FINE LINEN, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE SAINTS

In earlier times, it was often the case that a woman would make her own wedding dress. She would wear that which her own hands had wrought and, accordingly, she would have made her­self ready. So it is with Christ’s wife.

It has been said that we shall wear up there what we weave down here. This is because the fine linen in which the wife is dressed is described as being the ‘righteousness’ of the saints. The word is actually plural: it is not imputed righteousness that is in view but the righteous acts of the saints. These combine to form a beautiful array.

This suggests that the judgement seat of Christ, before which all believers shall appear, has now taken place. The judgement seat is not, of course, to deal with the question of either sin or sins, for these were all dealt with once and for all at Calvary. However, we shall give account there in relation to our lives as believers and shall receive reward and suffer loss of reward as the case may be. All that shall be left after this review will be worthy of praise, for ‘then shall every man have praise of God’, 1 Cor. 4. 5.

People are so often taken up with what they consider are the ‘big things’ of Christian service. This can mean that ‘small things’ are overlooked in our quest for doing greater things. We know, however, that the Lord sees all. How beautiful will the bride appear when we consider just how many righteous acts the saints have carried out for Him. There have been so many things of similar character to the widow giving her last mite and a cup of cold water given to one of His needy ones. He ‘gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniq­uity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works’, Titus 2. 14.

Ultimately, then, everything that we do for Him is not only for His greater glory now but has a bearing on the beauty of the attire of His bride in that day. That will, of course, be primarily His day. In the Old Testament, the bride was for the greater hon­our of the groom: so let us live today and every day with His greater honour as our chief object.