Ever had a dream of being “unclothed?” Imagine standing before the Lord in that condition. How embarrassing! How horrifying!!!

¹⁵ When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind… Mark 5:15

From the past several days:
When Peter made his great statement in Acts 4:12, he gave us a unique definition of salvation from God’s perspective,

¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

There are several questions that arise from this verse.

1. Must a person be saved?
2. From what is he lost?
3. Is he not capable of saving himself?
4. Why Jesus’ name?
5. What makes His name special?
6. Everyone?
7. What is required?
8. What shall we gain/avoid?

The term, mankind, draws us all into the category of being in need of salvation. Every man, woman, and child is in need of saving by God through Jesus Christ. There are several descriptions in the Bible of our need of salvation:

• We are dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1, Colossians 2:13);
• We are lost (Luke 15:4, 8, 32);
• We are sick (Luke 5:31);
• We are in the enemy’s camp and enemies of the cross of Christ (Philippians 3:18);
• We are blind and deaf (Matthew 13:13);
• We are turned away from the light and hiding in darkness (John 3:19);
• We are unclothed (2 Corinthians 5:1-4, Matthew 22:11-12)

It is this last analogy that I want us to consider. When Adam and Eve sinned, the first thing that they noticed was their nakedness. They even tried to cover up. In their failed attempt, they hid from God. We have been hiding ever since. Christ came to cover our nakedness with His righteousness. It’s more than just clothing, though; it goes deep into our souls and cleans us from the inside out. For today, we will go with the analogy of being clothed. Being clothed in His righteousness means that we have come over to His side, we have turned around and are facing Him, we have been healed, and we have been born again. From now on, we think like Christ,

¹⁴ Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. Romans 13:14

How is this even possible? In Christ we have died and have been raised to new life! And, “since we have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3).

It is much better to meet God through His Spirit–and clothed–now than to meet Him in Person–unclothed–later (more on that another time).

Abba, to be clothed in Your righteousness means that You have wrapped Yourself around us. You have even permeated our minds so that we think like You (1 Corinthians 2:16). May we “suit up” each day (Ephesians 6:13-18), setting our hearts on the things You think about and You like, and then set our minds to doing them. All for Your glory, Lord. Amen.