Zechariah 3:4
And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with rich apparel.”
To be clothed is a different thing than to dress oneself. When people are clothed in Scripture there is often the sense that they are being vested. The high priest Joshua has exactly this happen in a vision which was granted the prophet Zechariah. God clothes Joshua. He peels off him the sticky filthy rags he has worn and gives him (like the Prodigal Son) a rich garment in exchange. But the garment is not simply rich. It is means something. The clothes literally make the man. In the same way, Christ has clothed us, for we are all priests in him. That is why Paul tells us to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14).
