but Jehovah God, we read, also " made for Adam and his wife coats of skins (from animals which He probably first commanded the man to slay) and clothed them " (Gen. iii. 21).
And these two " garments " the one symbolic of the meetness for fellowship with God, which man tries to work out for himself, and the other of the beautiful robe of Messiah's own righteousness which is provided for all who, conscious of their own utter unworthiness to appear in His presence on the ground of anything in themselves, look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life (Jude 21) are contrasted throughout Scripture until the day when the " wedding feast " which the Great King made for His Son, to which men are now invited, merges into the " marriage of the Lamb " and " the great supper of God." Then there shall be a final scrutiny and separation between those arrayed in " fine linen, bright and pure " and clothed in " festal attire," and those who refused to put on the wedding robe provided by the King, because they deceived themselves, or made belief to think that their own " polluted garment " was good enough: these shall then be bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. xxii. 1-14; Rev. xix. 6-18).
And this " robe of righteousness," which is ours first of all by faith, and which is the only ground of our standing before God, becomes also a blessed subjective experimental reality to the Christian.
In this world men walk in a vain show, and there is often no inward correspondence between their actual character and the robe of office which they wear. There are kings who are not kingly, princes who are by no means princely, and priests who are far from being priestly; but it can never be so in the kingdom of God in it there are no deceiving appearances. As many as are justified in Messiah's righteousness are also being regenerated and sanctified by His blessed Spirit, and there is not one arrayed in the beautiful robe of His perfection who does
