Here Cometh the Bride...

A Sip

Hey there reader, you hold the very prestigious honour of reading the very first blog here at Sychar. I know, I know. Before you say it, let me explain. I started this blog up last semester and I have had the idea for this particular entry months ago planted in the soil of my mind. However, as usual university is a hard master and has been whipping me especially hard lately. But (Hallelujah!) I have managed to find some time to write this up. And it probably is just as well because the reflection on my particular analogy can be made in retrospect now rather than in prospective. Anyway, without further ado, on with the blog.

Spring Time!

As I was sitting in my seat, drips of salient water slipped down my cheek. As I tried to convince myself and others around me (quite unsuccessfully I might add) that it was not tears but the stinging heat of Toowoomba, I was somewhat marvelled at the sight before me. You see, this was the first wedding I had ever been to. Well, the first I could remember anyway. And as I saw my friends Alex and Tim both standing at the altar looking deeply into each other’s eyes with a look of enduring love, a strange thought popped into my head. That will be me one day. I did not mean in the sense you’re probably thinking whereby I will shack up with a nice Aussie sheila one day and have a nice wedding ceremony in a nice old church and have approximately 2.5 nice kids and a nice house with a nice car. No no no, I meant something else. Don’t get me wrong, as those who know me know, that is what I do hope happens one day. But what I meant was something a little bit more profound. Where Alex was standing in her beautiful white dress, there I (and many others) would stand. And where the handsome and debonair Tim was standing, there my Husband would stand. My Lord and Saviour who would stare into my eyes with a love that is eternal and mind baffling. Jesus Christ.

Yes, Alex’s and Tim’s wedding ceremony made me think about what would happen when Christ returns for His bride. Only I could turn such a beautiful moment into a theological rumination. But nonetheless, this got me further reflecting - what does that really mean. Why did the Holy Spirit inspire the Scripture’s various writers to use the analogy of a bride and groom when talking about the Messiah and His people, about God and His Church. Well, after reflecting on this for quite some time, I have come up with several points which I think might shed some light.

1) THE CHURCH IS CURRENTLY ENGAGED

"Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." (Rev 19:7)

The book of Revelation makes it quite clear that we, as the Church, are not yet married to the Christ. The marriage ceremony will occur when He returns. We are engaged to Him at the moment. And just as there is a period of time between the engagement and the wedding where the bride and groom cannot see each other, so it is now. We cannot (temporarily) see our Groom, but once He returns in Heavenly glory, the wedding will be like nothing the earth or heavens has ever seen before. This is our great hope.

I only need to think of when Alex and Tim first got engaged, the couple of months leading up to the wedding were very exciting for all of us invited. I can only imagine what it would have been like for them. Anticipation and hope builds excitement and suspense. So it is with us here on earth. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and so it must be with us. We must always be "reaching forward to those things which are ahead…pressing toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:13-14).

2) CHRIST IS OUR FIANCE AND SECOND HUSBAND

As a young man marries a maiden, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. (Isa 62:5)

Christ as God is our fiancé who will marry us in the future. And why does He do this? Put simply because He loves us and He rejoices over us. Because it pleases Him to do so. We did not choose to marry Him, but rather He chose to marry us (Jn 15:16). What a beautiful act of Grace on the part of our awesome God.

Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man. So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Ro 7:1-6)

The Law and sin was our first husband. This husband was an abusive husband. He wanted to kill us. And if not by the Grace of the Almighty, we would indeed be dead. But since we partake in the Crucifixion in Christ so our old selves are now dead, so is our old husband, meaning we can now marry again. And our new Husband is a much greater husband who loves us, demonstrated by His sacrificial death. But we have to first die to our old husband. We cannot have two husbands. In other words, we cannot be as we were and living in sin AND be married to Christ. It is one or the other. We must be regenerated by the work of Grace through the Holy Spirit so as to be new creations. Which leads me to the next point.

3) THE CHURCH IS LIKE A YOUNG VIRGIN AND WIFE

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church - for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church. (Eph 5:22-32)

Human marriage is a precursor of our marriage to Christ. Alex will soon learn to submit to Tim and likewise Tim will learn how to love with a more selfless love for Alex. This is to greater conform them to the likeness of Christ, as He submits to the Father and loves His Church in turn. We are to submit to Christ and love Him. For those who love Him will obey His commands (Jn 15:10-14). We are to love Him with a selfless love as He did with us. And Christ will care for us like a loving husband and provide for our needs.

For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted - you may well put up with it! (2 Co 11:2-4)

We must also strive to remain faithful to Christ as a pure virgin before Him on our wedding day. This is a particularly hard one I find when there are so many seductive idols in this life. But, thank God, He has not left this task to ourselves. He has given us and will give us the following items.

4) THE WEDDING DRESS

And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. (Rev 19:8)

When we are married to Christ, just as Alex was adorned in a most beautiful white dress, so will we as the Church. And this dress will be the Righteousness of Christ cloaking us and the righteous acts which He has prepared beforehand for us to do in this life (Eph 2:10).

5) THE ENGAGEMENT RING

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. (Eph 1:13-14)

Just as Tim gave Alex an engagement ring as a deposit on their marriage, so does Christ give us the Holy Spirit. And just as the ring Tim gave Alex probably cost a lot, so did Christ sending the Spirit - specifically His life on the cross. This Spirit is not only a down payment on the Church as we wait to be wed, but it also serves as a way of constantly reminding us about Christ and teaching us all things (Jn 14:26). It also empowers us to remain faithful and loving to Him, as well as to bear fruit.

6) MARRIED LIFE

So, just what will our married life to Jesus be like? Well, Revelation again gives us an indication as to this.

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." (Rev 21:2)

I think that pretty much says it all really. Heaven is eternal communion and fellowship with the Risen Christ. It is being married to Him that is worthy of all worship and glory. And He, by His Grace, will share this glory with us. That is the God we worship. A God of love and grace embodied in Christ. That is why we wish to go there. If He was not there, I certainly wouldn’t want to be there. He is what makes it Heaven.

Waves

Well, I hope this first entry has not satisfied your thirst, but instead stirred it. May you continue in your walk with Christ and to be strengthened by the power of His Word. And for those who have read this and know you have strayed on the path of the Faith, remember these words, "Return, faithless people," declares the LORD, "for I am your husband. I will choose you - one from a town and two from a clan - and bring you to Zion" (Jer 3:14).

And He also welcomes the downtrodden, those whom are humiliated and rejected in society. "Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband - the LORD Almighty is his name - the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit - a wife who married young, only to be rejected," (Isa 54:4-6). How good is our God!

Well, now I must close this post with my own witty and catchy holy catchphrase. Ooh, what about, "You think about that. Amen." Oh wait, that ones already taken (and plus I don‘t have the sexy gravely voice for it either). What about, "And remember, the best is yet to come." No, no, no! That one is already taken (and he can keep it too hehe). Oh, I know! What about, "Put that in your cloud and rain it." Yeah, I like it. I think we’ll stick with that one. I better be careful though, with the whole water themed puns people might start thinking I’m a Baptist.

So until next time, *clears throat* put that in your cloud and rain it (Jude 12).

Christus Regnat,

MAXi