WHITE ROBES Part 2

The wisdom of the fathers

WHITE ROBES??Part 2

Having noticed the term "robe," let us look particularly to the word "white." This word indicates a visible representation of purity. A robe, or habit, implies the idea of gradual accumulation, but whiteness, or purity, is an effect that can be wrought instantaneously. The robe woven by habit is the work of the creature, but the whiteness, the cleansing from defilement, is a supernatural work, a Divine act, to be received in a moment by simple trust in the promise.?So far as the robe is implied, it is our weaving; so far as it concerns the whiteness, it is of Divine cleansing; and as to the thickness and foldings of the robe, it is gradual; but as to its spotlessness, it is instantaneous.

3. We see in the Scripture use of this term "white robes," the proper conjunction of the Divine and creature working, and the utter untruthfulness of the idea that Christ covers us over with His own personal robe of holiness. The saints "washed?their?robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Surely Christ's own personal habits and powers needed no washing, and the thought of washing His own robe in His own blood is absurd; but our habits are sinful, and even after we have been regenerated our interior heart-habits are not all white till by faith we wash them from all sin in the blood of the Lamb. The robe is our own personal robe, the whiteness is Divine; and then the length, the thickness, the beauty of the robe, will depend upon the rapidity and fervor of our habits of holiness.

(from " White Robes" by G.D. Watson)