“So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.” 2 Samuel 15:6
(The continuation of yesterday’s post):
The sixty-first chapter of Isaiah details the favor of the LORD**, the tenth verse says, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed ME with the garment of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
My friend, YOU are that favorite son of the Father. YOU are that beloved daughter of the King. YOU are the Bride of Christ who has been given a robe of righteousness to wear. Did you know, there are two robes that are mentioned in the crucifixion of Jesus. The first is the scarlet robe that the soldiers put on Him to mock Him as king of the Jews. The second is the robe that the soldiers cast lots for at the foot of the cross. The first robe He wore as they mocked who He IS. They made fun of Him for claiming the Truth that He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And as we’ve read in Revelation that is the very name that is written on His thigh when He wears a white robe dipped in blood. The second robe He most likely wore throughout His entire ministry. It was a robe that according to John 19:23-24 was seamless. It hadn’t been sewn from several different pieces, but it had been woven seamlessly as a single piece of fabric. While the first robe represents Christ’s deity, the second robe represents His seamless perfection and holiness. A holiness that He has transferred onto YOUR shoulders my friend.
Romans 5:19 KJV says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made
sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made
righteous.” According to this verse your sins didn’t make you a sinner, Adam’s sin did. Likewise, your goodness doesn’t make you righteous, Jesus’ does!!! Beloved, your salvation doesn’t rest on your shoulders it rests in your heart and in your mouth. “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:10) You need only to believe in your heart that Jesus is who He has said that He is and done what He said that He did and you are justified. Once that has happened and you truly believe it wrapping your whole heart around the Truth that Jesus died for YOU and saved YOU from eternal condemnation starting in this VERY MOMENT, well, I dare you to keep your mouth shut about it because you won’t be able to. I’m living proof of that! Once I finally wrapped my brain around the Truth that Jesus MADE me righteous, well, I’ve done everything I can to spread the word that YOU have been MADE righteous too.
It’s GOOD NEWS! That’s what the word “Gospel” means, good news. News that’s so good you can’t help but spread it around. News that’s so good you can’t help but to be changed by it. In fact, it’s news that’s so good it inspires you to BE good, to DO good, to SPEAK good. My friends, God isn’t good to you because you’re good. He’s good to you because HE IS GOOD. That’s who He is! And the second we start believing that our actions have the ability to diminish His ability or willingness to be good to us, is the moment we diminish who God is. We put Him in a box and tell Him that He’s only allowed to be “this good” to us because we’ve only been “this good”. But according to Romans 5:7-9 that’s not how God works. “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” God can’t fit in a box; He’s too big and too great for that. We’ve got to stop putting limits on how much goodness we can expect from God. He’s a GOOD God, there is no end to His goodness and faithfulness and mercy.
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake [God The Father] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in [Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus died the death meant for us, so that we wouldn’t have to. Jesus paid the price on our heads because He knew that we couldn’t afford it. And in Him paying the price, WE reap the reward! Jesus was made sin so that we might be made righteous. We were sinners and He was righteous, but through the miracle of the cross He became a sinner and we became righteous through faith in His sacrifice on our behalf.
God isn’t good because you’re good. God’s good because HE IS GOOD.
Do you believe it? Then SPEAK it to someone today!
*(from yesterday’s post) What about all the colors? Light is composed of every color the eye is able to see and many that it isn’t. When we see the color white we’re seeing ALL the colors at the same time. White is the color of purity and righteousness. Hence if you’re wearing a white robe of righteousness you are wearing every color you could ever imagine and then some! A coat of many colors!
Is that what they meant when they translated Joseph’s coat had many colors, I doubt it. Does that mean that Joseph’s literal coat was white, I have no idea, but again I doubt it. It doesn’t sound very practical to this mom of two, for a shepherd boy to wear a white coat. But symbolically…. I LOVE IT! 😀
**While I don’t have the time or space to put it all in here I do recommend HIGHLY that you go through and read that chapter and declare those words spoken over YOU by the Lord God Almighty!
Tamar Knochel 