Jesus Clothes Us In Righteousness

The garments that Jesus wears are unparalleled in majesty and glory, shining like the sun in its full strength.

“O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment.”

They are radiant, intensely white, brighter than anyone on earth could bleach them because they reflect His righteousness and purity:

“I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban.”

Even the mere hem of His garment was powerful enough to dispel the longstanding curse of sin in the hearts of all who touched it.

How amazing, then, that He clothes us with this same holy vesture! We who draped Him with purple robes to mock Him and then stripped Him bare to kill Him are now clothed in His grace and glory.

Without Him we cling to the rags of our own filthy righteousness that can neither protect us nor hide our nakedness. But Jesus spreads His cloak over us like the wings of a kinsman-redeemer, and His banner over us is love.

“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, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

Jesus not only makes our garments white by washing them in His holy blood, He makes us breathtakingly beautiful:

“All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. In many-colored robes she is led to the king.”

And this beauty is imperishable, incorruptible, and unassailable, a breastplate of righteousness that guards our hearts until the last day.

Lord, your glory knows no end just as the train of Your robe fills them temple. Let us always and forever be found in the heavenly wedding clothes which You freely provide to all who ask!

Jesus Is Our Shalom

“Shalom” is a beautiful word. It means “peace,” but not just peace. It signifies wholeness, completeness, security, and contentment—-in other words, the way things were always meant to be.

Before the fall there was shalom, but it was shattered by the presence of sin. And ever since, there have been transient periods of peace and prosperity on the earth, but no true shalom to be found except in Christ. He himself is our shalom.

Jesus is rightly called King of Salem—which in Hebrew means King of Shalom—and by His sacrifice has forever restored shalom for all those that would have it.

He speaks shalom to the waves and they are still; He speaks shalom into troubled hearts and they are comforted and forgiven. He came and preached shalom to those who were far off and shalom to those who were near. He guides our feet into the way of shalom because He is the God of shalom.

In Jesus is all our comfort, all our security, all our prosperity, and all our hope for the way things were meant to be. In Him we not only live and move and have our being, but we also have every spiritual blessing, and an imperishable inheritance that is kept in heaven for us:

“The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.”

Therefore, to all who believe in Him I say:

“Grace and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!”

Jesus Is The True Morning

Before there was any night, God spoke morning into existence. And despite all the evils and darkness that have entered the world since, there is still something about the morning that brings fresh hope and joy to our hearts.

The dawn dispels darkness, renews our vigor, and serves as an ongoing testimony to the faithfulness of God:

“Every morning he shows forth his justice; each dawn he does not fail.”

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Earthly dawns are often cold, cheerless and gloomy, but the true beauty of morning is found in Jesus. He is the bright and morning star, the light of the world, and the Dayspring from on high:

“Because of the tender mercy of our God, the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Jesus is the true morning, and in His presence there is no darkness; when the last day finally dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts, night shall pass away forever.

Until then, let us remember that each and every morning is a foretaste of the eternal day that awaits us, as well as a summons from Him from whom all light is given:

“Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.”

“O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.”

Jesus Is God’s True Prophet

Even to this day and age, many have claimed to be prophets—those who speak for God. But not all prophets are true. Many speak to placate the itching ears of their hearers, proclaiming “Peace, peace” when there is no peace.

“If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, ‘I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,’ he would be the preacher for this people!”

But Jesus only ever spoke God’s words. Unlike Hananiah, He did not presume that the yoke of sin could be easily broken, but died according to His own promise so that our yoke could be easy and our burden light.

Even so, faithful prophets seldom meet a happy end, and Jesus stirred up hate and wrath like the prophets of old by His faithful message. He was crucified by the malice of those who did not believe: the Sanhedrin, Herod, Pilate, the soldiers. Even the people who benefited from His miracles and marveled at His teaching did not (and many still do not) believe:

“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

But it is not as if the word of God has failed. On the contrary, His word is established forever:

“Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”

Everything that Jesus has said will come to pass, and will be remembered and repeated forever by all those who hear His words and love them.

Lord, sanctify us in truth; Your word is truth!

Jesus is the Mountain of the Lord

Mountains have always been an important part of God’s story of redemption.

When waters of the flood receded and the ark descended, it came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat.

Abraham was provided with a sacrificial lamb in place of his own son on the mountains of Moriah.

Moses first met with God at the feet of Mount Horeb; he later climbed Mount Sinai where he was given the law and saw God’s glory, and finally from Mount Pisgah he glimpsed the Promised Land.

Jerusalem itself, along with the temple, was built on Mount Zion.

But the true fulfillment of all these shadows and types occurred on Calvary, which is also called Golgotha. On that dreadful place, the place of a skull, was the saying made forever true:

“On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

It was there that the rock that Daniel saw, a stone cut out by no human hand, smashed every evil regime and became a great mountain that fills the whole earth. Of Him it is said,

“Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep.”

Jesus is the Rock of Ages, the great mountain of God, and He will endure forever.

He is lifted up on the heights like a city on a hill, and thus will draw all men to Himself:

“It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

Jesus Cherishes the Death of His Saints

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”

Just as He who was the resurrection and the life had once to die, so all who have been given eternal life must die as well. For the believer, this death is not eternal, spiritual, ‘second death,’ but rather a fleeting and momentary passing from the mere hope of glory into its supreme realization. Death is the means by which the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality.

But precious in Jesus’ sight is the death of His beloved! He cherishes those moments when those who are His, sensing their immanent departure from this world, open their hearts to Him and embrace Him. He is honored when His people stand against the accusers and confess Him despite caves of lions, fiery furnaces, or scourging whips. He delights to receive souls into heaven that are weary of fighting sin and offer them eternal rest, and He loves to satisfy every longing of the hearts of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

The reason we are baptized into His death is so that we will also be united with Him in His resurrection. And when that day comes, the prophetic vision will be fulfilled:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

Lord, Your death is forever precious in our sight. Thank you for loving us, even unto death!

Jesus Transforms Me When I Look To Him

In the natural order of things, genuine transformation is no small feat. It takes focused, diligent effort to effect lasting change in almost anything.

How paradoxical, then, that the greatest change of all—regeneration—is wrought in us simply by looking! Just like the bronze serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness, Jesus delivers us from the deadly venom of sin when we simply look to Him.

No further action is necessary for salvation but to look upon Him whom they have pierced:

“Look unto me and be saved, all ye ends of the earth!”

And once we are saved, we continue to be made more and more like Him by fixing our eyes on Jesus. The more Moses met with God face-to-face, the more his own face became radiant with glimmers of divine glory.

“And God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”

And at last, when we are with Him in Heaven and see Him face-to-face, then the Scripture will be fulfilled:

“In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made.”

Lord, lift my gaze so that I might see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!

Jesus Humbles Me

I am a narcissist, both by nature and by upbringing. Arrogance pours forth from my lips; selfishness and pride are my default state and my native language.

But Jesus graciously confronts my narcissism by showing me my true nature:

“You say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

He shows me that apart from Him I am a child of hell in need of salvation, a filthy cup in need of cleansing, a whitewashed tomb in need of resurrection. He uses my sins and weaknesses as a foil to His inexhaustible strength and unassailable righteousness:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

He confronts my self-righteous attempts to earn His favor and instead shows me the simplicity of a life of true faith:

“He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Lord, help me to not  be haughty, but to associate with the lowly, and to never be wise in my own sight. Humble me further, Lord, for

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Jesus is Abundance

Jesus loves to exceed the expectations and needs of His people by inexplicable displays of overflowing abundance.

He broke a few small fish and a couple loaves of bread, and somehow fed entire multitudes with basketfuls left over.

He provided Elijah with enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God, from two meager meals of bread and water.

He prevented the starving widow’s oil and flour jars from running dry, and saved the sons of the poor widow by a miraculous stream of expensive oil.

He commanded a swarm of large fish to fill the disciples’ nets without breaking them, and provided a double payment of the temple tax from Peter’s first catch.

He fed His people in the desert with manna and quail, and brought a great, drenching rain from what looked like a little cloud like a man’s hand rising from the sea.

But the most lavish, most elaborate provision of all was His atoning death for sinners. His holy soul became sin so that He might pay the infinite debt of sin by His infinite substitutionary merit, and His perfect righteousness was credited to us.

How can there ever be a provision more exceedingly great, more abundant than this? What further proof can ever be given to show that He is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think?

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”

And again:

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Jesus Is Preparing An Eternal Home For Us

Whether it is nearby or far away, lavish or humble, we all crave that familiar, familial space called “home.”

Home is where we experience life; we eat, rest, work, and play there like nowhere else. Home is a unique place, set apart from the rest of the world and special in a way that only we can fully appreciate.

Our homes are part of us; whether we pay top dollar on every extraneous architectural detail or simply get by on what we have, the spaces we live in clearly reflect who we are.

And yet, our earthly homes never quite satisfy our deepest longings. They are imperfect and incomplete; there is always more that could be done (or needs to be done) by way of repair or renovation. Our homes are fragile as well:

“Moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal.”

Our homes are temporary and transient:

“Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!”

But worst of all, our homes cannot shield us from our own mortality; though we tear down our barns and build bigger ones, we know not when our lives will be required of us.

How glorious, then, is Jesus’ promise that He is preparing an eternal home for us, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves can never break in and steal?

“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

Lord, help us wisely use our unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails You may receive us into the eternal dwellings You have prepared for all who believe!