Outward appearance is important to the world. People clamor for designer-brand clothing. I remember touring a jeans factory back in the 1980s and was surprised at how designer jeans were made. This factory made several popular “exclusive” brands that people were paying premium prices to wear. Funny how they were made by the same factory and the designs on the pockets and logos were swapped out during the runs of fabric. Remember the old saying, “we’re cut from the same cloth”? Some brands are better quality (and, most certainly price). As Christians, have you ever considered your designer clothing and how much it cost? The Bible lends some special insight into both the clothing and the cost.
Let’s start with something seemingly unrelated—the Kiyyer Ha-Nechashat—the bronze or copper basin used for the cleansing and purification of the priests to wash their hands and feet before ascending the altar to make sacrifices. Their bodies already were considered clean because their priestly garments—designed by God—were required to be worn only by a priest who was bathed in the Mikveh. Recall in John 13 when Christ Jesus washed His disciples’ feet. In verse 9, Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” Jesus replied that Peter’s body was already clean. This is a reference to the Tabernacle, where the priests were required to only wash their hands and feet, because their bodies were covered by the righteousness conferred by their robes. Peter was “robed” in Christ’s righteousness.
When you accepted Christ as your savior, you put on His righteousness, holiness, and nature because God credited the righteousness of Christ Jesus to your account. In grace, the righteousness of Christ is ascribed to us, as found in Galatians 3:27, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. God sees you as righteous in His Son.” Scripture is full of references to the garments of righteousness and salvation. For example, Isaiah 61:10 says, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.”
This is a beautiful picture of the priestly robes fulfilled in the imputed righteousness of Jesus, our Great High Priest. As a disciple of Christ, you are clothed with the ultimate brand designed by God and given as the gift of salvation paid in full by the blood of Christ. As we are reminded in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Worldly people are so very concerned with how they are seen by others. While the world doesn’t see your designer brand clothing because it is spiritual, the world can experience God’s design by the way you wear the righteousness of Christ. Through you, many may trade their earthly designer brand for God’s design of eternal salvation.
