The King Confronts the Man Without a Wedding GarmentBible World
22:14Matthew 22:14
For many are called, but few are chosen.
The verse closes the parable of a king making a marriage for his son, picturing the gospel covenant in which pardon, cleansing from sin, and free access to grace are provided. The king's call goes first to his own favored people and then in mercy into the highways and byways to all classes, both bad and good, until the wedding is furnished with guests. Many are called but few are chosen because merely receiving the invitation does not fit a person to remain; each guest must meet the King's requirement, pass His inspection, and wear the wedding garment. That garment is the righteousness of Christ received by faith, a spotless character woven in heaven and given freely, yet it must be put on through repentance, surrender, and obedience to God's commandments. The King's examination of the guests is the investigative judgment before the marriage, and this life is the only time to be clothed and made ready, for when probation closes and the door is shut there is no second invitation.
Parable Story and Setting
The saying closes a parable of a king making a marriage for his son. The marriage pictures the union of humanity with divinity and the gospel covenant, the science of salvation and saving grace. The feast is the blessing of pardon and removal of sins through free access to grace. Receiving the invitation alone does not make a guest fit to remain, for the king examines those who come and only those reaching God's standard of character are counted fit.
The king's invitation goes first to his chosen people, the Jews, the higher classes, teachers and leading men and those in high places. When those first bidden refuse, in mercy servants are sent into the highways and then to the byways and hedges to bid as many as are found. The call reaches all classes, Gentiles, the poor and lowly of the earth, those in gross darkness, and all nations that can be reached. Those gathered are both bad and good until the wedding is furnished with guests.
Those first bidden prove unworthy from love of worldly gain and lack of respect for the master of the feast. They make light of the ready dinner and go their ways to farm and merchandise, to buying and selling, planting and building, and getting gain, thinking they cannot afford to lose earthly good for the heavenly feast. They plead circumstances and supposed duties and respond no more favorably to a call that comes with much involved. They treat the king's messengers with scorn, spitefully entreat and slay the servants.
The call proceeds from one vested with power to command and confers high honor, yet the honor is unappreciated and the king's authority despised. Refusal therefore brings deeper insult, deeper guilt, and more dreadful punishment than refusal of a householder's supper. Indifference to a householder's invitation brings exclusion, so that none of the men bidden shall taste of his supper. Insult and murder toward the king bring more than exclusion from presence and table; in wrath he sends forth his armies and destroys those murderers and burns up their city.
When the king comes in to see the guests he requires the wedding garment and examines who has made preparation. He finds a man without the garment, a gift from the king whose wearing shows respect to him who made every provision. Asked how he came in, the man is speechless, for no profession or cover of pretentious righteousness deceives the one who reads every heart and writes true motives in his book. The king commands the servants to bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The decisive meaning of the call to the supper is found in this man, showing that being called to the wedding does not ensure acceptance and that many invited are not left as chosen.
Wedding Garment Explained
The wedding garment is the righteousness of Christ, a spotless character washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, the white linen of a clean and pure character woven in the loom of heaven. It has been prepared for every guest as a free gift provided at infinite cost, and it must be received by faith and put on in order to remain at the feast and find abundant entrance. Receiving the invitation to the marriage supper does not by itself make a person fit to remain, for the king examines those who come and casts out the guest found without the garment. The marriage represents the gospel covenant and the feast represents pardon, removal of sins, and free access to grace, and many are called but few are chosen because those invited must accept the provision of grace and be clothed in Christ's righteousness. Wealth and earthly honor cannot give title to heaven or take the place of this robe, and no one can save himself, for the robe is provided by Christ and wearing it prepares a person to meet the bridegroom and enter the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Wearing the garment shows respect to the king who made every provision for the feast, does honor to Christ, and shows that those who wear it are his church married to him as his bride. The dress prepared is justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ, received through entire dependence on Christ as Substitute and Surety who died that man might be saved. Fallen man has weakened faculties, is void of ability to take one step back to God, and cannot merit favor or make himself good enough, so nothing less than entire dependence is acceptable and only as divine power from the Son of God combines with human effort can man be an overcomer. This righteousness is a free gift received by faith from beginning to end, offered even to the lowliest who will believe in him as personal Saviour, and alone it can make the sons and daughters of Adam members of the family in heaven and give worthiness to sit at the feast. Salvation does not come by superior intellect or refinement, and acceptance comes through Christ's merits as people surrender self-righteousness, cooperate with him, stand on advantage ground, and become partakers of the divine nature.
The garment means a transformed, Christlike character expressing obedience to God's commandments. That righteousness means holiness, uprightness, and purity dwelling within by faith as love, forbearance, meekness, and all Christian virtues laid hold of to become part of the being, so that all who have it work the works of God and are shown in works of righteousness, for belief or profession alone is not enough. It is shown in a changed speech and life, in denying self, taking up the cross and following willingly and cheerfully without questioning, while striving after position and wealth beside perishing souls is inconsistent with wearing it. It is connected with sanctification through the truth, a living connection with God, and character built through receiving God and doing good, and speaking truth is not enough when a person does not live it, for sin must be forsaken and self crucified or religious offerings are worthless. The robes never cover cherished sins, and without holiness no one shall see God, yet God gives divine power to every soul to combine with human effort to become holy.
Coming without the garment means coming in one's own citizen's dress, raiment woven on one's own loom from one's own wardrobe. It means trusting self, merit, intellect, refinement, wealth or earthly honor, and thinking one's own defiled garments of self-righteousness are good enough to come into Christ's presence. To accept the invitation while refusing the purchased robe insults the Lord, does the greatest dishonor to him who invited and provided it, abuses his gracious benevolence, and cannot be accepted by God, for human righteousness will not do. The man without the garment pictures professed children of God who know the truth and can talk it yet will not put on Christ in character, who keep names on church books yet remain unconverted and unchanged in spirit, heart and character, living a careless, Christless life that misrepresents their Redeemer and holds a false hope. Such guests accept the call only for personal advantage, lean on others instead of making God their dependence, cherish stubborn self-will and pride, are led by another spirit, and join the foolish virgins with no oil, so their casting into outer darkness and separation from his presence is severe but not unjust or arbitrary.
Receiving the garment means accepting Christ as personal Saviour and accepting truth as it is in Jesus, putting off the old common life lived in ignorance. It means repenting, making peace with God, and receiving the free gift, for those who lack it have not repented or made peace, while those who receive the Saviour's righteousness have God's stamp placed upon them and find abundant supply of grace that increases desire. Hearing and assenting to truth or professing faith is not enough unless a person is changed in habit and practice, for the garment purifies the life and without it profession cannot be accepted and the law will reveal the spiritual condition before the Judge at Christ's coming. It requires reformation of heart, cleansing of soul and spirit, consecration to God, and receiving the Holy Spirit to purify the soul, leaving no room for self and no longer keeping truth in the outer court while Christ is kept out of the heart. It requires thorough work of repentance and confession of wrongs that grieve Christ, for Christ then forgives and cleanses, while those who justify themselves and leave sin unconfessed remain unforgiven and continue in darkness until too late to put wrongs right.
Why Few Are Chosen
Many are called but few are chosen because receiving the invitation to the marriage supper does not by itself make a person fit to remain among the guests. The king examines those who come before the marriage, and the guest found without the wedding garment is speechless when questioned and is bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The marriage represents the gospel covenant and the feast represents pardon, removal of sins, and free access to grace, and receiving and practicing the Word is the preparation for remaining in church relationship. The first invitation, rejected by the churches and by the higher classes and chosen people, is followed in mercy by a broad call into the highways and hedges to all classes, gathering both bad and good until the wedding is furnished, yet those newly found must render the same implicit obedience and high-principled service as those first called, with no mistake allowed about fitness for the banquet. Few pass the inspection because many accept the invitation yet refuse the garment, which is the righteousness of Christ and a spotless character washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Many prove unworthy by refusing from love of worldly gain, advantage, possessions and pleasures, absorbed in buying and selling and getting gain, planting and building, thinking they cannot afford to lose any earthly good to enjoy the heavenly feast. Their love of possessions and worldly ties keeps them from God and from putting off their worldly character and common citizen's dress to accept Christ's righteousness. Worldly pleasures keep people from accepting the call and receiving the white robe of character, and a superficial religious profession that follows worldly influence rather than Christ leaves them unready to share the marriage supper of the Lamb. Those who refuse for worldly advantage in buying and selling and getting gain are lost, and those who accept thinking to benefit themselves while refusing to be clothed in the garment are lost.
Many are brought to conviction, see Christ's character and understand the steps of conversion, yet remain unconverted, unsanctified, unchanged in spirit, heart and character, still in self instead of in Christ. They profess to receive truth while keeping Christ out of the heart, keeping truth in the outer court, talking the Word without living by it and hearing without doing, and their names may stand on church books while missing from the book of life. They come to the wedding nominally, loving ease and selfish indulgence, living a careless, Christless life that misrepresents their Redeemer, and they are held accountable for talents, privileges, opportunities and abilities entrusted to be improved in faithful service but not returned. To be chosen is to obey words that are spirit and life, partake of the divine nature, escape corruption through lust, refuse fellowship with the world in its living and schemes, and faithfully represent truth in life practice, and those who live as the world lives and disregard warnings give themselves over to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
Those without the garment come in raiment woven on their own loom from their own wardrobe, relying on their own righteousness, outward respectability, claims of grace, or a form of godliness without being sanctified through the truth and revealing Christ's likeness in words, deeds, spiritual life and treatment of others. A claim to grace or outward respectability cannot hide cherished sin, for God's law judges the heart and the motives behind every act, and only what accords with that law will stand in the judgment. When the King comes in to see the guests He reads every heart, and no profession or cover of pretentious righteousness deceives Him; He writes true motives in His book, exposes the garmentless one as speechless, and commands him cast into outer darkness. At Christ's coming those who refused this righteousness will be found wanting before the Judge, the law will reveal their spiritual condition, and though many profess to follow God they misrepresent His perfect character, may lead others into false paths, are not accepted by God, and will share the deceiver's punishment.
Many hear mercy's invitation and are tested and proved, but few are sealed with the seal of the living God because few humble themselves as little children to enter the kingdom, and few receive grace with deep lasting humility and with faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Pride, self-exaltation, striving for first place and supremacy, and a querulous faultfinding spirit at odds with God make those who might have been first last, because self has not been hidden with Christ in God. God rewards according to the spirit in which people work rather than claims of long service or deserving recognition, and measuring character by one's own ideas instead of God's standard leaves profession unable to deceive the Judge. The invitation extends from early morning to the last hour, but its offers are not safe to delay.
Most of those called prove unworthy of everlasting life and few will be saved. The call proceeds from one vested with power to command and confers high honor, yet the honor is unappreciated and authority despised, so that while indifference to a householder's invitation brings exclusion from tasting his supper, insult and murder toward the king's servants brings more dreadful punishment when he sends his armies to destroy those murderers and burn up their city. Though the feast is furnished with guests, all who attend must make preparation, and those who neglect it are cast out. Those who reject mercy and persist in their chosen course will have no part in heaven and will share Satan's fate in the second death.
Examination and Final Judgment
The King's coming in to see the guests is the examination of professed followers to determine who is prepared for God's kingdom and who has the wedding garment on. That examination is the investigative judgment, the closing work in the heavenly sanctuary before the marriage, and those found clothed in a spotless character washed in the blood of the Lamb are accepted and counted worthy to share the kingdom, while those found without it are cast out to a terrible fate. Mere conviction of truth is not enough, for being called to the feast is not enough unless a person is wholly on the Lord's side, with experimental religion, submission to God as faithful Creator to be led and guided by Him, and the present help of Jesus giving strength to overcome the world and perverted appetite and to walk in humble obedience.
Many who are invited to the marriage supper expect to attend yet are unprepared because they lack the garment, and they are spiritually blind to their danger. Being chosen requires being found with the wedding garment, which is the robe of Christ's righteousness, readiness for Christ's coming and the marriage supper of the Lamb, being without spot or wrinkle and worthy to receive the crown of life. For that reason many will fall short of the Bible standard and fail the final test and be found wanting at His coming, while only a few are chosen, and each person must examine whether he is prepared to stand before God rather than assume he can enter heaven unchanged.
This life is the only opportunity to put on the robe by forming character for the home Christ has made ready for those who obey His commandments, and there is no second probation in which to prepare for eternity. Receiving the invitation does not by itself ensure admission, for people must be ready, clothed in Christ's righteousness, receiving Christ, doing the entrusted work, living loyally by keeping God's commandments, and maintaining sanctification through the truth with a living connection to God and character built through receiving God and doing good. There will be no second invitation after probation closes, and when the door is shut those who neglected preparation, turned from light and truth, rejected the call for slight personal inducements, and trusted laziness, self-justification, and self-righteousness will be shut out, with their rejected invitations brought before them, while those prepared will be inside. Those who remain unready may also keep others unready, and only thorough preparation will avail at the judgment that fixes each destiny.
The verse is therefore a solemn warning to watch and be ready, because the Son of man comes in an unexpected hour, the marriage supper is near, and the days of probation are fast closing with the end near. Preparation means accepting the robe of Christ's righteousness so as not to be found without the garment, receiving the peace of Christ, having God's grace and love in the heart, and resisting the devil who works with great power through the children of disobedience to destroy souls. Such readiness prepares a person to meet Jesus in peace, and the call is to put the heart right before God without delay and to replace self-righteousness with Christ's righteousness, because the time of opportunity is closing and a person may be found unready.
When Jesus comes to take those who on earth have loved and served Him to be with Him in His kingdom forever, many who go forth to meet Him in costly apparel will be left because they are not ready. The chosen are those Christ takes to Himself, who have made the necessary preparation by dying to self and putting away vanity, conceit, and outward show, learning by experience to be dead with the life hid with Christ in God. The many who are not chosen give self the first place and look at dress and measure themselves and one another by outward appearance, and when they see His glory they know they are without the robe of Christ's righteousness and that the blood of souls is on their garments, and their disappointment is agonizing and deluded.
Invitation Extended to All
The gospel call is Come, for all things are now ready, and it is to be given broadly to every class, rich and poor, in all nations and in places not yet reached. It offers rest from earth's din and confusion, with the peace and happiness and joy longed for, even pardon and salvation, and from the Word is set a banquet full of marrow and fatness to satisfy every want. No one is to be passed by as hopeless, but all are to be urged and brought in, for the feast is prepared for all and the wedding is to be furnished with guests both bad and good. The invitation gathers many who are called, yet not all who come are chosen, for each guest is provided a wedding garment, the spotless robe of righteousness proffered freely as the richest gift, which must be kept undefiled and given whole attention to secure.
The call reaches the people of the South, including the colored people long unreached through failure of workers to carry it to them. It goes to homeless and hopeless outcasts sunken in degradation, as well as to wealthy and honored people, influential people and those in high places, who are to be given a fair chance to receive and consider the truth and its spiritual food. Those among them who respond by looking upon Jesus hanging on the cross in inexpressible love, repenting and being converted and making the kingdom their choice, may be clothed with His righteousness going before them and may be used in the work. Those who accept His offer of His righteous character and overcome will share His kingdom and walk with Him in white, but the invitation itself does not guarantee that all who receive it will be among the chosen.
God forces no one to accept, though every heart can respond if it will. The issue rests wholly with those invited whether they will respond to His grace and love. Receiving Him means believing in Him and yielding self to God, obeying His commandments and following Christ's example, and those who decide and make the effort to seek Him with all the heart will find Him and receive the outpouring of His Spirit. The feast and its invitation extend through a lifetime and into eternity, requiring a character continually brought into harmony with His will and made holy.
Those who respond form a mixed company, for the invitation is first given to teachers, leading men, those in high places and in the highways, and when those first invited refuse, the command is to go to the byways and hedges, to the poor and lowly and those in gross darkness, and bid as many as are found. Many accept and apparently take their stand as believers, yet some are not true believers because they have not the robe of righteousness and have never put on Christ. The work of separation is given to no human being, so the servants cannot take responsibility to refuse admittance to any who may come, though there rests upon them the work of carrying out the Bible rule in regard to disorderly members.
God has invited His church to the gospel feast and to invite others from the highways and hedges that His house may be full. Its preaching brings solemn conviction that leads hearers to silence, to regret for neglected meetings, and to resolve not to miss further opportunity. The call to the marriage feast is the final gospel invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb, the message of Christ's soon coming to be carried to the world where it has not yet gone, and young men are called into service to proclaim it. Many called are not chosen because though privileged with Bible truth they do not bring it into the inner sanctuary of the soul, but come nominally accepting truth without practicing it, loving ease and selfish indulgence and refusing the robe, and are held accountable for entrusted talents not improved in honest faithful service.
Readiness in Daily Life
To be chosen is to obey words that are spirit and life, partaking of the divine nature and escaping the corruption in the world through lust, refusing fellowship with the world in its living and schemes, holding fast the principles of truth in a consistent life, and faithfully representing truth in life practice. Measuring character by one's own ideas instead of God's given standard, continuing in sin, and living as the world lives misrepresent truth and hinder the fulfillment of God's promise, and unheeded warnings leave such ones given over to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Claiming to know truth or sitting at the Lord's table does not qualify without living its sanctifying power, for no profession or cover of pretentious righteousness deceives the King when He comes in to see the guests, reads every heart, writes true motives in His book, and exposes the garmentless one as speechless. Reaching God's standard requires a firm stand for Christ, surrendering to God what is already His, and accepting the righteousness of Christ as defined in John 6, without which there is no wedding garment on.
The chosen attain the full stature of a person in Christ according to the knowledge given, proved by receiving the Holy Spirit, and admission to the marriage supper does not depend on human size or being tall and well proportioned in self. They make entire unreserved surrender, give up own will and wisdom, take Christ's yoke and learn of Him, become as a little child abiding in Him to be and do only what He wills, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ by faith to be clothed in His righteousness, wearing the livery of heaven woven in the loom of heaven and putting no confidence in own merits. They put away all self-justification, selfish reasoning, childish habits, customs, dispositions and characteristics, suspicion, criticism, bad temper, self-dignity, pride, distrust, want of confidence, accusing and flaw-picking, choosing only the disposition of Christ so He identifies His interests with theirs. So clothed they represent the loveliness of Christ's character, cannot spoil the feast nor mar the perfect trust and happiness of the dwellers within, and are fitted to sit with Christ at the banquet, join the happy family in the heavenly courts, and see the King in His beauty. Overcoming uses the means placed within reach, with Christ's constant work and divine assistance combining with human effort for every advanced step, and those chosen go to warfare at His expense under His bloodstained banner with pride and independence out of place, for without His righteousness they are none of His.
Those who wear the robe of Christ's righteousness deny self daily, take up the cross and follow in the Saviour's footsteps willingly and cheerfully without questioning whether to lift it, do not live to please themselves nor spend means to flatter vanity, but live consecrated lives and work as Christ worked. While souls perish out of Christ, striving after position and wealth is inconsistent with wearing that garment, and 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 message they bear and the garment they wear they proclaim the rich repast of truth and the redemption Christ offers, testify to His atoning death which prepared the marriage feast, and convey to others the invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Being chosen requires meeting God's conditions and striving lawfully, becoming Christlike in character expressing obedience to God's commandments, keeping the commandments including the seventh-day Sabbath rather than setting them aside for popularity while expecting the crown, and doing the entrusted work loyally. Many called are not chosen because though privileged with Bible truth they bring it not into the inner sanctuary of the soul, nominally accepting truth without practicing it, loving ease and selfish indulgence, and refusing to put on the robe of Christ's righteousness. They are held accountable for light and privileges, talents entrusted to be improved but not returned in honest faithful service, and opportunities and abilities left unused in seeking the lost, and being professedly circumcised yet walking in covetousness with the uncircumcised in practice they will be destroyed with the uncircumcised and spared no more than the veriest sinner, unable to enter without that righteousness.
A form of godliness and outward activity in the Lord's service do not replace the inward work of the Holy Spirit, and claiming to know truth, sitting at the Lord's table, or criticizing others while neglecting to put on the provided righteousness leaves one dismissed from the heavenly banquet. Self-righteousness must be laid aside and Christ's righteousness put on, for a life that is no honor or strength to the cause or the church, with laziness, self-justification, leaning on others while cherishing self-will, and keeping others unready, leaves a person continuing to the close of time without the garment and lost, with only thorough preparation availing in the judgment. The warning is to search the heart, put it right without delay, and live in humble nearness to God, since many come and go among the invited without the garment and an outward form without the inward work is not enough.
When homeless and degraded souls, even hopeless outcasts sunken in degradation, look upon the Saviour hanging on the cross in inexpressible love and make the kingdom of heaven their choice, the goal is reached and they are clothed with the wedding garment which is Christ's righteousness going before them. Having decided to make an effort to live for Christ with weakened willpower, they must be closely and carefully guarded by those who watch for souls as they that must give an account, carefully guided, given work to do to win back lost manhood and womanhood, and have hereditary tendencies closely watched and guarded. Within and without evil and good keep up a constant struggle for supremacy, with overmastering power of appetite and collision between habits of self-indulgence and determination to be temperate in all things, while Christ prepares people others overlook or treat as unworthy for a place at His table by receiving His love and letting His religion transform them into thoughtful, compassionate people who no longer live for self.
The treasures of God's Word are received and valued through spiritual understanding, for the carnal person cannot rightly appreciate them, while spiritual knowledge enables discernment between good and evil, and guests must come clothed in the white robe prepared for them. Being chosen means ceasing to do evil, breaking the yoke of habit, no longer remaining feeble in moral power and lacking the grace of Christ, and showing integrity in everyday life, with no right to claim pardon without putting on the robe. Seeing this need brings humiliation and sorrow over departures from righteousness and over the influence those departures have in teaching many others how to act under similar circumstances.
God's servants are both called and chosen yet face obstacles and seasons when work seems unsuccessful, and they must not let discouragement or changing feelings make them give up the work given them but keep trying and depend wholly on Jesus. Being called to serve with the burden of the message, laboring with prayer, holy living and teaching especially in new fields to raise up Sabbathkeepers, does not by itself mean being chosen for full-time extensive preaching from state to state, for some can assist without giving themselves wholly to teaching or traveling. Students are called and chosen by Christ who is their Saviour.
The invitation is extended to people of every age, but religious privileges or knowledge alone are not enough, for answering the final call to the supper requires being clothed in the white robe of Christ's righteousness with a purified life and holiness, not merely receiving the call. Many who claim to be Christians are Christians only in name and will not be chosen, for the garment is putting on Christ, following the standard God has set in His Word instead of one's own standard and natural impulse, and knowing Christ as personal Saviour and not only as the world's Redeemer. Those who come in citizen's dress thinking it makes no difference and refuse the robe disqualify themselves to be members of the royal family above and can never dwell in the mansions Christ has gone to prepare unless they change, a disqualification shown even by working at cross purposes in the home.
The verse closes the parable of a king making a marriage for his son, picturing the gospel covenant in which pardon, cleansing from sin, and free access to grace are provided. The king's call goes first to his own favored people and then in mercy into the highways and byways to all classes, both bad and good, until the wedding is furnished with guests. Many are called but few are chosen because merely receiving the invitation does not fit a person to remain; each guest must meet the King's requirement, pass His inspection, and wear the wedding garment. That garment is the righteousness of Christ received by faith, a spotless character woven in heaven and given freely, yet it must be put on through repentance, surrender, and obedience to God's commandments. The King's examination of the guests is the investigative judgment before the marriage, and this life is the only time to be clothed and made ready, for when probation closes and the door is shut there is no second invitation.
Parable Story and Setting
The saying closes a parable of a king making a marriage for his son. The marriage pictures the union of humanity with divinity and the gospel covenant, the science of salvation and saving grace. The feast is the blessing of pardon and removal of sins through free access to grace. Receiving the invitation alone does not make a guest fit to remain, for the king examines those who come and only those reaching God's standard of character are counted fit.
The king's invitation goes first to his chosen people, the Jews, the higher classes, teachers and leading men and those in high places. When those first bidden refuse, in mercy servants are sent into the highways and then to the byways and hedges to bid as many as are found. The call reaches all classes, Gentiles, the poor and lowly of the earth, those in gross darkness, and all nations that can be reached. Those gathered are both bad and good until the wedding is furnished with guests.
Those first bidden prove unworthy from love of worldly gain and lack of respect for the master of the feast. They make light of the ready dinner and go their ways to farm and merchandise, to buying and selling, planting and building, and getting gain, thinking they cannot afford to lose earthly good for the heavenly feast. They plead circumstances and supposed duties and respond no more favorably to a call that comes with much involved. They treat the king's messengers with scorn, spitefully entreat and slay the servants.
The call proceeds from one vested with power to command and confers high honor, yet the honor is unappreciated and the king's authority despised. Refusal therefore brings deeper insult, deeper guilt, and more dreadful punishment than refusal of a householder's supper. Indifference to a householder's invitation brings exclusion, so that none of the men bidden shall taste of his supper. Insult and murder toward the king bring more than exclusion from presence and table; in wrath he sends forth his armies and destroys those murderers and burns up their city.
When the king comes in to see the guests he requires the wedding garment and examines who has made preparation. He finds a man without the garment, a gift from the king whose wearing shows respect to him who made every provision. Asked how he came in, the man is speechless, for no profession or cover of pretentious righteousness deceives the one who reads every heart and writes true motives in his book. The king commands the servants to bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The decisive meaning of the call to the supper is found in this man, showing that being called to the wedding does not ensure acceptance and that many invited are not left as chosen.
Wedding Garment Explained
The wedding garment is the righteousness of Christ, a spotless character washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, the white linen of a clean and pure character woven in the loom of heaven. It has been prepared for every guest as a free gift provided at infinite cost, and it must be received by faith and put on in order to remain at the feast and find abundant entrance. Receiving the invitation to the marriage supper does not by itself make a person fit to remain, for the king examines those who come and casts out the guest found without the garment. The marriage represents the gospel covenant and the feast represents pardon, removal of sins, and free access to grace, and many are called but few are chosen because those invited must accept the provision of grace and be clothed in Christ's righteousness. Wealth and earthly honor cannot give title to heaven or take the place of this robe, and no one can save himself, for the robe is provided by Christ and wearing it prepares a person to meet the bridegroom and enter the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Wearing the garment shows respect to the king who made every provision for the feast, does honor to Christ, and shows that those who wear it are his church married to him as his bride. The dress prepared is justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ, received through entire dependence on Christ as Substitute and Surety who died that man might be saved. Fallen man has weakened faculties, is void of ability to take one step back to God, and cannot merit favor or make himself good enough, so nothing less than entire dependence is acceptable and only as divine power from the Son of God combines with human effort can man be an overcomer. This righteousness is a free gift received by faith from beginning to end, offered even to the lowliest who will believe in him as personal Saviour, and alone it can make the sons and daughters of Adam members of the family in heaven and give worthiness to sit at the feast. Salvation does not come by superior intellect or refinement, and acceptance comes through Christ's merits as people surrender self-righteousness, cooperate with him, stand on advantage ground, and become partakers of the divine nature.
The garment means a transformed, Christlike character expressing obedience to God's commandments. That righteousness means holiness, uprightness, and purity dwelling within by faith as love, forbearance, meekness, and all Christian virtues laid hold of to become part of the being, so that all who have it work the works of God and are shown in works of righteousness, for belief or profession alone is not enough. It is shown in a changed speech and life, in denying self, taking up the cross and following willingly and cheerfully without questioning, while striving after position and wealth beside perishing souls is inconsistent with wearing it. It is connected with sanctification through the truth, a living connection with God, and character built through receiving God and doing good, and speaking truth is not enough when a person does not live it, for sin must be forsaken and self crucified or religious offerings are worthless. The robes never cover cherished sins, and without holiness no one shall see God, yet God gives divine power to every soul to combine with human effort to become holy.
Coming without the garment means coming in one's own citizen's dress, raiment woven on one's own loom from one's own wardrobe. It means trusting self, merit, intellect, refinement, wealth or earthly honor, and thinking one's own defiled garments of self-righteousness are good enough to come into Christ's presence. To accept the invitation while refusing the purchased robe insults the Lord, does the greatest dishonor to him who invited and provided it, abuses his gracious benevolence, and cannot be accepted by God, for human righteousness will not do. The man without the garment pictures professed children of God who know the truth and can talk it yet will not put on Christ in character, who keep names on church books yet remain unconverted and unchanged in spirit, heart and character, living a careless, Christless life that misrepresents their Redeemer and holds a false hope. Such guests accept the call only for personal advantage, lean on others instead of making God their dependence, cherish stubborn self-will and pride, are led by another spirit, and join the foolish virgins with no oil, so their casting into outer darkness and separation from his presence is severe but not unjust or arbitrary.
Receiving the garment means accepting Christ as personal Saviour and accepting truth as it is in Jesus, putting off the old common life lived in ignorance. It means repenting, making peace with God, and receiving the free gift, for those who lack it have not repented or made peace, while those who receive the Saviour's righteousness have God's stamp placed upon them and find abundant supply of grace that increases desire. Hearing and assenting to truth or professing faith is not enough unless a person is changed in habit and practice, for the garment purifies the life and without it profession cannot be accepted and the law will reveal the spiritual condition before the Judge at Christ's coming. It requires reformation of heart, cleansing of soul and spirit, consecration to God, and receiving the Holy Spirit to purify the soul, leaving no room for self and no longer keeping truth in the outer court while Christ is kept out of the heart. It requires thorough work of repentance and confession of wrongs that grieve Christ, for Christ then forgives and cleanses, while those who justify themselves and leave sin unconfessed remain unforgiven and continue in darkness until too late to put wrongs right.
Why Few Are Chosen
Many are called but few are chosen because receiving the invitation to the marriage supper does not by itself make a person fit to remain among the guests. The king examines those who come before the marriage, and the guest found without the wedding garment is speechless when questioned and is bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The marriage represents the gospel covenant and the feast represents pardon, removal of sins, and free access to grace, and receiving and practicing the Word is the preparation for remaining in church relationship. The first invitation, rejected by the churches and by the higher classes and chosen people, is followed in mercy by a broad call into the highways and hedges to all classes, gathering both bad and good until the wedding is furnished, yet those newly found must render the same implicit obedience and high-principled service as those first called, with no mistake allowed about fitness for the banquet. Few pass the inspection because many accept the invitation yet refuse the garment, which is the righteousness of Christ and a spotless character washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Many prove unworthy by refusing from love of worldly gain, advantage, possessions and pleasures, absorbed in buying and selling and getting gain, planting and building, thinking they cannot afford to lose any earthly good to enjoy the heavenly feast. Their love of possessions and worldly ties keeps them from God and from putting off their worldly character and common citizen's dress to accept Christ's righteousness. Worldly pleasures keep people from accepting the call and receiving the white robe of character, and a superficial religious profession that follows worldly influence rather than Christ leaves them unready to share the marriage supper of the Lamb. Those who refuse for worldly advantage in buying and selling and getting gain are lost, and those who accept thinking to benefit themselves while refusing to be clothed in the garment are lost.
Many are brought to conviction, see Christ's character and understand the steps of conversion, yet remain unconverted, unsanctified, unchanged in spirit, heart and character, still in self instead of in Christ. They profess to receive truth while keeping Christ out of the heart, keeping truth in the outer court, talking the Word without living by it and hearing without doing, and their names may stand on church books while missing from the book of life. They come to the wedding nominally, loving ease and selfish indulgence, living a careless, Christless life that misrepresents their Redeemer, and they are held accountable for talents, privileges, opportunities and abilities entrusted to be improved in faithful service but not returned. To be chosen is to obey words that are spirit and life, partake of the divine nature, escape corruption through lust, refuse fellowship with the world in its living and schemes, and faithfully represent truth in life practice, and those who live as the world lives and disregard warnings give themselves over to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
Those without the garment come in raiment woven on their own loom from their own wardrobe, relying on their own righteousness, outward respectability, claims of grace, or a form of godliness without being sanctified through the truth and revealing Christ's likeness in words, deeds, spiritual life and treatment of others. A claim to grace or outward respectability cannot hide cherished sin, for God's law judges the heart and the motives behind every act, and only what accords with that law will stand in the judgment. When the King comes in to see the guests He reads every heart, and no profession or cover of pretentious righteousness deceives Him; He writes true motives in His book, exposes the garmentless one as speechless, and commands him cast into outer darkness. At Christ's coming those who refused this righteousness will be found wanting before the Judge, the law will reveal their spiritual condition, and though many profess to follow God they misrepresent His perfect character, may lead others into false paths, are not accepted by God, and will share the deceiver's punishment.
Many hear mercy's invitation and are tested and proved, but few are sealed with the seal of the living God because few humble themselves as little children to enter the kingdom, and few receive grace with deep lasting humility and with faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Pride, self-exaltation, striving for first place and supremacy, and a querulous faultfinding spirit at odds with God make those who might have been first last, because self has not been hidden with Christ in God. God rewards according to the spirit in which people work rather than claims of long service or deserving recognition, and measuring character by one's own ideas instead of God's standard leaves profession unable to deceive the Judge. The invitation extends from early morning to the last hour, but its offers are not safe to delay.
Most of those called prove unworthy of everlasting life and few will be saved. The call proceeds from one vested with power to command and confers high honor, yet the honor is unappreciated and authority despised, so that while indifference to a householder's invitation brings exclusion from tasting his supper, insult and murder toward the king's servants brings more dreadful punishment when he sends his armies to destroy those murderers and burn up their city. Though the feast is furnished with guests, all who attend must make preparation, and those who neglect it are cast out. Those who reject mercy and persist in their chosen course will have no part in heaven and will share Satan's fate in the second death.
Examination and Final Judgment
The King's coming in to see the guests is the examination of professed followers to determine who is prepared for God's kingdom and who has the wedding garment on. That examination is the investigative judgment, the closing work in the heavenly sanctuary before the marriage, and those found clothed in a spotless character washed in the blood of the Lamb are accepted and counted worthy to share the kingdom, while those found without it are cast out to a terrible fate. Mere conviction of truth is not enough, for being called to the feast is not enough unless a person is wholly on the Lord's side, with experimental religion, submission to God as faithful Creator to be led and guided by Him, and the present help of Jesus giving strength to overcome the world and perverted appetite and to walk in humble obedience.
Many who are invited to the marriage supper expect to attend yet are unprepared because they lack the garment, and they are spiritually blind to their danger. Being chosen requires being found with the wedding garment, which is the robe of Christ's righteousness, readiness for Christ's coming and the marriage supper of the Lamb, being without spot or wrinkle and worthy to receive the crown of life. For that reason many will fall short of the Bible standard and fail the final test and be found wanting at His coming, while only a few are chosen, and each person must examine whether he is prepared to stand before God rather than assume he can enter heaven unchanged.
This life is the only opportunity to put on the robe by forming character for the home Christ has made ready for those who obey His commandments, and there is no second probation in which to prepare for eternity. Receiving the invitation does not by itself ensure admission, for people must be ready, clothed in Christ's righteousness, receiving Christ, doing the entrusted work, living loyally by keeping God's commandments, and maintaining sanctification through the truth with a living connection to God and character built through receiving God and doing good. There will be no second invitation after probation closes, and when the door is shut those who neglected preparation, turned from light and truth, rejected the call for slight personal inducements, and trusted laziness, self-justification, and self-righteousness will be shut out, with their rejected invitations brought before them, while those prepared will be inside. Those who remain unready may also keep others unready, and only thorough preparation will avail at the judgment that fixes each destiny.
The verse is therefore a solemn warning to watch and be ready, because the Son of man comes in an unexpected hour, the marriage supper is near, and the days of probation are fast closing with the end near. Preparation means accepting the robe of Christ's righteousness so as not to be found without the garment, receiving the peace of Christ, having God's grace and love in the heart, and resisting the devil who works with great power through the children of disobedience to destroy souls. Such readiness prepares a person to meet Jesus in peace, and the call is to put the heart right before God without delay and to replace self-righteousness with Christ's righteousness, because the time of opportunity is closing and a person may be found unready.
When Jesus comes to take those who on earth have loved and served Him to be with Him in His kingdom forever, many who go forth to meet Him in costly apparel will be left because they are not ready. The chosen are those Christ takes to Himself, who have made the necessary preparation by dying to self and putting away vanity, conceit, and outward show, learning by experience to be dead with the life hid with Christ in God. The many who are not chosen give self the first place and look at dress and measure themselves and one another by outward appearance, and when they see His glory they know they are without the robe of Christ's righteousness and that the blood of souls is on their garments, and their disappointment is agonizing and deluded.
Invitation Extended to All
The gospel call is Come, for all things are now ready, and it is to be given broadly to every class, rich and poor, in all nations and in places not yet reached. It offers rest from earth's din and confusion, with the peace and happiness and joy longed for, even pardon and salvation, and from the Word is set a banquet full of marrow and fatness to satisfy every want. No one is to be passed by as hopeless, but all are to be urged and brought in, for the feast is prepared for all and the wedding is to be furnished with guests both bad and good. The invitation gathers many who are called, yet not all who come are chosen, for each guest is provided a wedding garment, the spotless robe of righteousness proffered freely as the richest gift, which must be kept undefiled and given whole attention to secure.
The call reaches the people of the South, including the colored people long unreached through failure of workers to carry it to them. It goes to homeless and hopeless outcasts sunken in degradation, as well as to wealthy and honored people, influential people and those in high places, who are to be given a fair chance to receive and consider the truth and its spiritual food. Those among them who respond by looking upon Jesus hanging on the cross in inexpressible love, repenting and being converted and making the kingdom their choice, may be clothed with His righteousness going before them and may be used in the work. Those who accept His offer of His righteous character and overcome will share His kingdom and walk with Him in white, but the invitation itself does not guarantee that all who receive it will be among the chosen.
God forces no one to accept, though every heart can respond if it will. The issue rests wholly with those invited whether they will respond to His grace and love. Receiving Him means believing in Him and yielding self to God, obeying His commandments and following Christ's example, and those who decide and make the effort to seek Him with all the heart will find Him and receive the outpouring of His Spirit. The feast and its invitation extend through a lifetime and into eternity, requiring a character continually brought into harmony with His will and made holy.
Those who respond form a mixed company, for the invitation is first given to teachers, leading men, those in high places and in the highways, and when those first invited refuse, the command is to go to the byways and hedges, to the poor and lowly and those in gross darkness, and bid as many as are found. Many accept and apparently take their stand as believers, yet some are not true believers because they have not the robe of righteousness and have never put on Christ. The work of separation is given to no human being, so the servants cannot take responsibility to refuse admittance to any who may come, though there rests upon them the work of carrying out the Bible rule in regard to disorderly members.
God has invited His church to the gospel feast and to invite others from the highways and hedges that His house may be full. Its preaching brings solemn conviction that leads hearers to silence, to regret for neglected meetings, and to resolve not to miss further opportunity. The call to the marriage feast is the final gospel invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb, the message of Christ's soon coming to be carried to the world where it has not yet gone, and young men are called into service to proclaim it. Many called are not chosen because though privileged with Bible truth they do not bring it into the inner sanctuary of the soul, but come nominally accepting truth without practicing it, loving ease and selfish indulgence and refusing the robe, and are held accountable for entrusted talents not improved in honest faithful service.
Readiness in Daily Life
To be chosen is to obey words that are spirit and life, partaking of the divine nature and escaping the corruption in the world through lust, refusing fellowship with the world in its living and schemes, holding fast the principles of truth in a consistent life, and faithfully representing truth in life practice. Measuring character by one's own ideas instead of God's given standard, continuing in sin, and living as the world lives misrepresent truth and hinder the fulfillment of God's promise, and unheeded warnings leave such ones given over to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Claiming to know truth or sitting at the Lord's table does not qualify without living its sanctifying power, for no profession or cover of pretentious righteousness deceives the King when He comes in to see the guests, reads every heart, writes true motives in His book, and exposes the garmentless one as speechless. Reaching God's standard requires a firm stand for Christ, surrendering to God what is already His, and accepting the righteousness of Christ as defined in John 6, without which there is no wedding garment on.
The chosen attain the full stature of a person in Christ according to the knowledge given, proved by receiving the Holy Spirit, and admission to the marriage supper does not depend on human size or being tall and well proportioned in self. They make entire unreserved surrender, give up own will and wisdom, take Christ's yoke and learn of Him, become as a little child abiding in Him to be and do only what He wills, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ by faith to be clothed in His righteousness, wearing the livery of heaven woven in the loom of heaven and putting no confidence in own merits. They put away all self-justification, selfish reasoning, childish habits, customs, dispositions and characteristics, suspicion, criticism, bad temper, self-dignity, pride, distrust, want of confidence, accusing and flaw-picking, choosing only the disposition of Christ so He identifies His interests with theirs. So clothed they represent the loveliness of Christ's character, cannot spoil the feast nor mar the perfect trust and happiness of the dwellers within, and are fitted to sit with Christ at the banquet, join the happy family in the heavenly courts, and see the King in His beauty. Overcoming uses the means placed within reach, with Christ's constant work and divine assistance combining with human effort for every advanced step, and those chosen go to warfare at His expense under His bloodstained banner with pride and independence out of place, for without His righteousness they are none of His.
Those who wear the robe of Christ's righteousness deny self daily, take up the cross and follow in the Saviour's footsteps willingly and cheerfully without questioning whether to lift it, do not live to please themselves nor spend means to flatter vanity, but live consecrated lives and work as Christ worked. While souls perish out of Christ, striving after position and wealth is inconsistent with wearing that garment, and 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 message they bear and the garment they wear they proclaim the rich repast of truth and the redemption Christ offers, testify to His atoning death which prepared the marriage feast, and convey to others the invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Being chosen requires meeting God's conditions and striving lawfully, becoming Christlike in character expressing obedience to God's commandments, keeping the commandments including the seventh-day Sabbath rather than setting them aside for popularity while expecting the crown, and doing the entrusted work loyally. Many called are not chosen because though privileged with Bible truth they bring it not into the inner sanctuary of the soul, nominally accepting truth without practicing it, loving ease and selfish indulgence, and refusing to put on the robe of Christ's righteousness. They are held accountable for light and privileges, talents entrusted to be improved but not returned in honest faithful service, and opportunities and abilities left unused in seeking the lost, and being professedly circumcised yet walking in covetousness with the uncircumcised in practice they will be destroyed with the uncircumcised and spared no more than the veriest sinner, unable to enter without that righteousness.
A form of godliness and outward activity in the Lord's service do not replace the inward work of the Holy Spirit, and claiming to know truth, sitting at the Lord's table, or criticizing others while neglecting to put on the provided righteousness leaves one dismissed from the heavenly banquet. Self-righteousness must be laid aside and Christ's righteousness put on, for a life that is no honor or strength to the cause or the church, with laziness, self-justification, leaning on others while cherishing self-will, and keeping others unready, leaves a person continuing to the close of time without the garment and lost, with only thorough preparation availing in the judgment. The warning is to search the heart, put it right without delay, and live in humble nearness to God, since many come and go among the invited without the garment and an outward form without the inward work is not enough.
When homeless and degraded souls, even hopeless outcasts sunken in degradation, look upon the Saviour hanging on the cross in inexpressible love and make the kingdom of heaven their choice, the goal is reached and they are clothed with the wedding garment which is Christ's righteousness going before them. Having decided to make an effort to live for Christ with weakened willpower, they must be closely and carefully guarded by those who watch for souls as they that must give an account, carefully guided, given work to do to win back lost manhood and womanhood, and have hereditary tendencies closely watched and guarded. Within and without evil and good keep up a constant struggle for supremacy, with overmastering power of appetite and collision between habits of self-indulgence and determination to be temperate in all things, while Christ prepares people others overlook or treat as unworthy for a place at His table by receiving His love and letting His religion transform them into thoughtful, compassionate people who no longer live for self.
The treasures of God's Word are received and valued through spiritual understanding, for the carnal person cannot rightly appreciate them, while spiritual knowledge enables discernment between good and evil, and guests must come clothed in the white robe prepared for them. Being chosen means ceasing to do evil, breaking the yoke of habit, no longer remaining feeble in moral power and lacking the grace of Christ, and showing integrity in everyday life, with no right to claim pardon without putting on the robe. Seeing this need brings humiliation and sorrow over departures from righteousness and over the influence those departures have in teaching many others how to act under similar circumstances.
God's servants are both called and chosen yet face obstacles and seasons when work seems unsuccessful, and they must not let discouragement or changing feelings make them give up the work given them but keep trying and depend wholly on Jesus. Being called to serve with the burden of the message, laboring with prayer, holy living and teaching especially in new fields to raise up Sabbathkeepers, does not by itself mean being chosen for full-time extensive preaching from state to state, for some can assist without giving themselves wholly to teaching or traveling. Students are called and chosen by Christ who is their Saviour.
The invitation is extended to people of every age, but religious privileges or knowledge alone are not enough, for answering the final call to the supper requires being clothed in the white robe of Christ's righteousness with a purified life and holiness, not merely receiving the call. Many who claim to be Christians are Christians only in name and will not be chosen, for the garment is putting on Christ, following the standard God has set in His Word instead of one's own standard and natural impulse, and knowing Christ as personal Saviour and not only as the world's Redeemer. Those who come in citizen's dress thinking it makes no difference and refuse the robe disqualify themselves to be members of the royal family above and can never dwell in the mansions Christ has gone to prepare unless they change, a disqualification shown even by working at cross purposes in the home.