We must bear in mind that what the overcomers accomplish is not for themselves alone, but for the whole church. The Word of God says that when one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it (1 Cor. 12:26). The overcomers war with Satan on behalf of the whole Body. Their victory brings benefit to the whole. Therefore, the readiness mentioned in chapter nineteen has to do with the matter of life. Because the overcomers have more maturity of life, they are ready. Because the overcomers are ready before God, He reckons their readiness as the readiness of the whole Body.

Do we sense the preciousness of this? We must remember this one thing—all of our seeking and all of our growth is not for us as individuals, but for the Body. What each member receives from God is for the whole Body. When your ears hear a word, you cannot say that you have not heard, because your ears are united to your body. When your mouth says something wrong, you cannot deny that you have spoken wrongly, because your mouth and body are united. In the same way, whatever the overcomers accomplish is the accomplishment of the whole Body. Since our Lord is the Head of the church, whatever He has accomplished on the cross belongs to the church. Likewise, as we receive benefit from the Head, we also receive benefit from the Body. As we partake of what the Lord has accomplished, we also partake of what the other members have accomplished. When God sees the readiness of the overcomers, He reckons it as the readiness of the whole church. Therefore, it can be said that the wife has made herself ready.

The readiness of the wife especially refers to the garments of the wife. Verse 19:8 says, "And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints." The Scriptures reveal that there are two kinds of garments for Christians. One is the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is our clothing. The other is the fine linen garment, bright and clean, spoken of in verse 8. Whenever we come before God, the Lord Jesus is our garment. He is our righteousness, and we put Him on when we approach God. This garment is our common clothing; every saint is clothed before God and cannot be found naked. On the other hand, when we are presented to Christ, we must be arrayed with fine linen, bright and clean. This is the righteousnesses of the saints. "Righteousnesses" means a succession of righteous deeds, one after another. All of these righteous deeds together are our fine linen garment. When we were saved, we began to obtain a fine linen garment for our adornment—the righteousnesses of the saints.

We can also see these two sets of garments for the Christian in Psalm 45. Verse 13 says, "The King's daughter is all glorious within the royal abode;/Her garment is a woven work inwrought with gold." The material of her clothing is gold, beaten gold. Then verse 14 says, "She will be led to the King in embroidered clothing." The clothing mentioned in verse 13 differs from that in verse 14. In verse 13 the clothing is of gold, but in verse 14 the clothing is of embroidered work. The fine linen garments in Revelation 19 are embroidered, they are not of gold.

What then is gold? The Lord Jesus is gold. He is gold because He is entirely of God. The righteousness which the Lord Jesus gave us, the clothing which He put upon us when we were saved was something of gold. Besides this clothing, we have been embroidering another garment from the day we received our salvation. This relates to the righteous acts of the saints. In other words, the clothing of gold is given to us by God through the Lord Jesus, while the clothing of embroidered work is given to us by the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit. When we believed in the Lord, God gave us a gold garment through the Lord Jesus. This garment is the Lord Jesus Himself, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with our conduct. It was furnished by Him, ready-made. The embroidered garment, however, is related to our deeds. It is wrought one stitch at a time by the working of the Holy Spirit in us day by day.