Clothed in Righteousness

1 Samuel 18:1-4 tells the story of a binding friendship between Johnathan and David:

“The soul of Johnathan was knit to the soul of David, and Johnathan loved him as his own soul…Johnathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. And Johnathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David.”

A covenant exchange was a practice from ancient times in which two persons sealed a covenant by exchanging their clothing. This covenant was basically saying “I will become what you are, and you will become what I am, our souls will be knit together as one.” A beautiful picture of friendship.

One thing we must take notice of though is that Johnathan and David came from two very different backgrounds. Johnathan was a royal son of the King. He was probably dressed in some of the finest linens around. David on the other hand came from a meager background. He was a Shepard boy and a servant of the king. His cloak was  filthy from being out with the sheep all day. More than likely his clothes resembled rags.

Johnathan loved David so much though that he would willingly trade places with him and put on his dirt ridden,  sweat soaked, foul-smelling cloak.

This to me is such a beautiful picture of what Christ has done for us. He willingly put on a robe of sin in exchange for our salvation. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

This past Saturday I spent my day up at Skid Row in Los Angeles.  Most my time there was spent sorting through old clothes that were going to be passed out to the homeless. As I was sorting through them I barely wanted to touch the clothing with my fingertips. They were all splattered with a colorful array of stains (not a clue where they came from) and had a stench that was forever embedded in the fabric. I would never think of putting one of those filthy shirts over my head and trying it on for size.

Just think how absolutely disgusting David’s rags were, or better yet imagine how horribly gruesome our sin must look. Yet Christ willingly clothed himself in sin for our sake.

When David put on Johnathan’s robe he had a new identity, the son of a king. Dressed in the finest linens around he resembled royalty. I can just imagine David standing there probably feeling pretty wonderful about himself until he noticed Johnathan clothed in rags and realized that if it weren’t for him he would never be clothed this way. 1 John 4:10 says “This is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” He loved us even when we were clothed in our ugly sin. May we never forget the great exchange Christ made by putting on our robe of sin and clothing us in robes of righteousness!

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).

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