Clothed in the Imputed Righteousness of Immanuel, by John MacDuff (1818 – 1895)

Can we, as voyagers on the sea of life, make such a declaration that all in which we once trusted and gloried, as a ground of justification in the sight of God, we toss overboard in order that the giant deed of Christ’s doing and dying may stand out alone in solitary grandeur? “Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” 

“Accepted in the Beloved,” says Hedley Vicars, “What a healing balm is there here for a weary, heavy-laden sinner!”

And if being clothed in the imputed righteousness of Immanuel is a blessed truth to live on, what a blessed truth to die on! What a joyous garment this, with which to wrap around us when the billows are high and we are plunging into Jordan! We can imagine when that solemn hour arrives, when, perhaps suddenly, we are laid on the pillow from which we are to rise no more, and when, despite our well-grounded confidence in the Gospel, gloomy visions and memories of former guilt will gather around, filling us with trembling and dismay—oh! in the midst of the thick darkness, to feel clothed with a garment, which the rush of waters cannot penetrate, and of which the King of terrors cannot rob us—the robe which we received at the cross, and which we are to wear before the throne!

The Robe of Righteousness

Yes, children of God, of every age, rank, and experience, tune your hearts and lips for the joyous strain.

• Aged believers, sing it! You whose earthly pilgrim garments are soiled and travel-worn, but whose robe of righteousness is fresh as in the day of your betrothals with the Heavenly Bridegroom.
• Young believers, sing it! You who may have but recently stood at the marriage altar with your Lord and received at His hands the glistering apparel; who may have had a long journey, it may be, still to travel, before you reach the King’s Palace.
• Sorrowing believers, sing it! Take down your harps from the willows of sadness. You are in mourning attire, but through your garments, there shines this “clothing of wrought gold,” which the shadows of death and the grave cannot dim or alloy.

Let the whole Church of the living God, divided on other themes—mute with other songs—kindle into holy rapture with this

“Jesus, Your blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
‘Mid flaming worlds, in these array’d,
With joy I shall lift up my head.

“This spotless robe the same appears
When ruined nature sinks in years;
No age can change its glorious hue—
The robe of Christ is ever new.

“And when the dead shall hear Your voice,
And all Your banish’d ones rejoice,
Their beauty this, their glorious dress—
JESUS THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS!”

“To the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.”

[Excerpted from “Rest and Refreshment in the Valleys” by John MacDuff, 1879]