Wash Your Robes

“Happily ever after” can feel cheesy, grate on our modern sensibilities (grated cheese?). We might feel too sophisticated, too intelligent, too grounded, maybe even too cynical to indulge fairy tales of gorgeous weddings and happy endings (that are really new beginnings). Perhaps we worry that if we emotionally engage with the hope and joy of a “happily ever after,” we will look at our lives and feel despair, that we’ll be tricked into expecting something wonderful, only to be deflated, realizing that real life couldn’t live up to the hype. But every fairy tale that’s ever been penned has merely borrowed from the Story of Stories, perhaps writing checks the writer couldn’t guarantee would clear. But God’s Story isn’t like other stories, and God isn’t like other authors. His words are truer than true—no fiction to be found. Whatever He speaks, is.

His story is the true story of God pursuing the naked and ashamed. It’s a story that brings Him glory and demonstrates His goodness to us. Our stories are a mere speck on a cosmic storyline, and yet, because of Jesus, we, the naked and ashamed, can be clothed and invited to the most epic of wedding feasts and the most wonderful of homes. Revelation 22:14 says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.” And how can these robes be made clean? By the blood of the lamb (Revelation 7:14).

Remember the unexpected wisdom of the criminal on the cross who cried out to Jesus. Despite all his indignity, despite his guilt, this man looked to Jesus in faith, and Jesus covered Him. He will do the same for you.

Remember also the tragic foolishness of the other criminal. Jesus cautions those who follow in this man’s ways: “Look, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who is alert and remains clothed so that he may not go around naked and people see his shame” (Revelation 16:15). When the groom returns, those who are not clothed in Christ will not be admitted to the wedding feast. Jesus will bring final judgement upon those who have clung to other lovers, and they will be stripped of the faulty coverings they’ve stitched together for themselves (see Matt 22:1-14 for Jesus’s own rendition of this).

Certainly, the world has alluring garments to offer, but they will not last. As Revelation 18:14b-17 warns, “All your splendid and glamorous things are gone; they will never find them again. The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand far off in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls; for in a single hour such fabulous wealth was destroyed!”

There has only ever been one place for the naked and ashamed to find a true covering: through the God Who Covers. Getting dressed is a call to remember His story. Whatever gets exposed in your heart along the way—the desire to belong, the desire to be beautiful, the longing for dignity, the longing for newness, the fear of rejection, the fear of man, the frustration over clothes, greed—whatever it is, know that there is nothing you can reach for in your closest or Amazon cart that can truly cover this exposed place. His covering is the one you’re longing for, and if you are in Christ, it is yours. Your job is to remember it, to reach for it, to revel in it.

One day, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords will finally cover all evil forever—a covering of judgement and death for those who have clung to their sin, and a covering of mercy and immortality for those who have looked to their Savior.

In victory, Jesus will bring His bride home to begin together forever in a new heaven and new earth completely covered with God’s glory. What God does for His bride He also does for their home together. Like Adam and Eve, the heavens and the earth were clothed with beauty that reflected His glory (remember this from chapter 1?), but sin brought about uncleanness and death. Through this frustration, all creation has been worn out like a garment (see Ps 102:35-36) and yearns for newness (see Rom 8:20-22). When Jesus returns, it’s finally time for a change of clothes. “The earth and everything done in it will be laid bare” (2 Pet 3:10 NIV), and then, all creation will be made new, given a covering God says will “endure before me" (Isa 66:22 NASB) and blanketed in God’s glory (Rev 21:22-23). Just as the priests were dressed to look like God’s house, so will God’s forever people and His forever house will be clothed in glory and immortality. As Habakkuk 2:14 says, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord’s glory, as the water covers the sea.”

The prophet Zephaniah spoke of Jesus’s return when he said, “On that day it will be said to Jerusalem: ‘Do not fear; Zion, do not let your hands grow weak.The Lord your God is among you, a warrior who saves. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will be quiet in his love. He will delight in you with singing” (3:17). If you have ever dressed yourself to gain the affection of another, know that this love will not be like that lesser one you chased. As part of the bride of Christ, you will be clothed beautifully by Him, sung over, delighted in forever.

Don’t you long for it? Then come to Jesus. He will spread the corner of His garment over you. How beautifully He will clothe you!

John closes his book—and thus the whole Bible—with a phrase that longing Christians have echoed for generations: “Come, Lord Jesus!” Oh, how we, as a bride in love, long for the God Who Covers to come again to fully clothe us in glorious garments that can never be stripped away! Truly, He will do it.

Come, Lord Jesus!