WHERE is the man or woman who would not prefer a new garment to an old one? What a pleasure for a man in honest poverty to receive a new coat, after long seeking to keep up appearances by mending and patching his old one!
It is remarkable how sharp human nature is in natural things, and yet how perverse in spiritual ones! What is Christendom doing today but mending and patching the old coat? What is her need? A new one. Human nature is past mending before God. You may patch it up and keep up appearances before man; but no soul, honest with itself, and with a sense of the holiness of God, will be content therewith. No robe but Christ will suit God’s eye. This new robe is prepared, and free for all.
Every patchwork piece of good works tacked on by man to the old robe of human righteousness is like a piece of new cloth put into an old garment—it only makes the rent worse. The best robe, the one the Father gave the prodigal, is what each one needs to fit him for the presence of God, and what each must have, or be lost forever. (Luke 15:2222But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: (Luke 15:22); John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)).
God has given up man as past mending. At the cross he is ended, not mended. But, alas how few are ready to cast away the old rags, and to wear the new robe Reader, how is it with you? Maybe you have struggled many a long weary year with Satan, sin and self, till well-nigh in despair. You have patched your robe Sunday after Sunday with a bit of religion, and it has torn and slit again in the week. You have again sought to mend it with good works, yet only to find that your righteousness is but a faded, threadbare garment after all. In short, you have followed your own thoughts instead of God’s, and therefore you are more conscious of unfitness for His presence than ever. Why is it? You have never learned the difference between mended and ended. The cross is the casting away of the old garment, the resurrection is the introduction of the new. The new is Christ. You need Christ, the Saviour out of death. “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)). Mending is your righteousness; God has closed the door upon that, and brought out His righteousness. As soon as you receive the truth of it in your soul by faith you will be happy.
The gospel is very simple, and very full. God judged Christ for sins and for sin. That is enough. He seeks nothing from you, but will give something to you. A sinner you are, clad with nothing but rags before His eyes, so long as you trust in your righteousness. All your religious efforts and moral doings in the flesh are simply threads in the old, faded, patched, and worn-out robe of human righteousness, which God at the cross pronounced once and forever to be utterly worthless. Cast it aside, and submit to His righteousness. (Rom. 10:1-101Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 5For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. 6But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) 7Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) 8But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:1‑10)). Believe on the Lord Jesus, and your sins are forgiven, you are accounted righteous, and are made the righteousness of God in Him. (Rom. 4:5-85But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 6Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 7Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. (Romans 4:5‑8); 2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)). The crass is both the end of your sins and the end of you. It is the judicial end of the first man altogether. God has begun over again, so to speak. He has raised and glorified Christ, a Saviour for all. When you believe on Him your sins are put away before God and you along with them, (Rom. 6), and you are clad with a new robe altogether, the best—Christ.
The word of God shows that the believing soul is not only forgiven all his sins (Acts 13:38, 3938Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38‑39)), but has died with Christ to sin itself, the root principle which causes the mischief. Christ has died, and we have died—we are ended; not mended, but ended. Happy he who believes it, who reckons with God, and knows it in power in his soul. (Rom. 6:1111Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:11)). The old I has come to an end. (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)).
Now where do you stand? Forgiven, justified, righteous before God in Christ—a new creation, etc. (2 Cor. 5:1717Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)). The Scripture teems with the blessing that belongs to all who learn they are past mending. They reckon with God that they have come to an end at the cross, and that they are alive to Him in Christ on the other side of death, clad with heaven’s best robe.
And not robed only, we are also shod; we are fitted in the power of the Holy Ghost to walk worthy of Him, who has so graciously dealt with us and given us such a wondrous place and portion before Him forever.
Reader, are you mended or ended?
E. H. C.