Bride of Christ

 

As I’ve mentioned before, my wife and I are celebrating our 30^th wedding anniversary this year.  I was looking in our wedding remembrance book recently and re-read our vows. We wrote our own vows (available on request!) but they were similar to the standard vows we hear at a wedding ceremony. When the bride and groom exchange vows at their wedding, their promises are total and unconditional. There are no prenuptial agreements, no exceptions, in their vows before God.

 

Throughout the Old Testament, the scriptures refer to the relationship of God to the Israelites as that of husband and wife. The book of Hosea is an acted-out parable of how the Israelites strayed from God, their first love. In the New Testament, Jesus referred to himself as the bridegroom (see Matthew 9:14-15, for example). Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, compared the relationship of husband and wife to that of Christ and the church. We see in Revelation that the church will be united with God for eternity. “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” (Rev 19:6).

 

If the church is the bride of Christ and we are part of the church, we are in essence the bride of Christ ourselves. That implies total commitment on our part to our relationship with Christ. Our vows must be absolute or they are not vows at all. We will sometimes fall short in our actions but our desire should always be to serve Jesus, our Lord and Savior, and to allow Him to be lord of every aspect of our lives.

 

We should also take comfort in the fact that Jesus has vowed to care and provide for us and that He is faithful to His promise. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through his word; and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Eph 5:25-27).