“For thus says the Lord: ‘You have sold yourselves for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money’” (Isa. 52:3).
When we sold ourselves what did we get? We sold ourselves for nothing. And if it costs us anything to get back, that means everlasting ruin, does it not? “You have sold yourselves for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.” It cost the Lord something, however. It cost Him everything. But all this He gives us, so that it costs us nothing. The price was paid, but not by us.
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat” (Isa. 55:1). Whoever have no money, He will attend to the buying, He will see that we get the article.
“Buy from me…white garments that you may be clothed” (Rev. 3:18). The description that we have is, “that garment that is woven in the loom of heaven, in which there is not a single thread of human devising.” That garment was woven in a human body-the flesh of Christ, in the same flesh that you and I have. That was the loom in which God wove that garment for you and me to wear in the flesh, and He wants us to wear it now, as well as when the flesh is made immortal in the end.
What was the loom? Christ in His human flesh. What was made there? The garment of righteousness, the righteousness of Christ-the life that He lived-that is the garment. He wants the garment to be ours, but does not want us to forget who is the Weaver. It is not ourselves, but it is He who is with us. His character is to be in us, just as God was in Him, and His character is to be woven and transformed into us through these sufferings and temptations and trials which we meet. God is the Weaver, but not without us. It is the cooperation of the divine and human-the mystery of God in you and me-the same mystery that was in the gospel. That is the third angel’s message.
Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1893, pp. 206, 207