Hate to say this, but you're twisting the word a bit here. He doesn't provide us with these 'wedding gowns." He expects us to provide them for ourselves.
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
Then he sent some more servants and said, Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.
But they paid no attention and went offone to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
Then he said to his servants, The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find. So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. Friend, he asked, how did you get in here without wedding clothes? The man was speechless.
Then the king told the attendants, Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
For many are invited, but few are chosen. (Matt 22:1-14)
You're correct, and I submit to that; however, I don't believe that the parable then by default states that salvation is by any kind of works, for in many other places Scripture is unmistakeably clear on how our justification comes about.
Ephesians 2:8-10 - "
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
It is the same principle as in Romans 3:23-28, where works have failed to create the saving faith, and that they have failed to create any kind of justification before God. What you see in this passage and what you also see in Romans 3 is that not only are works insufficient, but the Gospel intends to take out any potential for bragging or boasting that might be attempted by the saved party. If there are any works that are involved, then the individual has a right to boast.
[Forgot to put in more; more to come later]
JSGuitarist is correct Little_Meg, there is nothing that we can do to earn the wedding gown as it has already been bought and paid for by the blood of Christ Jesus on our behalf. If it was up to us to provide the wedding gown for ourselves through some kind of work other than believing what Jesus already did for us then Christ did die in vain.
I went through a year or two of trying so hard to make myself presentable before God by trying to be as perfect and as obedient as I possibly could be and you know what? My life turned into a living hell for me. I kid you not when I say this and its not my imagination or anything else playing tricks on me, I could literally both sense and feel Gods anger and wrath burning against me the more that I tried to please him without looking to the only one who can save me.
During this period of my self righteousness I experienced the darkest of darkest times that I have ever been through from terrors and nightmares of going to Hell almost every single night to waking up in the morning and feeling a huge enormous weight weighing down on my most inner being as if my very soul was being crushed! The pain was so very bad that for the first 10 minutes in the morning I would lie awake in tears buckled over in pain, it was so bad that I could barely get to the shower and make it to work.
Also something seemed different when looking at Gods creation as it seemed as though the trees, flowers, sun, moon etc were all looking down on me in disappointment, it was as if God was looking at me through his creation in utter and complete anger. I know that sounds off the wall but you will just have to trust me with what im telling you.
Yes, as scripture tells us the wrath of God abides on those who do not believe on the son and I am most convinced that I experienced Gods wrath and anger to the fullest possible extent without him actually plunging me into the depths of Hell.
Does God have some stored up mercy for me behind all of this wrath? I only hope so. I have hoped that God is using that dark period as an actual extension of his mercy to me to show me what will happen to me if I do not trust completely on his Son and his Son alone with no works of my own.
Some tell me that I went through a demonic oppression/attack and while it might seem to be so im really not so sure about that as this was something extremely powerful and heavy weighing down on me. I would most certainly describe what I went through as the hand of God pressing down on my very being with enough force to make my very soul feel as though it would collapse at any moment and the ground beneath my feet to give way at any moment from the huge weight and then myself sinking down into the pits of Hell.
Going through these torments its no wonder that I often think that I have committed the unpardonable sin or pushed God too far. Most people seem to think im just being silly etc but I tell them that if they went through what I experienced they wouldn't be so hard on me.
Hebrews 10:26-31
"It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the Living God"
The one thing that to this day is frightening to me is that it seems that this has happened to me (fell into Gods hands in a form of Judgment) and if I am indeed guilty of the sin mentioned in Hebrews 10:26-31 then I am done for.
I had tried this at one point. I don't think that there was any time at which God allowed me to more see the wretchedness of my own sin more than at that time. In many ways, it felt the same way that you described, and I never felt so sure that the wrath of God was upon me!
If you've read Pilgrim's Progress, there is a point where the character (not yet Christian, for he was unsaved at the time) was led by a man named Mr. Worldly Wiseman who [in great paraphrase] tells him, "Why do you want to undertake such a dangerous journey to relieve that heavy burden on your back when there is a much easier way? I can tell you how to relieve that burden on your back. There is a town nearby called Morality, where a man named Legality dwells, who has a good name, as well as his son named Civility. You go and converse with these men, and they will teach you how to relieve your burden, and you will be able to live a life with respectable men who have a name of good character."
The Pilgrim takes his advice, and so he approaches the town Morality which dwells on a hillside. In order to do this, he had to go out of the way that the Evangelist (who at the beginning warns him to "flee from the wrath to come"). But the closer he comes to the hill, the heavier his burden becomes, the hill appears far higher, and he feels as though the mountain may fall upon him. It also begins spitting out fire, and he becomes afraid that he will be burnt. He meets the evangelist again, who asks him how it is that he has turned out of the way so quickly. When the pilgrim realizes his error, he is very grieved that he has gone out of the way such as he has, and he wonders, "Could there possibly be forgiveness for a sinner like me?" To which the evangelist replies, "Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven of men," and "be not faithless, but believing."
There is nothing so odious to God as what we perceive to be our own goodness. To think that we have any goodness at all is to understand the central purpose of the law, which was to expose sin. In Romans what you see is that the only reason the law was set up was to expose sin, to drive men to repentance. All that the law could ever do was aggravate the flesh against God, and make him embittered towards Him. This has been my own experience; when I think that I have some kind of standing before God, I only wonder how it is that He does not accept my acts, and instead knocks them out of my hands as being worthless. He cannot take them, for they are filthy and sinful to them, even the very best of them are as grime. It is no surprise to me that you get the same sense as I did when I tried to be justified by my own doings, that you felt nothing but condemnation. For there is nothing in you but that which is condemnable.
But know that every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, and don't be one who is unbelieving, but believe.
I know that this is a question of the unpardonable sin for you, but the truth is that it's a question of unbelief. All sin begins with unbelief, even blasphemy. What the Pharisees had was unbelief, and that was why they sinned in the way they did. It sounds simple--deceptively simple--but the rock bottom line of it is unbelief.
Pilgrim's Progress | Christian Classics Ethereal Library
There is a section of Pilgrim's Progress in here. Go to the dialogue where Mr. Worldly Wiseman enters. I believe that this will give you understanding, as it describes his wandering into self-righteousness and legalism. Read the Scriptures that are cited. But what you read, combine it with faith and belief, or there will be little or no benefit for you; turn yourself out of the way which you go now, and do not return to it.
Continue to flee. I do not believe that the Spirit has abandoned you, and I only feel more sure of that the more we talk. Be encouraged, and believe that Christ will never cast out one who comes to Him. That is a promise.
I hope you find some uplifting scripture to help you understand what God is telling you.
