MADE CLEAN

…clothed with filthy garments… “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” —Zechariah: 3:3-4

Picture yourself out in public or maybe at some special event. You have been there for quite some time before you realize your white clothes have large ink spots on them in various and obvious places. Now picture someone coming to you with a change of new clean clothes. How grateful would you be?

In the context of the verses above, Joshua the high priest is having his filthy sin garments removed and then is being clothed with pure sinless clothes. Joshua did not do this himself. No, it was done by the Lord. Truly, it is only the Lord God Almighty that can take away our sin problem.

Do you remember the first time God’s Word where He exchanges “sin” clothes for ones He provided? It was with Adam and Eve. After they sinned they tried to cover their sin and guilt by clothing themselves with fig leaves (Genesis 3:7). After the Lord confronted them about their sin, they acknowledged they sinned (even though they sought to shift the blame) and the Lord provided them animal skins to wear. This was a picture of what was to come and of how the Lord would resolve the sin issue— an innocent Substitute would give His life to be clothed in God’s garments of purity.

In Galatians 3:27 we are told that we have “put on Christ” or have been “clothed in Christ.” Couple this verse with II Corinthians 5:21, and others, and we can conclude that we have been clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ— “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

We are made clean through the righteousness of Jesus and that clothing will never be taken away. He is the one who did the work, not us. We trust what He has done and receive the cleansing through His blood— “…they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelations 7:14) and “… Blessed are they that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:14).
Rejoice! For every person who has truly trusted the Lord Jesus and His finished work at the cross were made clean through His blood and clothed with His righteousness. Those eternal garments will never be taken away. Yes, let us rejoice!

Dear Father, thank You for taking our sin away through the work of our Lord Jesus and for clothing us with His righteousness. Oh, I am so grateful that I can know You now and know that I will be joining Jesus in heaven one day with all those who love Him. I also know that it was nothing that I have done, but it was what Jesus did at the cross that made this possible. I was a great sin debtor, He is my Great Savior. Yes, I am grateful.