And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
And when the king came in to see the guests. Solemn expression this, of that omniscient inspection of every professed disciple of the Lord Jesus from age to age, in virtue of which his true character will hereafter be judicially proclaimed!
He saw there a man. This shows that it is the judgment of individuals which is intended in this latter part of the parable: the first part represents rather national judgment.
Which had not on a wedding garment. The language here is drawn from the following remarkable passage in Zephaniah 1:7-8: "Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God; because the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, He hath bid His guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel." The custom in the East of presenting festival garments (See Genesis 45:22; 2 Kings 5:22), even though not clearly proved, is certainly presupposed here. It undoubtedly means something which they bring not of their own-for how could they have any such dress who were gathered in from the highways indiscriminately?-but which they receive as their appropriate dress. And what can that be but what is meant by "putting on the Lord Jesus" as "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS"? (See Psalms 45:13-14.) Nor could such language be strange to those in whose ears had so long resounded those words of prophetic joy: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels" (Isaiah 61:10).