In some jurisdictions they make convicts wear neon vests while out in the world doing community service. 

The neon vests are partly for safety, but they serve another purpose as well. Some say something like ‘Community Rehabilitation Program’ on the back. It’s to make the public aware that they are prisoners.

I once heard of a jurisdiction that took it a step further. They put the name of the actual crime on the back of each vest. ‘Murderer,’ ‘Thief,’ ‘Extortioner.’ Wow, talk about a deterrent! 

This got me thinking about our own sins and what it would be like if they were publicly displayed on our backs. Imagine all of your secret sins out in the open for everyone to see. Yikes! 

Even though others can’t see them in this way, God can. Hebrews 4:13 states it bluntly: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.” Nothing. You don’t have a neon vest, but God still sees.

That might seem like bad news. But wait, there’s more. (And it’s very good news.)

If you are in Christ, he covers and wraps you in his own righteousness as you stand before God. This idea is captured powerfully in Isaiah 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 his righteousness…”

Imagine standing before a perfect, just and holy God. Your neon vest lists all of your secret sins. But Christ comes over and drapes you with his own robe of righteousness. Because you’re with him, his robe is all God sees. 

Such is the free and glorious grace of Jesus! At the heart of Christianity is not what you have done for God, but what he has done for you.

You are defined not by your sin, but by your Saviour.

“For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness…”

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Notes:

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.