I’m glad the topic of being clothed in white robes/raiment/garments came up, because the wedding supper in Matthew 22, and having white robes in Revelation, is absolutely about that:
Here’s the relevant portion of that account:
Mat 22:9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’
Mat 22:10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Mat 22:11 “
But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.
Mat 22:12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.
Mat 22:13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Pure white raiment (linen, robes, garments) are the righteousness of saints, and become part of their wedding attire, as shown by the wedding supper account in Revelation 19: - And the wedding guest above was found to be without any wedding clothes of white garments.
Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Rev 19:9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
Christians are therefore clothed with white robes of righteousness - yet the risen Jesus warns believers in the church at Sardis of their need to repent, because most of them had defiled their white robes/garments:
Rev 3:4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis
which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
Rev 3:5
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Names are blotted out of the book of life, if we defile our white robes and fail to overcome, Jesus warns.
Worse yet, Jesus warns the Laodicean church,
that they’ve not just defiled their white robes of righteousness, they’ve lost them completely and are stark naked - though they think they are still clothed - (and being found naked while thinking they are still clothed, becomes significant at the wedding supper of Jesus).
Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;
and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind,
and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich;
and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
So the Laodicean church sadly went beyond only defiling their white raiment/robes of righteousness as the church in Sardis did:
they actually lost them completely, but yet weren’t alarmed or concerned in any way - because like the story of the emperor with new clothes - they had no idea that they were naked.
The man at the wedding supper in Matthew 22
had also lost his white robes/garments (which are the righteousness of saints) - and was speechless, shocked, and bewildered to discover he was naked - because like those in Revelation 3:17-18, he thought he was fully clothed.
And because he was not properly attired in white robes of righteousness, Jesus threw him out of the wedding supper of the lamb, and into outer darkness (hell):
Mat 22:11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
Mat 22:12 And he saith unto him,
Friend, how camest thou in hither NOT having a wedding garment? And he was SPEECHLESS.
Mat 22:13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast himinto outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
How is it that those in Revelation 3:17-18 were naked, but thought they were clothed?
They obviously did something to defile their garments, that they mistakenly thought was ok with God.
That something is the warnings by Paul that grace is not a license to sin, and that believers who continue to live in sins of the flesh, shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven.
In other words, they believed they could live a sinful lifestyle, and remain in Christ.
They were deceived by OSAS into thinking grace WAS a license to sin, with no eternal consequences - despite Paul’s many warnings to the brethren to NOT be deceived.
So the naked wedding guest in Matthew 22 that was thrown into hell, was in the same tragic situation that the Laodicean church was in.
And Jesus’ warning to the Sardis church that they needed to repent because they’d defiled their white garments - and that unless they heeded His warning and become over-comers, He would blot their names from the book of life - falsifies OSAS and hyper-grace doctrine, and is fatal to them.
The final nail in those doctrines is the fact that first defiling - then losing completely - white robes of righteousness, results in names being blotted out of the book of life (per Jesus’ warning to the church of Sardis) - and being thrown out of the wedding supper, and into outer darkness/hell for having no white robes of righteousness.
Maranatha