05.01.14

I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. - Job 29:14 NKJV.

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, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. - Isaiah 61:10 NKJV.

But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ - Matthew 22:11-13 NKJV.

Xiang Junfeng is free! But she knows what slavery is like having been kidnapped from Jimo in China when she was 18-years-old. She was sold to an elderly man and forced to marry him. It wasn’t much of a marriage as she was forced to work like a slave in the fields every day. Finally after 15 years she was able to escape to a little town where a woman there helped her. Xiang Junfeng married the woman’s brother in 2004. Xiang is so happy with her freedom and marriage that she has been wearing wedding clothes for the past ten years. She continues to wear the wedding dress that she was married in and has had three more dresses made so that she has a dress for each season. Xiang says about her new life, “I had only ever known a violent and abusive man and I avoided men until I met my new partner who brought me truly out of my shell and treated me so differently. I couldn’t believe it when he asked me to marry him.” (Mail Online 04.01.14)

Can you imagine being so grateful for your freedom that you wear a wedding dress every day? How wonderful it must be after being kidnapped and treated like a slave to be wondrously free! Xiang Junfeng knows what that is like! 

Those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ actually do know what it is like to have been slaves and then to live in freedom. In John 8:34-36 Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” We were slaves to sin, but now through Jesus we have been set free! We no longer need fear that we shall be “cast into outer darkness” where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” because we have put on the “wedding garment.”

When Jesus set us free from being slaves to sin, He not only set us free, He also gave us some new clothes. The clothes we wear now are not of this world, and they never wear out. Jesus has, “clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10b).” Once we have been clothed with “the robe of righteousness” we will never want to take it off. Once we have put on our “wedding garment” we will wear it every day forever and ever.