(Note: This is from one morning of reading)
"Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” (Zec 3:3-4)
"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. (Jn 6:63)
"Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" (Rev 7:10)
"They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Rev 7:14)
Where does one start with a buffet like this? Perhaps the sequence laid out here is as good as any other ordering.
In Zechariah, as the people are returning from their exile in Babylon, God is giving them assurance that He is still in the midst of all that is happening. Yet in chapter 3, and throughout the book, Zechariah's prophecies transcend the current context and point to something yet to come. So here is God's promise to us made well before Christ died, made well before Jesus was even born (or conceived) that He would take away our iniquity. The thing that would keep Joshua the high priest from entering God's presence is the same thing that would keep us from ever entering God's presence. That is our sin, our iniquity, our broken, rebellious, idolatrous heart. And God doesn't limit himself to sin removal. He also clothes us in the righteousness of Christ. So, the promise stands "I have taken away your iniquity and I will clothe you with pure vestments"
What can I say about John 6 that hasn't already been said by better men than me? I really have two different tracks, one of which I may pick up tomorrow. Today, however, I simply want to bask in the God-centeredness and Christ-centeredness of the gospel. Of course, to be the true gospel, it has to be God-centered and Christ-centered, but it so easily slides into something less. Just read from verse 25 to verse 45 and observe the references to Christ's activity or God's activity. On my quick count there are 24 references in those 21 verses to either Christ's activity or God's activity (plus one reference to the Spirit). Even the dreaded vs 37 is both God-centered and Christ-centered, with God giving and Jesus not casting out. The point? Worship, of course. And a call to simple, yet profound faith. And confidence that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are in control of this thing called salvation and we are graciously swept up in it, nourished by it, restored through it and preserved because of it.
I have come to love the book of Revelation as a poetic, picturesque way of painting the truths of the other 65 books of the Bible. That doesn't make it less true, just like Psalms is not less true than Romans. One just needs to read them differently. The image in the second half the Rev 7 is always encouraging. There will be a multitude in heaven that no one can count. God's saving work is ultimately successful. Even in our driest fruit bearing seasons, we can look here and say the gospel still saves, Christ still saves, God still saves. And this salvation always leads back to worship of the One who sits on the throne and of the Lamb. Interestingly, the image in chapter 7 ends by stating that those of us who are in the great multitude will receive pure white robes (i.e. vestments) that have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. Now there is a Bible connection worthy of an Amen!
To God Alone be the Glory
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