Q. “P. J. F.” (1) What is meant by their “robes,” in Revelation 7:14, and Revelation 22:14?
(2) What does washing their robes signify!
(3) Why are they said to do it, or to have done it, rather than having it done for them?
A. (1) Their “robes” is a figure of speech to express that in which a man appears before God.
(2) Washing their robes signifies that they have cleansed them before God, by washing them in the blood of the Lamb.
(3) There is no special force in their having done it themselves. They have gone by faith and appropriated the value of the blood of Him by whom, and in virtue of which they have been washed. It is man’s side, so to say — the subjective. You find in Revelation 1:5,6, the Lord’s side, or objective, and most certainly in their case, as for all, it is done by Him, however faith may appropriate the action. But faith having done so, He counts in tender grace the action to the person who by faith laid hold of His work. All the sufferings were His, by which we are saved; yet He delights to say, “Thy faith hath saved thee”! Not, My blood hath saved thee; though that is blessedly true: but the faith in the sinner who read His heart, and trusted the love which He came to make known.