Matthew 22:2, 3, 10-13
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding…
So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Many a time the question has been asked: “What was the wedding garment?”
BENJAMIN KEACH (1640-1704): The garment of salvation is Christ’s righteousness.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The perfect righteousness of Christ is “upon all those who believe,” Romans 3:22. It is their “wedding garment”—“the best robe,” Luke 15:22, by which they are covered.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Not only Christ is made righteousness to His people (1 Corinthians 1:30), but they are made “the righteousness of God in Him,” 2 Corinthians 5:21; His righteousness is put upon them, and imputed to them, so that they are righteous as He is righteous…This is imputed to the elect of God by the Father, through a gracious act of His, and what they are clothed and covered with by the Son, and is put upon them and applied unto them by the Spirit; and which faith receiving puts off its own rags of righteousness, and makes use of this as its proper dress to appear in before the most High.
THOMAS WILCOX (1622-1687): Poor ragged nature, with all its highest improvements, can never spin a garment fine enough—without spot—to cover the soul’s nakedness. Nothing can do it but Christ’s perfect righteousness.
C. H. SPURGEON: It may be said to be Christ’s righteousness imputed to us, for alas, many nominal Christians kick against the doctrine of justification by the righteousness of the Saviour and set up their own self-righteousness in opposition to it. To be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but having the righteousness which is of God by faith, is a very prominent badge of a real servant of God, and to refuse it is to manifest opposition to the glory of God, and to the name, person, and work of his exalted Son…The true saint wears the wedding garment, but he owns that the Lord of the feast provided it for him, without money and without price.
A. W. PINK: And thus may each one say, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,” Isaiah 61:10.
C. H. SPURGEON: But we might with equal truth say that the wedding dress is a holy character, the imparted righteousness which the Holy Spirit works in us, and which is equally necessary as a proof of grace. If you question such a statement, I would remind you of the dress which adorns the saints in heaven. What is said of it? “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” Revelation 7:14. Their robes therefore were such as once needed washing; and this could not be said in any sense of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ; that was always perfect and spotless. It is clear then that the figure is sometimes applied to saints in reference to their personal character.
A W. PINK: Righteousness imputed, and righteousness imparted, constitute our salvation.
JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): The righteousness of Christ―first imputed, then implanted.
C. H. SPURGEON: Holiness is always present in those who are loyal guests of the great King, for “without holiness no man shall see the Lord,” Hebrews 12:14. Too many professors pacify themselves with the idea that they possess imputed righteousness, while they are indifferent to the sanctifying work of the Spirit. They refuse to put on the garment of obedience…This man without the wedding garment is the type of those who, in these days, pretend to be Christians.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): This man was not naked, or in rags; some raiment he had, but not a wedding garment―this hypocrite was never discovered to be without a wedding garment, till the king himself came in to see the guests.
CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): Matthew says, the king “saw there a man which had not on wedding garment. And he saith unto him, “Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment.” The little word not appeared twice over, but it is not the same Greek word on those two occasions. The first word, ‘Ou,’ simply marks a fact; he had it not on. But when the king asked him the reason, Jesus used a slightly different word for ‘not,’ ‘Me,’ which suggests not merely the fact that he lacked the wedding garment, but that he did so definitely―of his own thought, and will, and intention. When the man came in not having a wedding garment, and the king talked to him, he said, “it is not only a fact that you have not a wedding garment; you did not intend having one. Your ‘not’ is the definite not of not willing. You are determined not to have it on. Your presence in here is the supreme sign of your rebellion.”—“And he was speechless;” he had nothing to say.
C. H. SPURGEON: The original Greek says, “he was muzzled.” He may have talked glibly enough before the King came in; he had not a word to say afterwards. Eloquent silence that! Why did he not even then fall on his knees, and seek forgiveness for his daring crime? Alas! pride made him incapable of repentance; he would not yield even at the last moment. There is no defense for a man who is in the Church of Christ, but whose heart is not right towards God.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The true believer embraces His righteousness as the wedding garment, whereby alone he expects admission to the marriage-feast of heaven.
C. H. SPURGEON: The King still comes in to see the guests who have accepted his royal invitation to his Son’s wedding. Woe be to any whom He finds without the wedding garment!―If the Lord our God were to come into His church today there would be an awful shrinkage among the number of His guests; a panic would seize the assembly, and the door would be blocked with men hastening to escape His eye.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): But there will be no deception at the last day. The unerring eye of God will discern who are His own people, and who are not. Nothing but true faith shall abide the fire of His judgment. All spurious Christianity shall be weighed in the balance and found lacking. None but true believers shall sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb. It shall avail the hypocrite nothing that he has been a loud talker about religion, and had the reputation of being an eminent Christian among men.
JOHN GILL: Such as are without the wedding garment―the robe of Christ’s righteousness―shall be cast into outer darkness.
