Psalms 132:7-9
7 Let us go into His dwelling place;
Let us worship at His footstool.
8 Arise, O Lord, to Your resting place,
You and the ark of Your strength.
9 Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness,
And let Your godly ones sing for joy.
Isaiah 61:6
6 But you will be called the priests of the Lord;
You will be spoken of as ministers of our God.
You will eat the wealth of nations,
And in their riches you will boast.
Our Priestly Garments
In the end times and last days God will look for and have His Priest and Levites (Isa 66:21). God Himself will make them a Kingdom and His priest (Rev 1:6; 5:10). Therefore, when we stand as God’s priest we have to wear special garments. There are three; first there is the garment of righteousness, garment of salvation and the garment of joy. Today we cannot see these garments but God gave to us beautiful illustrations of what the priest and high priest wore and these garments are all symbolic of what we must wear today.
Garment of Righteousness
The Bible declares that the Lord clothed His priest with righteousness. This teaches us that God is the one who gives us the garment and we can only purchase this garment from God Himself. The meaning of God giving us a “garment of righteousness” says that God proved us righteous (Psalm 132:9). However, the Bible declares that there’s nobody who’s righteous (Rom 3:10). Then how can we receive this righteousness?
Righteousness
Righteousness is God’s calling; thus we received our righteousness when God called us (Isa 42:6-7). Secondly, God’s righteousness is forgiveness. This “righteousness” that comes through “forgiveness” has nothing to do with our works but comes to us through God’s forgiveness. David actually realized this and said; “Righteousness comes because God gave us His forgiveness, apart from works” (Rom 4:6-8). Therefore, forgiveness does not mean a person is without sin; it means the sin has been covered. Forgiveness is a gift that God has given us however; God had to pay this incredible price by sacrificing His own son.
Redemption through Jesus Christ
God proved us righteous through the redemption in Jesus Christ. Although we may be proven guilty in a court God the Judge says “You’re right!!” This is in spite of the sin we commit. How does this work? First, it’s because God called us, secondly God forgave us our sins and thirdly, God paid a great price for our sins through Jesus Christ’s redemption on the cross (Rom 3:24). Redemption means paying a price. The price is actually the blood of Jesus Christ (Rom 5:9).
Jesus, our Garment of Righteousness
God called us and forgave us through the blood of Jesus Christ, to prove us that we are right despite the fact that we’ve committed sin. This teaches us that Jesus is our garment of righteousness that we have to put on (Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27).
Standing Against Christ
The History of Redemption tells us that there will come a time when the whole world will stand against Jesus saying, “Jesus is a fake.” This actually happened during the first coming of Christ. Even John the Baptist; whom God sent to prepare the way for Jesus Christ, denied Jesus by saying; “Are you the one” (Matt 11:2-3). Jesus responded and said; “Blessed is he who does not stumble over me” (Matt 11:6). In fact, Jesus proves that He is the one by proving who John the Baptist is; the Elijah to come (Matt 11:14; Mal 4:4-5). The moment John the Baptist began to doubt Jesus, he forgot his identity. In the last days, God is looking for His priest and Levites to prepare the way for the 2nd coming Lord. Are we clear with our identity as God’s priest? We must put on the garment of Jesus Christ to prove that Jesus is He. Because John the Baptist stumbled and doubted, Jesus had to suffer (Matt 17:12).
Wisdom is Vindicated by Her Deeds
The Bible says that the Son of Man came eating and drinking yet, “wisdom” is vindicated by her deeds or works (Matt 11:19). To vindicate means to justify or to prove righteous. The wisdom here is Jesus Christ Himself and the deeds or works of Christ are proven by His children; for the day He died on the cross He gave birth to us (1 Cor 1:30). Thus we must put on the robe of righteousness as His priest to intercede between the people and God and live a life that proves Jesus Christ is right.
Conclusion
Today we have received the Word of Transfiguration however can we hold onto this Word in the face of sickness, death and great tribulation? If we put on the robe of Jesus Christ, we can overcome and still be able to say that He is right even in such tribulation (Rev 7:14). These robes are the righteous acts of the saints and we have to live our lives to prove that the Word of Redemptive History, the Word of transfiguration is right (Rev 19:8).
Amen.
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