Weddings. I love them. Do you?

I think most people do.

In 1981 perhaps the most watched and listened to wedding in history was the marriage of Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles of Wales. I have heard that over 750 million people tuned in to watch, and another 250 million people turned on their radios to listen. If that's true, at that time the nearly 1/4 of the world's population participated in this majestic affair, filled with pageantry, pomp and circumstance. We do like to see the groom ready and eager to be joined to his bride!

But if you know your Bible, in passages like Psalm 45, or in Ephesians 5, or Revelation 19 we get a preview into the greatest wedding feast and the best marriage ever. What is it? It is the marriage of Jesus Christ and his church. When the apostle Paul speaks about the love of Christ for the church, using the marriage metaphor. When he talks about husbands and wives and the beauty of their usual relationship, he says “but I’m talking about Christ and the church.“ He says of this union, “...as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing."

One writer, Octavius Winslow celebrates this love in a little essay I commend to you.

He writes: From all eternity He betrothed her [the church] to Himself. He asked her at the hands of her Father, and the Father gave her to Him. He entered into a covenant that she should be His. The conditions of that covenant were great, but not too great for His love to undertake. They were that He should . . . assume her nature, discharge her legal obligations, endure her punishment, repair her ruin, and bring her to glory!

He undertook all, and He accomplished all—because He loved her!

The love of Jesus to His Church, is the love of the most tender husband. It is . . . exclusive, constant, affectionate, matchless, wonderful.

Jesus . . . sympathizes with her, nourishes her, provides for her, clothes her, watches over her, and indulges her with the most intimate and endearing communion.

The Lord Jesus will come in the clouds of Heaven, and this will be the occasion of His public wedding of His Church. Her present union to Him is secret and unknown—invisible to the world. But He will appear, openly and visibly to take her to Himself; and before His Father and the holy angels He will solemnize her eternal union.

Oh what a time of splendor and of rejoicing will that be! Arrayed in His nuptial robes, Jesus will descend to make her His own; and she, "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband," will go forth to meet Him. Then will be heard the song of angels, "Let us be glad and rejoice and honor Him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and His bride has prepared herself."

Thank you, Octavius. I have a question for you and me: Are we getting prepared?

Musings from Pastor John, June 21 , Click to Email Pastor John