"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10).
The prophet rejoiced in the Lord because God had clothed him with the garments of salvation and covered him with the robe of righteousness. We are not to put on the robe ourselves. Let us trust God to do that. When the Lord puts it on, it is not as an outward garment merely. He puts it right through a person so that he is all righteousness.
Sometimes we hear people talk as though we must ourselves put on a fairly respectable garment before we can ask for the white raiment. But it is the very need and helplessness of the beggar that recommends him to charity.
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). All men stand on the same level and the offer of mercy is to whoever will come and partake of the water of life freely. We are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (vss. 23, 24).
There is but one thing in this world that one needs, and that is justification,--and justification is a fact, not a theory. It is the gospel. All things worthy to be preached must tend to justification by faith. We need the righteousness of Christ to justify the present just as much as to make perfect the imperfect deeds of the past."
"I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles" (Psalm 34:4-6). [1]
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