And The Award For Best Dressed Goes To …
Part of the silliness that surrounds the Oscar Awards each year is the prolonged discussion about the way in which the actors and actresses dress.
I recently came across this discussion on the TV Guide Channel. I was checking the listings, and there it was – two men and two women discussing for the most part the way in which the actresses were dressed. I didn’t stay with it long, but it did get me to thinking again about the shallowness of this age.
It also got me to thinking again about how people are so absorbed with things that are passing that they give absolutely no thought to those things that last.
Take this matter of dress for instance. The Bible teaches us that we must all leave this world and stand before God. It tells us that before we can enter into heaven we must be dressed in perfect righteousness. It further tells us that we do not possess this righteousness ourselves. Because of our sinfulness, we are clothed in filthy rags.
But the good news of the Bible is this: we do not have to stand before the holy God in our filthy rags! By His righteous living, the Lord Jesus provided the garment that God demands. That garment of perfect righteousness can and will be ours if, while we are still alive, we come to God and ask Him to grant us the perfect righteousness of Christ.
Eternal dress is far more important than temporal dress, but how very, very many there are who concern themselves exclusively with the latter. They remind me of the Roman soldiers at the crucifixion of Jesus who gambled for His garments. Shockingly, they were gambling for temporal garments while being completely
oblivious to the garment of salvation that Jesus was providing on that cross.
Those who go all through life thinking only about temporal things are in for a rude awakening. This is pictured for us in Matthew 22:1-14 which tells us that there will come a day when those who are not clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ will be discovered and cast out of God’s kingdom forever. May God help you to see the importance of receiving the righteousness of Christ.
As I listened to the boring discussion about who the best-dressed actresses were, I could not help but say: “The award for best-dressed goes to … Christians” They are dressed in the righteousness of Christ. Their award is Heaven itself.
I hope this paper has made you stop and think about how you appear - Not how you appear to your friends, but how you appear to God. It is also a good idea for you to begin thinking about how you will be clothed when you stand before God in judgement.
All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins
sweep us away Isaiah 64:6
"The time has come," Jesus said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Mark 1:15
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