In the first part of Leviticus 8, Aaron and his sons are being dressed for service in those expertly crafted garments. Aaron has bound to him the ephod, which holds the breastplate containing all the names of the tribes of Israel. Aaron’s sons have caps bound to them. They must be wearing these things to enter into the tabernacle where His presence is and to enter into God’s service.

The word “bind” caught my attention, and the location of the things being bound to the priests.  We might think of them as the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation. These are the things we need to enter into God’s presence and into His service.

Our salvation as we typically think of it is the moment when we know our sins have been forgiven and God has accepted us as His child.

The priests are washed with water before they are bound in the priestly garments.

That washing away of sin and God’s Holy Spirit being imparted to us is how we obtain the righteousness of Christ, the fulfillment of the law for ourselves.

We are clothed in Christ, clothed in His righteousness – that’s what the Bible says. You can think of that as the priestly garment.

He won’t take it away, but we can remove it by choosing sin, not in unintentionally sinning, but in deliberately choosing to reject what we know is God’s way and choosing sin.

Then we need washing again, not in another baptism, but with tears of repentance that show a heart that has come back to the love it rejected.

In our family we refer to being clothed in Christ as having our Jesus suit. We say, “Keep your Jesus suit zipped up.” It’s your protection, which is one part of the salvation offered us.

It’s not protection from hardship, but it means we can rejoice when hardship comes because we know we are suffering as saints with a loving Father who has not rejected or abandoned us, who will see us through for our good and His glory.