Have You Noticed The Robes?

whiterobesIn the book of Revelation, the apostle John is given the thrill of a lifetime — the opportunity to see into heaven itself.  In Revelation 7:9, he sees, “a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”  The scene is fascinating.  It’s not just one thing catches your attention.  Everything does.  The throne.  The Lamb.  The size of the numberless multitude with palm branches.  And every one of them is clothed in a white robe.

But how could so many human souls have robes that are white when our own righteousness is like “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6)?  John is told how.  All of these people who are gathered around the throne of God in glistening white garments “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).

Two things about the robes must not escape our notice:  First, the people in heaven had washed their robes.  Did you get that?  They had washed their own robes.  Nobody did it for them.  They had taken action.  Second, the robes had been made white in the blood of the Lamb.  There would have been no opportunity for anyone to wash their robes had the Lamb not provided His cleansing blood!  We have access by faith into grace.  God provides the blood through His grace (Ephesians 1:7).  We apply it to our souls in faithful obedience to the gospel.  “You have purified your souls in obeying the truth…” (1 Peter 1:22).

I long to stand before the throne of God adorned in a robe clean and white.  Don’t you?   The Lamb of God has provided the cleansing agent so that we might wash our robes!

So, with your mind’s eye, take a look again at what John saw.  Notice the robes!  All of the robes of all of the redeemed before God’s throne are white robes.  None are spotted.  None are stained.  Wouldn’t a dirty, stained or soiled robe be out of place in such a scene?  Wash your robe!  No matter how filthy and grimy it has become, no matter how long the stains have set in, not matter how you’ve failed in your efforts to conceal those embarrassing black blotches, no matter what a wretched sinner you have been, be assured of this one thing:

There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.

 – Steve Klein

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