Words–their meanings and the ideas they convey–are important to me. Yes, it’s because I write. But it’s also because I am alive. Because God created us as communicative beings. First to communicate with Him, then with one another. But the aliveness of words, and especially words that pertain to God, both His nature and our lives in Christ, always takes me by surprise. Such as when you’ve sung the same string of words a hundred times but suddenly one line comes alive with meaning you’ve not connected to it before.
That happened to me in church in weekend. We were singing the hymn “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less,” a hymn I love and even used in my most recent novel, Playing by Heart. We were singing the newish arrangement, and as we came to the final verse, I sang these words:
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found,
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!
Suddenly the reality struck me. One day I will stand before throne of God clothed in nothing more than Christ’s righteousness. That image immediately took me back to Genesis, to Adam and Eve and their relationship with God before sin. They were naked and unashamed. That is the state to which I return when I am clothed in the righteousness of Christ and only His righteousness. Nothing more. No covering of my own works or my own goodness. No stain of sin.
Clothed in His righteousness alone, I will stand, faultless, before the Father and commune with Him in the same sweet perfection as Adam and Eve in the garden.
I hope you find that image as encouraging as I did!