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Wear Your Wedding Clothes

Jesus here likens the kingdom of God to a wedding banquet. It says that the wedding hall was filled with guests—both the bad as well as the good. The king noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, “How did you get in here without wedding clothes…?” This passage contrasts for us the difference between the Old and New Covenants. It was not the goodness of the good that qualified them; it was not the badness of the bad that disqualified them. What counted at this wedding banquet was wedding clothes. This is in stark contrast to the Old Covenant.

The book of Ezekiel outlines the rigidity of the Old Covenant requirements: “If someone who is righteous disobeys, that person’s former righteousness will count for nothing. And if someone who is wicked repents, that person’s former wickedness will not bring condemnation. The righteous person who sins will not be allowed to live even though they were formerly righteous.”

Just like God provided skins to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness (Gen.3), and just like Jacob wore the clothes of his older brother and received the blessing of the firstborn (Gen. 27), and just like Joshua’s fine garments equated with the removal of sin (Zech. 3), so too our righteousness as New Covenant believers is as a garment. Galatians 3:27 says that we are “clothed with Christ.”

Some may ask, “Does this mean as New Covenant believers we are free to sin now?” Wrong question. In the New Covenant, the standards have changed. The question at the wedding banquet was not, “Have you been good?” The question was, “Where are your wedding clothes?” There is no condemnation when we are in Him (Rom.8:1). We are a new creation, and that new creation is Christ (2Cor.5:17). Our righteousness is not our own.
 

Life Application
Don’t make the mistake of using the old standards in this New Covenant. They don’t apply here.
 

Prayer
Father, I no longer rely on my performance. By faith today, I receive my wedding clothes with thanksgiving.