When you stand in front of the mirror, you need to know what you’re doing when you dress yourself. The question is—what message does your clothing convey? In this podcast, Scott Brown explores the doctrine of clothing given in the New Testament, showing how clothing can be a trap for favoritism and an expression of pride. How we dress ourselves should, instead, humbly declare the glory and mercy of God in our salvation, as Jesus was stripped on our behalf to clothe us with His robes of righteousness. 

Talking about the biblical doctrine of clothing we started out with making it clear that in the Old Testament clothing is to declare the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, which is a judicial act where God covers the sins of his children. He replaces our filthy garments with his robes of righteousness. Our garments are for beauty and glory, for manhood and womanhood and all the things that we talk about. But it's really critical that we understand that God created clothing for His glory. I really like the way that Abraham Kuyper talked about glorifying God and everything.

He said, there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign overall, does not cry, mine. And I think that applies directly to clothing. There's not one square inch of our garments that God does not declare that is mine. So when you stand in front of the mirror, you need to understand what you're doing. You're putting on clothing, which God created, which God created for a purpose to declare His glory.

Now, as we turn to the New Testament doctrine of clothing, we see these pictures of salvation in the New Testament. Like for example, in Matthew 22, verses 11 through 13, you have a man without wedding garments and the wedding garments, his clothing is actually a symbol of salvation And that's actually a really nice summary of what the Bible says about clothing. You go to James chapter 2 and you can see how clothing can be a trap for favoritism. And that scene in James chapter 2 verses 2 through 3, it's a picture of a rich man coming into the assembly and he's favored. A poor man coming in tattered clothing is diminished.

And you know, clothing can just be an expression of pride and James is just pointing out that we're vulnerable to the way that we view people and their clothing. When you get to the book of Revelation you find the saints dressed in white garments. They're dressed for purity. One of the most amazing things about what is said about clothing is about the clothing of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was stripped of his clothing and he was shamed.

And you know, every part of his clothing was a mockery in his suffering and crucifixion. And then what you find is that the men at the foot of the cross, the soldiers, they're gambling for his clothing and they're taking his clothing away. And this really is a picture of Jesus Christ being shamed for us. We're the ones that should have been stripped naked. We're the ones that should have been stripped naked.

We're the ones that should have had every part of our garments used as a mockery, the crown of thorns and and and our tunics. We should be mocked for our nakedness, but no, Jesus Christ was stripped on our behalf so that he would clothe us with his robes of righteousness. When you stand in front of the mirror, you need to know what you're doing. You are doing something to declare the glory of God, the mercy of God, in salvation that Jesus Christ has taken your filthy robes and replaced them with His beautiful Robes of righteousness that are bright and clean and pure. Scripture applied as a production of Church and Family Life.

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