The Bride of Christ

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

N.E.W. LIFE Books