The New
Testament continues the marriage theme describing the Church—and ultimately all
the elect of God--as the bride of Christ.
While the Husband-wife references in the Bible specifically describe
God’s relationship with Israel, Christians are in a New Covenant relationship
with God through Jesus Christ. He is our
Bridegroom and we are His bride. Jesus
described this in one of the parables He told:
“And Jesus
answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a
certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to
call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were
not willing to come.’” Matthew 22:1-3 (NKJV)
Elsewhere
Scripture describes the relationship of the Bridegroom with His bride:
“I am jealous
for you with a godly jealously. I promised you to one husband, to
Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.”
2 Corinthians 11:2 (NIV)
“Let us
rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has
come, and his bride has made herself ready.” Revelation
19:7 (NIV)
“One of the
seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and
said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’”
Revelation 21:9 (NIV)
“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’”
Revelation 22:17a (NIV)
As in the Old
Testament, in the New Testament God is so serious about His Covenant
relationship with us that He calls anything that takes us away from our
relationship with Him spiritual unfaithfulness, or adultery!
“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the
world means enmity against God?
Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an
enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture
says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to
dwell in us? But he gives us more grace.
. . Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from
you. Come near to God and he will come
near to you.” James 4:4-6a,
7-8a (NIV)
Importantly,
the Greek word for friendship used here describes a strong emotional attachment. Dear reader, do you have a strong emotional
attachment to food? Be encouraged. God’s “more grace” is greater than the power
of sin, the flesh, the world, and Satan.
So often the Word of God is simple,
direct and effectual:
“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:21 (NIV)
While in this text John is referring
to the false beliefs and practices of false teachers, for a Christian anything
is an idol which takes the place of God in the heart. No thing or creature should be loved more than
God, including food or body image.
And think about the unprofitableness
of idolatry. People generally yield to
sin because they think it will bring some advantage, albeit temporary. For example, when I was in the throes of my
food addiction I felt that bingeing would “satisfy” the cravings and any
uncomfortableness that resulted if I didn’t binge. It seemed like it did satisfy (because I did
not have the real satisfaction that comes from God to compare it to) but very
soon the cravings would always return—every
day for 15 years straight--until I finally yielded myself to God and began the
real journey to Healing where the underlying issues and pain were
resolved. The idolatry of food brought
me no overall gain whatsoever (except weight gain!). In fact, it was a huge expenditure. I wasted an
incredible amount of time, energy, emotions, money, food and health bingeing on
food which only kept me “stuck” emotionally instead of moving forward. Furthermore, idols cannot appease
cravings. In fact, they actually do the
opposite as they only serve to excite the desire further.
Our
“marriage” to Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead, allows us to also be delivered from the law that we may bear
fruit to God and serve in the newness of the Spirit:
“Therefore,
my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to
another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For
when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law
were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to
what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and
not in the oldness of the letter.” Romans 7:4-6
(NKJV)
The result of
our “marriage” to Christ is a transformed life that the Holy Spirit produces,
with a new state of mind and new desires—a bride fit for Christ. When we turn away from Christ and embrace the
world, we sin against His great love that bought us out of the slave market of
sin. Think of what it cost Jesus to sanctify
His bride, the Church:
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the
church and gave Himself for her, that He
might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He
might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:25-27 (NKJV)
Do we, His
bride, desire the Bridegroom more than food?
Do we desire Him as much as He desires us? If we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit He
will sanctify us and ready us for the Wedding Day, including our desires:
“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and
through. May your whole spirit, soul and
body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will
do it.” 1
Thessalonians 5:23-24 (NIV)
The Holy
Spirit sanctifies the believer—we are not able
to sanctify ourselves—but God does also give us the responsibility to
participate in the process. The
sanctifying cannot be done without God, but we are responsible to
participate. Think of it like a little
boy whose father includes him in a job he is doing--teaching the little boy as
he is having relationship with him—the job gets done because of the father, not
the little boy, but if the little boy didn’t participate he would not experience
the same closeness of relationship with the father and what he is teaching the
boy by participating in the job. Same
with us. Furthermore, the little boy can
inhibit the process of the job getting done well by causing problems, just as
we can inhibit the process of being sanctified well by sinning which separates
us from the Father. So we certainly have
a part to play, even an obligation:
“You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in
the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone
does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ
is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the
Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of
him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from
the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who
lives in you.
“Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but
it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you
live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body,
you will live.
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children
of God.” Romans 8:9-14
(NIV)
We “have an obligation
. . . by the Spirit” to “put to death the misdeeds of the body”. Did you notice it does not say by
the self’s willpower to put to death the misdeeds of the body? No, if by
the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body you will live. It is the difference between controlling (with “willpower”) and submitting (to the Holy Spirit). We are urged to offer our bodies as
living sacrifices as an act of worship, holy and pleasing to God:
“Therefore, I
urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve
what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
and to present
ourselves, and our members, to God:
“Therefore,
do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its
lusts. And do not present your members
as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and
your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For
sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under
grace.” Romans
6:12-14 (NKJV)
Offering.
Presenting. It
is the Holy Spirit Who enables the victory.
The key to victory is in surrendering to God and being filled
with the Spirit, and it is this surrender of our will--our greatest
battle--where the battle over flesh, addiction, and besetting sin is won.
The victory is in Christ, and nowhere else. When Jesus submitted His will to God He provided for our sanctification that results
from daily walking by the Spirit. Jesus
has given us His example to follow:
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not
my will, but yours be done.” Luke 22:42
(NIV)
Jesus
submitted His will to the Father, and
oh what an overcoming He received! And
now He has provided the same for us!
So it is God
Who purifies His Bride. Our role in the
process is to repent for sin (continually as necessary) and surrender to God in
obedience to His Word. Sanctification is
performed by the Holy Spirit, often through the agency of the Word of God “just as Christ also loved the church and
gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing
of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:25-26, NKJV). So read it!
Take a shower every day! Besides,
we become like what we behold, so spend time beholding Jesus, the Word (John
1:1) to become more like Him. We are to
be found readying ourselves for the Bridegroom, a purified bride:
“But the day
of the Lord will come like a thief. The
heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and
the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of
people ought you to be? You ought to
live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its
coming. . . So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make
every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” 2
Peter 3:10-12a, 14 (NIV)
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough places smooth;
The glory of
the Lord shall be revealed,
And all flesh
shall see it together;
For the mouth
of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 40:3-5
(NIV)
“Dear
friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made
known. But we know that when Christ
appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he
is pure.” 1 John 3:2-3 (NIV)
“Then I heard
what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like
loud peals of thunder, shouting:
‘Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us
rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has
made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to
wear.’
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy
people.)
Then the angel said to me, ‘Write this:
Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ And he
added, ‘These are the true words of God.’
Revelation 19:6-9 (NIV)
“Now I saw a
new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. . . One of the seven angels who had the
seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show
you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit
to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming
down out of heaven from God.”
Revelation 21:1-2, 9-10 (NKJV)
“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.” 2
Corinthians 11:2 (NKJV)
And remember,
God wants relationship with us for eternity, which begins now. Hear what the Bridegroom says to His bride:
“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at
the door and knock. If anyone hears my
voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they
with me.” Revelation
3:19-20 (NIV)
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he
will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and
make Our home with him.’” John 14:23
(NKJV)
Dear God,
Help us to be a faithful bride to the Bridegroom, readying for His Return. In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
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