Robe

             I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)

Yesterday, I learned from John Ortberg that the Greek word for righteousness is also translated as “justice.” One can’t be just unless one is righteous, or righteous unless one is just. I will suggest that this means that both righteousness and justice are personal things – not societal. A society can only be as righteous or just as its least righteous or just person. Now, that’s a scary thought but it leads to the vital key that you and I need to be more righteous and just.

The problem is that we can’t be just or righteous enough. We’re going to fail at some point. That’s why the Father sent the Son, to give us His righteousness and justice even though we fail. Today’s passage tells us that God has clothed us with garments of salvation and arrayed us in a rob of His righteousness. Imagine a bride walking down the aisle in all her glory. We see the veil, the magnificent hair up-do, and the gorgeous dress, and we are caught up in the romance. We don’t think about the bones she has broken, the surgeries she has undergone, the tattoos she now regrets, or the scars that are hidden by all that finery.

But this is what God’s robe of righteousness does for us. We know what’s under the robe. God knows what’s under the robe, but in giving it to us, He declares that the surgeries, the broken bones, the scars, and the tattoos don’t matter as much as we do. The problem, of course, is when we are determined to wear our own garments, which somehow always seem to reveal all the damage underneath.