A Coat Of Paint

I recently wrote a devotional about our foster child in the Philippines. She's a principal now and is in charge of several schools. We keep in touch through Facebook, and she often posts pictures of the schools, which are usually in old and dirty buildings. Under her leadership, they are renovating and beautifying these schools, painting the walls and the children's desks in bright, bold, beautiful colours: pink, green, blue. The schools are totally transformed into beautiful buildings! It's amazing how a coat of paint can transform a dirty old building.

This makes me think of our humanness. We are dirty — clothed in filthy rags — from our sin, but when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, we are clothed in His righteousness and become beautiful in His sight. Jesus took away our sins when He died on the cross, and He gave us His righteousness.

2 Corinthians 5:21 – For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (NLT)

Galatians 3:26-27 – It is through faith that all of you are God's children in union with Christ Jesus. You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself. (GNT)

Isaiah 61:10a – I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. (NLT)

Ephesians 4:24 – Put on your new nature, created to be like God — truly righteous and holy. (NLT)

Romans 5:17 – For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. (NLT)

This is our hope as Christians, that even though we are sinners, clothed in filthy rags, we can be transformed into the people that God created us to be. We are not left in our broken human state but rather clothed in His righteousness.

Thanks be to God!

The words of the hymn, The Solid Rock, sum it up very well:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found.
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before his throne.
       – Edward Mote (1797-1874)

How are you clothed?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we thank You that Your Son Jesus shed His blood on the cross for us so that we can be clothed in His righteousness. Our hope is in Him alone, and we praise You for the new life that is ours through His sacrifice on the cross. We surrender our lives to You. Lead us and guide us so that we can respond to Your call to be the people that You created us to be and live our lives for You. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.