“For All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls”. (1 Peter 1:24)
One of the highest tenor in the holy scriptures is the divine glory of God which reveals God as the most glorious being in existence. The only Eternal God.
Linking the glory of God to men, the scripture reveals that human beings are created in the Image of God but beyond that, those who have given their lives to Jesus Christ can draw from God’s divine glory. (1 Peter 5:10).
Jesus, being the express image and glory of God came to give eternal life to as many as will receive and obey him.
Jesus came to remove Satan’s borrowed robes of vanities from our lives and give us back our original robe of glory made for men before the inglorious fall of Adam.
Concerning this task God said: “ Do not hold them back.’ Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed even whom I have made.” (Is.43:7).
Essentially, God is calling men to align their lives purpose to the will of God. Any other thing less than this is a life being lived in borrowed robes, a caricature of the original.
No matter how successful such a life seems now, if it is not lived in alignment to the will of God, it is at best ephemeral.
About the temporal nature of the glory of this world the Bible says:
�“For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever”. (1 John 2:16-17). �
What does it mean to live in a borrowed robe? For example It suggests being a pretender to a throne that doesn’t belong to us.
In the course of our teaching it means living a life or aspiring to success without equally aspiring to the character of the one and only glorious God.
Who offers these borrowed robes to men? The devil.
Just as God wants men to share in his rich robe of eternal glory the devil on his own part continues to seduce men with borrowed robes of vanity, pride, self glory and a life of material gains without godliness, so that they can share in his eternal robe of shame.
Concerning the devil’s robe of shame the Bible gives us a glimpse of his fall from glory and his end:
�”How you are fallen from heaven, �O Lucifer, son of the morning! �How you are cut down to the ground, �…..For you have said in your heart: …I will be like the Most High. Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit. (Is. 14:12-15).
The phrases, pride goes before a fall, and falling from grace to grass obviously have a lot in common with the text above. (Proverbs 16:18-19).
Therefore, the objective of the devil here is to deceive the heart of men to the point of exchanging the eternal robe that God offers in Christ for the temporal robe of this world, and ultimately taking men down with him.
This is why the Bible asks that invaluable question: “ what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”. (Mark 8:37).
The answer to this question lies in Jesus. The grace of God in Christ is asking all men to give up all sins, open or secret, big or small, for a rich and eternal robe of the Father.
God is asking us to exchange our selfishness, pride, self importance, and indulgence for the humble robe of humility and the simplicity found in Christ.
God does not want anyone to perish with Satan but rather wants everyone to come to repentance by exchanging all borrowed robes of Satan that leads to hell for the eternal robe of Jesus which leads to heaven. (2 Peter 3:9).
Christ offers a way out saying “ Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls”. (Matthew 11:29).
Reading
Ezekiel 28:14-17
