Matthew 22:13, commentary and pictures

When the king comes in to examine the guests he finds a man without the wedding garment he himself freely provided at his own cost, and when questioned the man is speechless without excuse or defense, so the king commands that he be bound hand and foot and cast out from the feast into outer darkness of grief and anguish. The garment is the righteousness of Christ alone, prepared at infinite cost and offered freely to every soul, which alone fits a person to stand in the King's presence and sit at the marriage supper of the Lamb. To wear it is not mere profession or outward activity but to be washed and sanctified through the truth, with the old self put off, the heart made holy and obedient, and love, meekness, purity and right-doing becoming part of the character by faith. That inspection is the investigative judgment of all who profess to serve God, in which character, motives and deeds are examined from the heavenly records while probation still lasts, and to be cast into outer darkness is final rejection and exclusion from the kingdom with no second probation afterward. The speechless guest is the professed Christian who accepts the invitation yet refuses the garment, knowing and talking the truth without repentance, conversion and practice, and therefore merely coming is not enough but each must now repent, put on Christ by faith made complete in obedience, and be ready before the King comes.

Narrative Context and Sentence

The sentence falls when the king enters to inspect the wedding guests and finds one man with no wedding garment. He asks how the man came in without it, and the man is speechless, self-condemned, with no excuse or defense to offer. That inspection decides who is fit to share the inheritance of the righteous, and the outcome proves that many are called but few are chosen. The same obedience and high-principled service required of those first called is required of guests newly brought in, with no mistake allowed about those called.

At the king's command the servants bind the unprepared guest hand and foot, remove him from the feast, and cast him outside into outer darkness. There is weeping and gnashing of teeth, grief and anguish. Accepting the invitation alone is not enough; everyone who attends must be prepared, and one present yet not fitly prepared meets this fate. The judgment follows his refusal to wear what was offered and his insult to the giver, for which he could give no answer.

The wedding garment was the king's own gift, provided freely to every guest at his cost and making every provision for the feast. Wearing it showed respect to the one who spread the feast, so refusing to put it on dishonored the king, insulted the Lord, and abused His gracious offer. The guest accepted the invitation for his own advantage yet would not put on Christ in character nor receive the righteousness all must receive to become guests. His only neglect was refusing to put on what was provided for him, though he could talk the truth and knew from the Scriptures that his dependence was Christ.

The parable is a king's invitation coming from one vested with power to command, and refusing it lays deeper guilt than refusing a householder's supper, with punishment more dreadful than mere exclusion from presence and table. Making light of the command, pleading circumstances and supposed duties, and treating his messengers with scorn, despiteful use and slaying bring the king's wrath. That wrath destroys those murderers and burns their cities, and ends in casting into outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The gospel invitation goes out to all classes from the highways and hedges, including the poor and lowly in gross darkness, the halt and maimed, to a banquet prepared for rich and poor where every want is satisfied and men may find repose, peace, happiness and joy. Those who come therefore form a mixed company of true believers and outward professors who take their stand as believers yet have never put on Christ. Some refuse because they pride themselves in buying and selling and getting gain and think they cannot afford to lose worldly advantage, though they know acceptance requires putting off common citizen's dress and wearing the robe of Christ's righteousness as His church, married to Him as His bride. The invitation is a final call to prepare for Christ's soon coming and to the marriage supper of the Lamb, which must still be carried to places and people who have not heard it, including those still in bondage to ignorance and sin.

The same sentence is God's judgment against the slothful servant who neglects to train the talent committed to him. To every man is committed his work to train, and unfaithful missionary workers who are slipshod, negligent, and unwilling to improve in tact, grace and ability may expect dearth. The condemned servant excused his neglect by falsely charging God with being hard, reaping where He had not sown and gathering where He had not strawed, lying against God because he did not know Him at all. From this casting out arises the question whether anyone will be caught up to heaven by mistake, only to be bound and cast back out.

Meaning of Wedding Garment

The wedding garment is the righteousness of Christ, freely offered to every soul, and it alone fits a person for the King's presence and for a place at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Accepting the gospel invitation therefore requires more than coming to the feast; it requires receiving and practicing God's Word and coming clothed in that righteousness, for profession alone leaves a person unprepared at the final test. Those who rely on their own righteousness and do not reveal Christ's humility and likeness, who assent to truth but do not receive Christ as a personal Saviour or let truth purify daily life, who have not truly repented and remain lawbreakers, will be found wanting, excluded from the feast and from the kingdom, with an end of sorrow and anguish. The guest's own defiled garments were not fit for the king's presence, and by refusing the provided garment he insulted his Lord and abused His gracious offer. Faith is made complete through works seen in a changed character, and when Christ examines the guests the unclothed are bound and cast into outer darkness, showing the disobedient cannot enter the holy city or receive the tree of life.

That righteousness was prepared at infinite cost for every soul who comes, and no garment of human making gives a position of honor at the marriage supper. It is justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ, a dress prepared by the Lord Jesus Christ, woven in the loom of heaven and offered to the lowliest who will believe in Him as personal Saviour. Every invited guest is provided this robe of His righteousness, spotless as the pure white lily, proffered freely as the richest gift that can be bestowed on mortal man, which each person must give whole attention to securing and accepting in order to be brought in and seated at the feast. Worthiness to sit down comes from Christ's robe alone, which alone makes the sons and daughters of Adam members of the family in heaven. Salvation is not by superior intellect or refinement of ideas, nor by riches or honor, nor by thinking oneself complete and good and virtuous enough in oneself and resting on one's own merits; as violation of the law caused Adam to lose Eden, the disobedient without this garment can never enter through the gates of the city and in the end lose their souls.

Wearing the garment means a transformed character required of all who are fit to share in the union of humanity with divinity represented by the marriage. It is a spotless character washed in the blood of the Lamb, putting off the old corrupt self and putting on the new self created in righteousness and true holiness, partaking of the divine nature and escaping worldly corruption through obedience to Christ's words. Righteousness is right-doing, and deeds reveal whether faith is genuine, for belief or profession or teaching the truth without Christ revealed in righteous works is not enough, and those who enjoy the privileges of truth without being transformed are excluded. This change comes by being washed and sanctified through the truth and the Holy Spirit's work, becoming Christlike and obedient to God's commandments, with speech changed and faith standing in God's power. To refuse it is to choose fellowship with the world, to live as the world lives, to join its schemes and misrepresent the truth in life practice, while the King when He examines the guests sees the true character and motives of every man as written in His book, which no cover of pretentious righteousness can deceive. Unless the righteousness of Christ as defined in John 6 is accepted the garment is not on, and continuing in sin hinders God from fulfilling His promise though He will fulfill every specification of it.

Having the garment on is shown by denying self daily, taking up the cross, and following in the footsteps of the Saviour, willingly and cheerfully obeying His commands without questioning whether to do so. Those who follow Christ do not live to please themselves or absorb means to flatter their own vanity and prideful display, but work as He worked. Striving after position and wealth is inconsistent with wearing it while souls are perishing out of Christ, for the motives of selfishness and ambition and the reward the world offers are feeble and worthless beside the lessons Christ has given in His Word and the reward offered by the heavenly Father. By the garment they wear they show they are ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb, and they convey its invitation to others both in the message they bear and in the garment itself, proclaiming the rich repast of truth and the redemption Christ offers to the world and testifying to His atoning death which prepared the feast.

A person's own defiled garments, citizen's dress, and self-provided clothing of self-righteousness, merit, or claimed worthiness are unfit for the feast and God does not acknowledge them. No one can enter relying on a garment of his own righteousness instead of the one prepared for the guests, for fixing the eyes on the purity and excellence of Jesus shows each person lost and hopeless, clad in garments of self-righteousness like every other sinner, with no holiness of his own. Clinging to that dress instead of accepting the dress prepared leaves a person improperly dressed and exposed, and rejecting the gift insults the Lord, abuses His gracious kindness, and brings separation from Him. Those in their own citizen's garments are professed people of God who lean upon others instead of making God their dependence, to whom the humility and meekness and lowliness of Christ is not attractive, who persist in stubborn self-will and cherish traits of character that unfit them to see and understand the working of the Spirit of God. Members are to remain joined to Christ as His bride and not defile their garments, but be clothed in the robe of His righteousness and not their own citizen's dress.

The righteousness meant is holiness, uprightness, purity, and righteousness dwelling in the heart by faith, consisting of love, forbearance, meekness, and all the Christian virtues laid hold of and becoming a part of the being. The imputed righteousness of Christ never covers cherished sins, and without holiness no man shall see God, though God gives divine power to every soul to combine with human effort to obtain it, and all who have this righteousness will work the works of God. Abiding in Christ means choosing only the disposition of Christ with entire, unreserved surrender of own will, own wisdom, self-justification, selfish reasoning, and self-life for Him to order, mold, and fashion, giving up self to identify His interests with their own and becoming as a little child. Admission is measured not by human size but by size as the full stature of a man in Christ Jesus according to knowledge given, so that only very, very few will be admitted through the door to sit with Christ. Those who remain tall and well-proportioned in self, grown-up children with childish habits who have nurtured suspicions, criticisms, bad temper, self-dignity, distrust, want of confidence, and accusation, who educate themselves to pick flaws and reveal deformity of character that makes families unhappy and turns souls from truth to fables, cannot be permitted to spoil the feast, for within the door nothing can enter that can mar the happiness and perfect trust of the dwellers in one another, and they can never see the King in His beauty unless they themselves represent the loveliness of Christ's character.

Judgment Taught by Verse

The king's coming in to inspect the guests is the investigative judgment, in which those who profess to serve God are examined while still living by the records of heaven to determine who is fit to share the inheritance of the righteous. In that examination the true character and motives and deeds of every person are seen and written in the book, and no cover of pretentious righteousness can deceive the examiner. The wedding garment examined for is a spotless character washed in the blood of the Lamb, which is Christ's own righteousness imparted through faith to those who receive Him, and only those whose deeds reveal genuine faith by meeting the King's requirement are accepted and accounted worthy of a place in the kingdom. Those found without it are exposed as unfit, self-condemned by their speechlessness, removed from the feast and rejected, and there is no second probation after this life in which to prepare.

The King who examines is Jesus, and when He finds a guest without the garment the terrible fate of rejection and loss follows. The mixed company gathered by the gospel call to all classes includes both true believers and those who outwardly take their stand as believers but have never put on Christ, yet the work of refusing admittance and binding and casting out the unready belongs to the King alone and is not given to any human being. Servants cannot take responsibility to shut out any who may come, though they are still required to carry out the Bible rule in regard to disorderly members. Undecided souls in peril must therefore decide at once, break Satan's chains, become wholly the Lord's, and seek Jesus for strength to overcome the world and perverted appetite and walk in humble obedience.

To be bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness is final rejection and exclusion from the feast and from the kingdom of heaven, dismissal from the heavenly banquet, and the Lord's final refusal to acknowledge those who would not openly stand as His people in life. Those who profess Christianity but rely on their own righteousness and do not reveal Christ's humility and likeness, who assent to truth but do not receive Christ as personal Saviour or let truth purify daily life, will be found wanting and unprepared at the final test. Outcasts who grasp the hope set before them in the gospel will enter, while those blessed with great opportunities and great light which they did not improve will be left in outer darkness, and their end is sorrow and anguish.

Readiness must be secured in this life before probation ends and the King comes, for His coming may catch people unawares. To be without the garment is to be unready when probation closes and the end comes, and the garment is the robe of Christ's righteousness put on now by forming a character fit for the home Christ has made ready for those who obey His commandments. Those who refuse warning and the offer of pardon have no second invitation after probation closes; at the judgment Christ exposes each person's purposes and choices, destiny is fixed according to choice and deeds, the wicked are punished with fiery wrath, and their history is closed forever. Admission to heaven is therefore not simply being received as one is, and the warning is to take heed and watch lest hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and that day come and find one naked and ashamed.

The sentence proves that many are called but few are chosen, for when the king asks how the man came in without the garment the man is speechless with no excuse, and the command to bind him and throw him outside into darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth follows. Only very, very few will be admitted through the door to sit with Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb, measured not by human size but by the full stature of a man in Christ Jesus according to knowledge given. All who enter have on the garment woven in the loom of heaven, which is abiding in Christ with entire surrender of will, wisdom, self-justification, selfish reasoning and self-life for Him to order, mold and fashion, choosing only the disposition of Christ.

Those taken out of His presence cannot love or enjoy it because they have not educated themselves to be at home in heaven, and heaven would be no place of joy to them because nothing there harmonizes with the selfish characters, habits and tastes they formed. They loved, admired and glorified themselves, refused to come out from the world and be separate, and did not learn to take His yoke, bear His burdens and labor together with Him, so they cannot appreciate the rest He purchased with His life. Others whose hearts are filled with vanity and conceit, with self given first place and Christ hidden, measuring themselves and one another by outward appearance and costly apparel, will when they see His glory know they are not ready because they made no necessary preparation, and are left with the blood of souls on their garments in sad disappointment and anguish.

Those who rely on their own righteousness and form character by their own will rather than accepting Christ's righteousness deceive themselves and others, may lead others astray, and ultimately share the deceiver Satan's punishment represented by being cast into outer darkness.

Persons Represented by Guest

The speechless guest is the professed guest who accepts the invitation for advantage yet refuses the garment, claiming the Christian name, professing to be a child of God and to believe the truth, while remaining unchanged, unconverted and unsanctified, without repentance, faith in Christ, or transformation of life. Professing faith is not enough without seeking and receiving Christ's righteousness and becoming sanctified through the truth, for those who rely on their own righteousness and do not reveal Christ's humility and likeness will be found unprepared at the final test and excluded from the kingdom to sorrow and anguish. The garment was provided at infinite cost for every soul who comes, and the only neglect is refusing to put it on, so those who consent to come yet refuse the garments of Christ's righteousness are bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. As violation of the law caused Adam to lose Eden, the disobedient without this garment violate God's law, think themselves complete and good and virtuous enough in themselves, rest on their own merits with faith never made perfect by works, and can never enter through the gates of the city nor have right to the tree of life, but in the end lose their souls and are rejected into outer darkness.

He is the one who knows Bible truth and can talk it and teach it, yet keeps it in the outer court, does not bring it into the soul or practice it, and lives a careless, Christless life that misrepresents the Redeemer while relying on profession, outward activity, or his own merits. He knew from the Scriptures that his only dependence was Jesus Christ, yet would not put on Christ in character nor receive the righteousness of Christ which all must receive to become guests of Christ, and thus represents a class who profess to be children of God but refuse to represent Christ to the world and dishonor their Lord. Seeking the crown is not enough; one must strive lawfully, doing God's will rather than relying on profession or outward religious activity while refusing obedience to the truth received, for claiming to believe or teaching the truth does not suffice when a person lives by unrighteous works. Those who have had every privilege of knowing Bible truth but have not brought it into the inner sanctuary of the soul have nominally accepted the truth without practising it, have names on church books but no registration in the book of life because they have never been converted and have not come out of self into Christ, coming instead in clothing woven on their own loom from their own wardrobe.

This includes those who in love of ease and selfish indulgence neglect perishing souls, misuse entrusted talents instead of returning honest, faithful service, and though feeling at liberty to come to the supper refuse to put on Christ's robe. To refuse the garment, which is obedience to Christ's words and partaking of the divine nature and escaping worldly corruption, is to choose fellowship with the world, to live as the world lives, to join its schemes, and to misrepresent the truth of God in life practice, with warnings given that if unheeded leave the rejecter given over to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Knowing the truth does not suffice when it has no sanctifying power in the life: those who spread evil reports and watch for others' faults while neglecting their own, who criticize others while neglecting their own character, have not put on that garment and will be dismissed from the heavenly banquet. Though professedly circumcised they are in practice among the uncircumcised, walking with the uncircumcised in covetousness, spending God's means on display and cherishing suspicion, bad temper, self-importance, distrust and accusation that would mar heaven's trust and happiness, and God holds them accountable and will not spare them any more than the veriest sinner, but will destroy them with the uncircumcised.

The sentence applies with more especial force to the Christian world today who claim to believe in Christ, and to the Jewish nation deciding its own destiny as a nation divorced from God. They had all the privileges and opportunities of the richest banquet ever presented to man, yet by rejecting the only begotten Son of God forever separated themselves from God. The self-deceived man who presented himself without the garment had set up his own standard of character that he deemed righteous and did not realize his need of the righteousness of Christ, and this pictures the Jewish nation when Christ came, who were satisfied with their own self-righteousness and would have none of Jesus. They did not appreciate the incomprehensible love of God in giving Christ to be Mediator and representative of God to man, to be the intercessor invested with the fullness of divine love, and to be the necessary Advocate at the right hand of God.

Outcasts who grasp the hope set before them in the gospel will enter the kingdom, while those who were blessed with great opportunities and great light which they did not improve will be left in outer darkness, shut out of the kingdom of heaven. The wedding garment is Christ's righteousness, which goes before rescuers and clothes homeless, hopeless outcasts when they look upon the Saviour hanging on the cross in inexpressible love and make the kingdom of heaven their choice with a decision to live for Christ. Workers compel them to come by kindness, washing, clothing and feeding them, preaching Christ the Restorer and great Medical Missionary, encouraging faith, prayer, the temperance pledge, and healing of body and abused intellect, holding fast until they become sane, believe, and live for Christ with carefully guided willpower, watchful oversight, and useful work to win back manhood and womanhood. Some whom leaders neglect or mistreat are among those Christ is preparing for a place at His table, for the wedding feast pictures a place Christ is preparing for people to share, and the garment represents readiness for that place.

The guest pictures the self-deceived who measure character by their own ideas rather than God's standard, presume in matters where eternal interests are involved, and will lose their souls because they do not agree with the standard God has given. The parable presents the marriage of humanity with divinity and shows the standard of character each must reach to be counted a fit guest, and unless the righteousness of Christ as defined in John 6 is accepted the garment is not on; God will fulfill every specification of His promise, but continuing in sin hinders Him, so all who decide for Christ must take a firm stand and surrender to God what is already His own. To remain in evil and in departures from righteousness is to remain feeble in moral power, lacking the grace of Christ, with no right to claim pardon and to put on the robe of Christ's righteousness. Seeing this should fill the heart with humiliation and sorrow over the influence of personal departures from righteousness on others who learned how to act, leading to striving to break the yoke of habit and to cease to do evil, for thorough preparation is necessary for the judgment, self-righteousness cannot provide Christ's righteousness, late attempts to gain entry cannot undo loss, and neglect also influences others to remain unprepared and improperly dressed and not accepted.

Preparation and Warning for Readers

Coming to the feast is not enough without the preparation the King requires, and the guest who attends without it is removed and cast into outer darkness where there is grief and anguish. Receiving the gospel invitation means receiving and practicing God's Word and coming clothed in Christ's righteousness, putting on Christ through repentance, confession, and peace made with God. That righteousness is right-doing, and deeds show whether faith is genuine, for belief or profession without Christ revealed in righteous works will not protect anyone in the day of God. Those condemned are those who break God's law, who think themselves complete and good and virtuous enough, who claim to be Christians with no change of character, no true repentance, no faith in Christ, resting on their own merits with faith never made perfect by works. As violation of the law caused Adam to lose Eden, so the disobedient without this garment can never enter through the gates of the city nor have right to the tree of life, but lose their souls and are rejected into outer darkness.

The King who examines the guests is Jesus, and to be found by Him without the garment means rejection and loss, leaving undecided souls in peril. They must decide at once, break Satan's chains, become wholly the Lord's, and seek Jesus without delay, for without Him there is no strength to overcome the world and perverted appetite and to walk in humble obedience. The time of probation is the time to recognize need and humble oneself before God, for the time is short and everyone must be prepared by accepting the robe of Christ's righteousness and having the peace of Christ, lest they be found naked and ashamed when the day comes unawares. Preparation requires resisting the devil that he may flee, because Satan is working with great power through the children of disobedience to destroy souls, and many who expect to share in the marriage supper are blind to their danger. Those in the citizen's garments lean upon others instead of making God their dependence, find the humility and meekness and lowliness of Christ unattractive, persist in stubborn self-will, cherish impurity, faultfinding, and traits that unfit them to see and understand the Spirit's working, and are led by another spirit. The warning presses with deepest interest now: have eyes anointed to discern clearly, maintain vital connection with the great Leader, give a certain warning sound, and prepare for the conflict before us.

Those who follow Christ no longer live the old ignorant citizen life to please themselves nor absorb means to flatter vanity, but work as He worked. Their speech is changed, their conversation runs in altogether another line, and their faith stands not in human wisdom but in the power of God, wearing truth as it is in Jesus, the white linen of a clean pure character. By the garment they wear they show they are ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb and convey its invitation to others. In the message they bear and in the garment itself they proclaim the rich repast of truth and the redemption Christ offers to the world, testifying to His atoning death which prepared the feast.

Preaching this parable makes a solemn meeting that brings deep seriousness, sorrow for meetings missed, resolve to miss none while opportunity remains, and pressure on the church to stand where it is its privilege to stand as laborers together with God. The warning applies to one who joins the people of God yet is not prepared for the feast, who can share the guest's fate of exclusion from the kingdom of heaven. Those who refuse warning and the offer of pardon and salvation have no second invitation after probation closes; at the judgment Christ exposes each person's purposes and choices and the sentence fixes destiny according to works. The wicked are then punished with the fiery wrath of God, and their history closes forever.