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The Two Shall Become One Flesh

It’s often said that God created two institutions: marriage (and so the family unit) and the church.  Hebrews 10:1 indicates that the Law is the shadow of the reality to come.  Since the overall theme of the Bible is a holy God redeeming sinful man, then Ephesians 5 describing marriage as the shadow to understand the reality of Jesus’ bride, the blood-bought church, being presented to the Bridegroom at the wedding supper of the Lamb makes sense.

I.  Ephesians 5:22-33.  In figurative language, something that is unknown is described by what is known.  In this case, the relationship between a husband and wife is explained as the one between Christ and His church … and vice versa.  The marriage verse of Genesis 2:24 is quoted and then is directly applied to Jesus and His bride.  We know that earthly marriage only lasts until death or judgment (Matthew 22:29-30; Matthew 24:38-39).  Therefore, to help us better understand the oneness we need to have with God, our heavenly Father gave us the shadow of earthly marriage here.

II.  John 10:30.  Several are described as walking with God (Genesis 3:8; Genesis 5:24; Genesis 6:9).  In Enoch’s case, his fellowship with the Almighty let him escape death (Hebrews 11:5).  The Son, who was sinless (Hebrews 4:15), was in perfect oneness with the Father.  Through His redeeming work at the cross and tomb, Jesus makes it possible for us to live in a restored relationship with Him once again (1 John 2:6).

III.  John 14:9-14.  In Revelation 21:2, the church is presented as a bride adorned for her husband.  Blessed are those who are at the wedding supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9) when the two become one flesh.  To be one with God, we first need to be baptized into Him (Galatians 3:26-27).  Then we need to continue to abide in Him through obedience and continual repentance.

Earthly marriages fail because of wedges in the oneness.  Christians fail because they allow wedges of sin and selfishness to come between them and their Bridegroom and cease to remain in the bride.  God wants all to come to repentance.  Are you heading to a wedding?

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And Sent Her Throughout … Israel

I don’t believe the USPS or FED-UPS would have shipped it.  The contents were definitely ‘fragile,’ ‘liquid,’ and ‘perishable.’  As terrible as the Levite’s actions were in cutting up his dead concubine after she had been abused by the Benjaminites the whole night and sending the pieces to the twelve tribes of Israel, it did have the effect of waking them up to their spiritual drifting from God’s Law.

I.  Judges 19:1-30.  In a scene reminiscent of Sodom in Genesis 19, the Levite found his host’s home surrounded by men in Gibeah (where King Saul would come from) wanting to sexually abuse him.  In a decision that is heinous to today’s sensitivities and not better explained away by ancient hospitality laws, the Levite’s concubine was given to them instead.  Sending her body parts into Israel provoked outrage and war as this woke the nation up to their spiritual slumber since Moses had mediated the Law on Mt. Sinai many years before.

II.  John 15:18-21.  Throughout Scripture, God used extreme acts to awaken His people, but the result was to bring them back into a right relationship with Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24).  Today, it seems that many calling themselves Christian use these extreme actions to protest against truth and groups they feel are stodgy or reactionary.  They call for Christians to blend in with the culture and water-down the gospel to feel-good emotions that are reliant on experience.  Spiritual discipline is hard to market (Hebrews 12:5-11), and Jesus said that His followers were not to blend in with the world.

III.  Matthew 25:1-10.  It takes work to be and stay prepared spiritually (1 Thessalonians 5:5-6), but true worshipers will determine to put this effort above all else.  This is yet another purpose for the church as we each encourage another and spur on to good deeds (Hebrews 10:24-25).  The alarm clock is set (Matthew 24:42-44), but we may be hitting the snooze button.

What would it take to awaken you to your spiritual slumber and urge you to awaken others?

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That She Might Be Holy

In the Beauty & the Beast, it is the beast who changes over the course of the story.  That’s how we would like wedding supper of the Lamb to go.  “Just As I Am” means that Christ ought to accept His bride without any change on her part while the Lion of Judah must be transformed into our image.

The Bible, however, shows a very different picture–one that describes a process of perfection that we must undergo to share in Jesus’ holiness.

I.  Ephesians 5:25.  Like God’s people of the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 7:6-8), there’s nothing special about us that the Bridegroom would choose us (1 Corinthians 1:26-28).  We are the nothings of this world, despised and rejected (Ezekiel 16:4-7), yet God loved us, and Jesus gave Himself for us (John 3:16-17).

II.  Ephesians 5:26.  We are not okay the way we are but dirty, sinful, and separated from Him.  Jesus perfects His bride, the church, through a sanctification process (Ezekiel 16:8-12).  This was made possible through His sacrifice on the cross and involves much discipline on our part (Hebrews 12:7-14).  The result, however, is that we share in His holiness if we are trained by it (Ephesians 4:20-24).

III.  Ephesians 5:27.   Once perfected, we advance to royalty (Ezekiel 16:13-14) as the King of Kings presents the church to Himself (1 Peter 2:9-10).  There is no doubt that the sanctified bride will be presented to the Lion of Judah (Revelation 21:1-4).  All that is to be determined is if you will be part of the bride.

We are given the opportunity to share in Christ’s character–holiness, but many do not work out their salvation with fear and trembling.  In describing how God’s people of the Old Testament did not go through the sanctification process, Ezekiel gives us a bleak picture of their end in Ezekiel 16:15-22.  May we remember where we’ve been, recall the price of our sanctification, and live our new lives as the bride of Christ.

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Greater Things Than These

Usually a death bed promise works the other way.  The one who will continue on promises to do something after the loved one is gone.  As further proof of the resurrection, Jesus, while still alive but soon to die on the cross, makes a promise to His church that through Him (alive again and interceding for us at the Father’s side) we will do greater things than He did while on the earth.

I.  John 14:12-14.  There’s no doubt that Jesus did great things in His three-year earthly ministry.  After all, He was God in the flesh.  But the King of Kings showed Himself to be the servant of servants with great compassion: touching the leper, raising the widow’s only son from death, multiplying food to feed the hungry masses following Him, casting out demons from a man long bound.  And while He did these things, He spoke of how we would become parts of His body (Matthew 16:18), bought with His blood (Acts 20:28) and disciplined to share in His holiness (Hebrews 12:7-11).  Why?  So that we might serve as He did (Galatians 5:13).

II.  Romans 12:4-8.  Belief in Him is essential for the various body parts to work together to do great works (John 10:37-38).  We are to walk by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7) and walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:6).  Not awkward like the participants in a three-legged race, we are to move together as one body, seeing ourselves as parts of the body contributing to its working and connected to the Head (Colossians 2:19).  Whatever your function, you are essential to Christ’s body serving properly.

III.  John 13:12-17.  We stand in awe of what the Amish can accomplish in just one day by working together … and without power tools.  But Jesus promises the body that we will do even greater things than what He did while in his body.  We certainly see His enemies powerless from the start (Acts 4:14-16) to thwart a unified body.  Even their efforts to smash the hornet’s nest in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1-4) backfired as the scattered disciples preached the gospel wherever they went.  So, as an individual body part, how are you serving in your personal ministry?  And, as a member of Christ’s body, how are you working together with others to serve and function as one body?

Jesus built His church with His own blood so that Christians around the world could serve together in local bodies and together be the body of Christ with Him as its Head.  It starts with you.  How are you serving as Christ did?

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Speaking the Truth in Love

What chance does the gospel have to be heard in a world that has become so competitive with waves of noise, each more flashy and entertaining?  So many have closed their ears.  How can we be God’s megaphone, speaking the truth in love, and get them to listen?  Should we beat the world at its own game in order to be heard?

I. 1 Kings 19:1-18.  After Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, he becomes discouraged by Jezebel’s death threats and runs away.  After refreshing him, God shows Elijah His power not in the wind, earthquake, or fire but in the gentle whisper.  Then, God shows him that He works in our weaknesses.  It’s the same with the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:18-31).  God’s grace is as sufficient for us as it was Paul (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).

II. Ephesians 4:11-16.  Jesus, our Head, supplies us with truth that equips us to attain to unity and maturity in Him.  This seems strange in the boisterous world that believes that truth is relative.  But, the church is the pillar and foundation of the truth, who speaks the truth in love.  That truth, His Word, is a living and active, double-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12-13) that we wield as part of the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) as we wage war differently than the world (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

III. James 3:1-10.  So, in our weaknesses, Jesus’ body, the church, supplies the tongue.  What a difficulty this is with such an untamable appendage!  Yet, speaking the truth in love, we reach the lost with a low whisper and grow up in Him, working together to build ourselves up.  Much like an adolescent must choose healthy food for his various body parts to grow up correctly into his adult-sized head, so the church must commit to knowing and living out truth to grow up properly into Him.

It’s God’s power and work, but He entrusts His weak and fallible servants to speak His words of truth in love to lead the lost and strengthen the saved.

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No cheap imitation

Lord God of us all,

Let no cheap imitation of faith or zeal deceive us.

Warm our hearts in the fire of the Cross.

Be glorified in your people who love as you do.

Remind us of our need for your grace.

Forgive us daily of our many stumblings.

Inject us with the joy of eternal hope.

Increase our faith, for greater service in your kingdom.

Because Jesus is Lord. Amen.

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Let Love Prevail

For love were we created — let love
prevail among us, genuine,
sincere, and willing to learn —
in all things honest, earnest,
accepting — as you accepted us.
Welcoming house of God!
Let nations come to dwell here!

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The Father is Seeking Such People

The Japanese art of kintsugi or ‘golden repair’ mends broken pottery with gold, silver, or platinum, and in the end, makes the piece worth more than it originally did.  While all we see are the ways in which we have been broken by sin, God, who loves us unconditionally, sees our great value to Him.  We are to return that love in kind through true worship.

I.  Romans 8:28-39.  The body is loved by the Bridegroom.  Academically, we don’t doubt His love for us (Romans 5:6-8), we claim.  We just doubt our worth.  But, many know that a parent’s love for a child doesn’t make the value of that child go up or down depending on the child’s behavior.  So, God loves us greatly and assigns us infinite value–so much that He gave us His Son.

II.  John 4:23-26.  The Bridegroom is seeking true worshipers.  When two single people are attracted to one another, they seek each other with a desperation, hoping that he or she is the one to marry.  So, even though God loves all He has made, He is seeking ‘true worshipers,’ those who will be part of His bride, the church, and will love Him back (in spirit and truth).  That manifests itself in repentance (Luke 15:4-21) as He mends us back together in kintsugi-like fashion to make us more valuable to Him than we were before.

III.  Revelation 19:7-9.  The bride makes herself ready, her fine linen the righteous acts of the saints.  This is the true worship she engages in–that which is in spirit and truth.  So many today have the zeal for God without right doctrine.  They are like blindfolded dart players, rarely hitting the target.  Like the five virgins who had forgotten to buy oil for their lamps, they eagerly await the Bridegroom in vain (Matthew 25:1-13).  We must return His seeking of us with true worship that combines both.

Any relationship is two-sided.  We deceive ourselves if we believe God will seek us if we aren’t seeking Him in return.  We must return His love with true worship.

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And They Devoted Themselves

A wedding is an event; the marriage is an endurance race.  As parts of the bride of Christ, we should plan ahead for the time beyond the “I do” of baptism to the daily walk with our Bridegroom.  A glimpse into the lives of the 1st Century Christians can help us in the 21st Century.

I.  Acts 2:42-47.  How long would a marriage last if after the honeymoon, the bride returned to her single life and only spent an hour with her husband once a week?  There’s much we can learn from the early church’s devotion to their new life.  In western culture, we are in the habit of scheduling time with Jesus along with the other things that we do.  But, a marriage is not something we can schedule.  It is through our relationship with Christ that we live our lives.

II.  1 Timothy 2:1-6.  Just as newly married soldiers in Israel were to stay home to work on the devotion to their wives (Deuteronomy 24:5), new Christians especially need to work on their relationship with Christ through their devotion to learning from God’s Word, serving with fellow Christians, remembering Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection through the Lord’s Supper, and praying as Christ desires all to come to salvation (Acts 2:42).

III.   Ephesians 5:31-33.  And, of course, as the years go by, all couples need to maintain their marriages through such things as retreats, date nights, and good communication.  These keep their oneness from splitting back into two individuals again.  The formula that Christ and His bride use is sacrificial love and obedient respect.  This takes work as well as devotion in our spiritual walk to do the things that benefit ‘we’ and not just ‘me’ (Acts 2:43-47).

Rather than treating our Christianity as a checklist, we should seek to do those things that a good friend or spouse would do with our Bridegroom to have a loving and lasting relationship.

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Fear to witness the judgment of man

Father, I fear to witness the judgment of man.
It starts with us. You shall call to account
What we have done with the treasure of the gospel.
Basically, we’ve sat on it. With notable exceptions,
We created isolated kingdoms, a people
For our own pleasure, doing what suits us.
If Israel paid dearly for its disobedience,
For insubordination, worship of idols,
Abandonment of the one true God, then how
Much more shall we, the blood-bought Church of Christ,
Stand guilty for surrendering our gospel task?
O God, I and my people have grievously sinned.
Be merciful, O Lord, and raise up a nation
That carries your heart, desires your sovereign will
Be done and all be drawn to you in love.
Your name will be exalted. Woe to us
Who fail in the one thing we have to do.
For ’tis a fearful thing to fall in the hands
Of the living God for whom failure is not an option.