In the last gem we read about the great 'wedding', the re-uniting of Christ with His people. (click here to read the last gem if you haven't already done so).

Do you want to be part of this wonderful event? I certainly do, and I'm sure you do too. Do you remember what the requirement was? Yes, the wedding garment was the essential thing.

Let's take a look at this wonderful article and how God so graciously makes it available to every person living today.

"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints." - Revelation 19:7-9

What do you read in this verse about the wedding garment that the bride or God's people must be wearing? It is clean, white, fine linen which represents what? Yes, the righteousness of the saints.

Righteousness is a big word... simply meaning: "Purity of heart and rectitude of life; conformity of heart and life to the divine law." - Webster's 1828 dictionary

Purity... Conformity to the divine law of love... these are the conditions of entry.

Consider. Why are we here? Why does the terrible tide of wickedness sweep this world today? Of course, we know it was because the divine law of love was broken and a different spirit, a spirit of selfishness began to control mankind.

So in the wedding robe, we see the opposite of sin. Righteousness! This, dear reader, is what God wants to see in us. This is the condition of entrance into the heavenly land. From Eden lost to Eden restored the condition of entry has always remained the same. Obedience to the law of love, God's ten-commandments!

Imagine the whole world was a seething pit of mud, and you are stuck in the middle, covered from head to toe in mud. Can you make yourself clean? I mean, it's an impossibility right? So, all have been covered with the mud of sin. It is impossible ourselves to be clean because without God's help, everything we touch becomes filthy. And this is the powerful news of the gospel!

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." - Romans 1:16-17

Who's righteousness is revealed in the gospel? "the righteousness of God"!

"Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God" - Romans 3:24-25

Do you know what 'justified' means? It literally means just-as-if-ied never sinned! To the repenting believing sinner God promises to "declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past". That means, no matter how dark your past may be the promise of the God who cannot lie is to credit to you His righteousness, His perfect life, instead of your past life of sin. Through the indescribable gift of God in sending Jesus to suffer the sinner's death, the sinner may be justified, forgiven and made clean.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." - 1. John 1:9

So the sinner stands. Sins confessed, with a broken and contrite heart the he claims the promises of God. Now a new life opens before him. The old tendencies are still struggling for supremacy. But now a new power is at his command.

"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." - Galatians 5:24

"...and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" - Galatians 2:20

This, dear reader, is the experience of the converted Christian. A life lived by faith, surrendered to the will of God, is an obedient, righteous life, thanks to the power of God! This is the experience which prepares one to enter heaven.

There are so many more promises in the Bible we could spend hours going through them! But nonetheless let's close with the knowledge that we serve a loving merciful God. He promises to forgive and cleanse the repenting sinner from all unrighteousness, and 'clothe' him with His own righteousness. And as we surrender ourselves to God, He imparts more grace and power so we can continue to live a life in harmony with Him, and are thereby fitted to enter the marriage supper of the lamb!

"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh [himself] with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth [herself] with her jewels." - Isaiah 61:10