ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

DRESSED IN WHITE

The white clothing of all who believe in Jesus Christ is mentioned several times in Revelation:

‘They will walk with me dressed in white …he who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white’ – 3:4, 5.

‘I counsel you to buy from me …white clothes to wear, so that you can cover your shameful nakedness’ – 3:18.

‘Then each of them was given a white robe …’ 6:11.

‘…a great multitude …wearing white robes’ 7:9.

This white clothing is the result of being ‘washed’ by the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God:

‘…who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood’ – 1:5.

‘Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes – who are they, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who …have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’ – 7:13, 14.

This white clothing is only available from Jesus Christ; it is his gracious gift. It is one of the many ways that the Bible refers to the multi-faceted salvation given to all who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here, the sin that sullied us has been laid on Christ – he bore it in his body on the cross (1Peter 2:24); and here the perfect righteousness of Christ has been credited to those who have received him.

This white clothing covers our ‘shameful nakedness’ – our sin and guilt before the holy God (3:18; compare Genesis 3:8-10,21). It is not the result of our human effort, our human striving, our human commitment or dedication, our human merit, our human achievement, but is given to all the redeemed on the basis of the ‘blood of the Lamb’ [7:9,14]. Indeed, it is an essential component of our redemption.

Because it is sheer gift, totally unmerited by us, this Christian perfection, the perfection of Christ credited to all who believe, has no variation, no degrees, no levels. All are dressed in white. As we are taught in Romans 3:22-24: ‘This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.’

All who believe in Christ are ‘dressed in white’ – pure white. No ‘off-white’. No ‘ivory’. No ‘antique white’. No ‘ghost white’. No ‘old lace white’. Nor any of the one hundred and fifty different shades of white. Just pure, pure white. Because the righteousness of Christ, credited to those who believe in him, is pure and perfect righteousness.

These ‘white robes’ remind us that when God looks at those who believe in his Son, he chooses not to see their sin, not to remember their sin, not to take it into account any longer, but to see only the pure perfection of his Son who died for them.

Psalm 32:2: ‘Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him.’

Isaiah 61:10: ‘…he has clothed my with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness …’

1Corinthians 1:30: ‘Christ Jesus, who has become for us …our righteousness, holiness and redemption.’

2Corinthians 5:19: ‘God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.’

Colossians 1:22: ‘But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.’

Hebrews 10:10 ‘…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.’

Hebrews 10:14: ‘because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.’

Let us remember to live every moment in this incredible reality: that God has ‘arrayed me in a robe of righteousness’ – that, although I might look at myself and see only the obvious spiritual spots and stains, God has chosen to no longer see, to no longer remember, to no longer take those sins into account. He, in an action of incomprehensible love, has hidden me in Christ his Son (Colossians 3:3) – he has dressed me in ‘white’.