Clothed in righteousness

Clothing metaphors have long been associated in Protestantism with imputed righteousness: “Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness / My beauty are, my spotless dress.” Being “clothed with Christ” is definitely a New Testament metaphor, and the image of being “clothed in the Spirit” has deep roots in the Old Testament.

In Revelation 19:7-8, though, the bride who is the church is clothed in righteous acts of the holy ones. She clothes herself in the bright clean linen of righteous acts. She clothes herself in the bright clean linen of her own righteous acts. She gets prepared for her wedding with the Lamb by putting on the luminous acts of righteousness that she herself has done.

Johannine Pelagianism?

No. Revelation 19:8 begins with, “it was given to her.” She clothes herself, the righteousness of her clothing is her own righteous acts. But that linen and those righteous acts are sheer gift. The either-or of grace v. works doesn’t fit here. Rather, a “because-therefore” relationship: Precisely because she is given to clothe herself, she clothes herself; because she is given to do righteous acts, she does righteous acts that are truly her own.

Problems of grace and works, the “antimony” of sovereignty and human responsibility, neatly, succinctly resolved in a theology of gift.