Fig Leaves are Filthy

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:5 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. (17) For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, (18) while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (1) For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2) For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, (3) inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. (4) For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. (5) Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.

Gen 3:7, 21 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings… The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam & his wife, and clothed them.

Any attempt to cover our nakedness before God is hopeless if we are the source of such attire; a righteousness fashioned by man is no righteousness at all. But when God Himself both fashions the Garment (Christ), & dresses us in it, we are assured of never being underdressed at any occasion.

Compare & contrast these two statements from Isaiah:

Is 61:10 I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness- as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Is 64:6 We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

“Filthy rags” is a reference to works done outside of a communion with Christ, not the good works we are saved unto over the course of our sanctification in our relationship with Him. (Eph. 2:10, Phil. 2:13). Our works, even works supposedly done in His name, cannot ever save us; our salvation is entirely centered in His knowing us & thereby our knowing Him (Matt. 7:22-23, Gal. 4:9). Christ Himself confirmed the totality of our righteousness is sourced from He alone as He declared: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (John 6:29) Our “justification” to abide with God forever in paradise is wholly founded on belief, on faith, & specifically faith in Jesus Christ! Ground that into the depth of your soul, for it is the essence of Christianity…

Jeremiah 23:5-6 "Behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The LORD our righteousness.’”
　
We have no righteousness apart from the Savior. This is why the twenty-four elders of Rev. 4 “cast their crowns” back to Christ, saying "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created." They understood- He not only pre-positionally clothed them in in His righteousness, but, by a further extension of God’s grace, He lavished crowns upon their heads for their post-justification works. But even these works of righteousness cannot be seen as being done apart from Christ’s power, as Paul stated to the Corinthians earlier…

1 Corinthians 3:5-7 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. (6) I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. (7) So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.

Our righteousness is filthy only when it is singularly ours, because it is tainted with the sin of rebellion against God & His only begotten Son. Christ entitled Himself as “the Way” because He came & provided the only way, a way far more glorious than anything we could ever fashion in & of ourselves. When we try to find another “Way”- our own seeming goodness- we disparage & pour contempt upon Christ’s magnificent Person, perfection, & Passion.

Rev 3:5, 18 “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”… “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”

“The shame of (our) nakedness” is the stain of sin which is never removed, until we receive Jesus Christ as savior & Lord & therein become clothed with Jesus Christ’s perfect righteousness.  

“Since clothed” He restricts to believers, what he had stated respecting the certainty of a future life, as it is a thing peculiar to them. For the wicked, too, are stripped of the body, but as they bring nothing within the view of God, but a disgraceful nakedness, they are, consequently, not clothed with a glorious body. Believers, on the other hand, who appear in the view of God, clothed with Christ, and adorned with His image, receive the glorious robe of immortality… The Apostle, therefore, makes mention here of a twofold clothing, with which God invests us — the righteousness of Christ, and sanctification of the Spirit in this life; and, after death, immortality and glory. The first is the cause of the second, because those whom God has determined to glorify, he first justifies. (Rom 8:30) This meaning, too, is elicited from the particle also, which is without doubt introduced for the purpose of amplifying — as if Paul had said, that a new robe will be prepared for believers after death, since they have been clothed in this life also. -John Calvin (quotes based upon KJV)

The Light of Christ

2 Corinthians 4:1-5 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, 2 but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake.

6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 

Christ’s glory is primarily orientated from the concept that He is the very essence of God. The source of the gospel’s light is the light of Jesus Christ Himself. Scripture states that God is light & Revelation makes abundantly clear that Christ Himself will radiate His brilliance upon the new Jerusalem (21:23, 22:5). Spiritually, Christ’s radiance is like that of the sun; He never stops shining, we are in darkness only because we are turned away. The god of this world may be the immediate cause of our blindness, but as with Adam, the greatest enemy is closer to home. God allowed Satan’s temptation in the garden as nothing more than a litmus test for the sin otherwise quietly forming within the heart of His creation. God allowed both the tree & the serpent as but tools to expose the darkness within Adam. The Lord knows the thoughts of all men (Matt. 9:4, Luke 16:15, Acts 1:24) & so does not do this for His own benefit, for His own insight into the depth of our heart, but that we would perceive our greatest enemy. The greatest force standing in opposition to the new creation is the old creation. “We have met the enemy and he is us” never rings more true than here, but our Lord exhibits the full force of His power by overcoming all malevolent forces to shine in our hearts once more.

To exemplify this, consider Jesus’ words to Peter as He prophesies of the disciple’s greatest fall away…

Luke 22:31-34 "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; (32) but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." (33) But he said to Him, "Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!" (34) And He said, "I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me."

Consider many things here…

1) That Satan must petition God to do anything to His elect (also Job 1&2)

2) That Christ will allow such persecution to come to His elect

3) That Christ will put limits on Satan’s influence so that our faith will not ultimately fail, but will often instead be ultimately built up (1Cor 10:13)

4) That Christ sovereignly has the entire episode in view, both Peter’s failure & “when” Peter would “turn again” back to Christ once more, showing that Christ in fact knows all things, the end of things even before the beginning of them (Is. 46:10, Rev. 21:6)

5) That with Peter’s proud boast of his perceived abilities, he failed to comprehend his inability to continually will himself into a bond with Christ, despite his (momentarily) great passion for Christ, which failed hours later at the moment the Lord rebuked him & healed the man’s ear the disciple had cut off.

Yes, as with Peter, our turning away cannot endure forever if He has ever shone His glory in our hearts in the first place. John’s gospel says of Him- “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (1:5). Spiritual darkness, no matter its source, is no match for the indomitable light of Christ.

Some may be alarmed that God would test us to the utter extent of the thoughts of our heart, but David perceived otherwise; see his great enthusiasm for such an event in his life… 

Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!

See, David understood one of the ways our Lord demonstrates His love for His children is to test us in order to shine the light upon the darkness that would otherwise silently consume us & take us into the depths of Hell. 

Always praise God for illuminating evil within you, for by this He is expressing His steadfast love for you!