Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:11-21

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Isaiah 64:6

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Dressed in the Best

By Jennifer Kane

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Like mist before morning, I wrapped myself in rags,

woven from wishes, stitched with pride,

a gossamer veil that tore at the wind,

melting like breath on the glass of time.

Dust rose, the earth sighed,

“All your works are but fading thread,”

whispered the voice of eternity,

and my hands fell empty—bare.

Then Light unfurled like dawn’s embrace,

soft as hush, strong as stone.

He wove His mercy into my marrow,

spun my shame into robes of grace.

Silken white, weightless as praise,

the fabric flows where the Spirit moves,

hemming me in with hands once pierced,

a covering not my own, yet wholly mine.

Now, I walk in the hush of heaven’s breath,

veiled in love, clothed in Him,

no longer fading, no longer frayed,

but dressed in light that will not dim.

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Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:11-21, Isaiah 64:6

There are moments when I am utterly floored by the grace of Jesus. I know myself—I know my faults, my failures, the times I’ve fallen short. I know the stains of my own righteousness, which the prophet Isaiah describes as “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). And yet, Jesus does not leave me to stand before God in the rags of my own efforts. Instead, He covers me.

Not just covers, but clothes. He takes His perfect, unstained righteousness and wraps it around me as if it were my own. Not because I deserve it, not because I have earned it, but because of His deep, unshakable love.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5 that Christ, the sinless One, became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. That exchange is beyond my comprehension. Jesus bore my guilt, my shame, my failures—He absorbed them completely on the cross. And in return? He hands me His spotless righteousness, freely and fully.

I don’t just get to admire His righteousness from afar. I get to wear it. I get to stand before the Father, not in my own strength, but in Christ’s. Every time I falter, every time I feel unworthy, He reminds me: I have clothed you. You are mine.

And for that, I am thankful beyond words.

Have you ever struggled to believe that Christ’s righteousness fully covers you?

How does knowing you are clothed in His righteousness change the way you see yourself?

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Lord Jesus, I am in awe that You have exchanged my sin for Your righteousness. I know I could never stand before God on my own, and yet You have clothed me in Your perfection. Help me to live in that truth, to walk in the confidence of Your grace, and to never take for granted the incredible gift You have given me. Thank You, Lord, for covering me. Amen.

March 30 2025