesus tells the church in Laodicea is the remedy for their sin and shame. Listen to these wonderful words: “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen.” He’s telling them to come to Him to be clothed in righteousness rather than be exposed in sin and shame.  That’s what it means to be forgiven. That’s what it means to be saved. Isaiah puts it this way as he exults that “he (i.e., God) has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).

So, have you ever realized that you were naked? Have you ever felt the guilt and shame of your sin? If so, there is One and only One Who can clothe you, and He longs to do so if you will but turn to Him and ask. We see it again in the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15.  As this story comes to its climax after the son returns home, we see that “the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.” And so, the son could say, “I was naked and you clothed me!” It’s the wonderful truth of the sinner that repents and is saved.  It’s to that person that our Father in heaven gives the best robe that has ever been.  Calvary, the cross of Christ – wonderfully it covers it all for those who believe.