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I. THE ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH ALL GOD'S PEOPLE MUST WEAR. It may perhaps be said, that as the text merely forbids our interweaving woollen and linen together, it leaves it at our choice whether the garment of our salvation shall be woollen or linen. But it is not so. It must be of linen, and of fine linen only (Revelation 19:7, 8). This robe of righteousness is for two purposes.

1. For their justification. The robe of righteousness must not only be such as Jehovah can accept, but it must be such as He cannot reject — it must be the pure, perfect, supernatural, Divine righteousness of an incarnate God.

2. And this robe of righteousness is not only for our justification, but for our sanctification also. The man who has the robe of Christ's righteousness upon him, must have the influences of Christ's Spirit within him, for it is only by our sanctification that we can prove the reality of our justification. There is a renewing process as well as a reconciling one.

II. THE OFFENSIVENESS OF ALL ATTEMPTS TO WEAVE ANYTHING WITH IT.

1. It is an insult to God the Father, who has determined that every child of His family shall be habited in the one robe of the family — the perfect spotless garment of His only begotten Son, "unto and upon all them that believe." How, then, must that man expect to be dealt with, who, in the wantonness of his resistance to God's method of salvation, shall refuse to rest solely on the righteousness of God's own Son, or shall dream of adding thereto his own imperfect and perishable doings? The consequence can only be, that all the sanctions and severities of God's unchanging law will be let loose upon him in all their force, if he ventures either on his own merits only, in a woollen garment, or conjointly on his own and on the Saviour's in a garment of linen and woollen together, and thus refuse his undivided reliance on Him alone, who magnified the law and made it honourable.

2. Nor, assuredly, is there less insult offered to God the Son, in this attempt to combine works and grace in the matter of salvation. For what purpose was His mission to our world? Did He not pour out His soul an offering for sin, and by His obedience unto death bring in everlasting righteousness? Think you, then, that this great and gracious Saviour will consent to be insulted by men's attempts to join their works with His, and to "wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together," when the fine linen only of His finished work — dyed in His precious blood — is the righteousness of the saints? Know ye not that He lays an absolute claim to all the honour of our salvation? That He will suffer no righteousness to be put in competition with His? That He will not give His glory, nor the least degree of it, to another?

(R. C. Dillon, D. D.)

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KJV: Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.

WEB: You shall not wear a mixed stuff, wool and linen together.