The Bride

I was driving up Highway 55 with my wife to McCall, Idaho. We were listening to a message by John Bevere titled “The Knock-off Jesus.” Even though his message focused on believing in the Jesus of the Bible and not the Jesus of society, he talked about the relationship between Christ and His followers. He spoke about how the Scripture calls those who believe in Jesus as His bride. Of course, this is metaphorical, but it holds so much meaning. We must truly grasp the significance of what it means to be called the bride of Christ.

Before her wedding day, the bride begins searching for the one she would be willing to dedicate the rest of her life to. She would date other men, figure out if they would work well together, and decide if she would be treated the way she deserved to be treated. The rollercoaster of choosing the best mate for her starts early. In school, she begins the process of “dating” boys to find that some treat her right and others don’t. She might “fall in love” with them, but she doesn’t love them. She builds relationships with these guys but doesn’t seem to find a guy she is willing to give herself to entirely. As she goes through college, she starts to find more meaningful relationships with guys that she chooses to date. However, she still feels like something is missing until that special guy enters her life.

She begins to date this one particular guy. She begins to find a connection unlike any other she had with previous guys. She begins to learn what real love is and finds that she wants to love this man forever. She pursues him as he pursues her. She is shown love in ways she had never seen before. She considers the sacrifices he will make for her and feels like a queen when she is with him. As they grow closer together, she chooses that this man is the one she wants to spend the rest of her life with. Eventually, she becomes engaged and begins to show that she is publicly willing to dedicate herself to him for the rest of her life.

On her wedding day, the bride dons a beautiful white dress. The white dress is meant to signify purity. She is saying that she has chosen to remain pure for her husband. Walking down the aisle, she makes a proud, public statement that she is giving up the 3.7 billion other men in the world to be joined and committed to only one man. She is choosing to leave every other option that is presented to her for the pursuit of a lifelong relationship with her husband. She says, “I do,” making a lifelong commitment to love, cherish, obey, sacrifice, and do everything in her power to help, support, encourage, and love her husband through sickness and health, forsaking all others till death.

This is the beautiful story of the bride. However, we don’t live like this in society. We don’t really believe in “till death do us part.” We don’t believe in respecting and honoring each other. What we do believe is that if it doesn’t work, we can always go our separate ways and negate our vows. Marriage doesn’t mean anything. We don’t believe in sacrifice or what real love is. We believe in self and eros, nothing more. However, the bride discussed in the Bible is not the bride of this world. It’s a bride who is 100% committed to her husband, genuinely forsaking all others!

Picture a married couple going out on a date. As they sit down at a nice restaurant, ready to spend a wonderful evening together, just the two of them, the wife gets a phone call. As she is on the phone, the waiter comes over and asks to take the order. The husband begins by ordering the seafood special. As he finishes his order, his wife gets off the phone and gets ready to give her order. The waiter turns to her and asks what she would like. To her husband’s surprise, she orders a New York Strip, Filet Mignon, and a Rib Eye. The waiter takes the menus and heads back to the kitchen.

The husband looks at his wife in awe and says, “Wow! You must be pretty hungry. That’s a lot of food for one person.” As he finishes his sentence, she stands to greet someone and offers them a seat at their table. Taken back, the husband looks at his wife, a bit confused. After all, he thought this night was supposed to be just the two of them. Before he can say anything, she stands and greets another person, this time with a passionate kiss. “What are you doing?!?” her husband says, quite upset.

His wife looks at him, a bit perplexed at his reaction, and says, “What? Oh sorry, Honey. I should introduce you. This is my boyfriend from high school, and this is my boyfriend from college. I thought it would be nice if they joined us tonight.”

As he sits there trying to figure out what’s going on. Another individual comes up to the table and passionately kisses his wife in front of him and the others at the table. “That’s it! What do you think you are doing? I am your husband! This is absolutely disrespectful. These guys shouldn’t have anything to do with you anymore. Are you still seeing these guys?”

“Honey, don’t you think you are overreacting?” she says. “I spend most of my time with you, but sometimes I spend time with these other guys too. They are still important to me. Don’t you think you are being a bit selfish telling me who I can and can’t be with?” At this point, his wife gets up from the table and storms off.

How would you feel if this was your significant other? What would you do if you were put in this situation? Would you feel disrespected, betrayed even? Would you feel like your world just flipped upside down? This scenario is an excellent depiction of our relationship with Jesus Christ. We say we are sold out to Him and that He is all we need, yet we quickly find ourselves spending time with things that have nothing to do with Him. We invite our old boyfriends to the table with Jesus and expect Him to accept that we spend time with them while claiming that we are sold out to Him.

There is a verse in the Bible that says, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'” (Matthew 7:22-23). Have you ever stopped and wondered what Jesus was saying with this passage? These people attend dinner with Jesus but invite all their old boyfriends to the table. They are not sold out to Christ. They have not forsaken all others and dedicated their life to Christ. These are the people that Paul warns us not to be, “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14).

We tend to have this ideology in Western Christianity that God is full of grace and that we are saved by grace. This is very biblical. However, we have taken this to an extreme that it was never meant to be. Grace works when we repent of our sins. If there is no repentance, there is no room for grace.

Consider this: Jesus doesn’t chase after people. Neither did Jesus share the benefits of following after Him. Jesus shared the facts and allowed each person to decide whether to follow after Him or not. The story of the rich young ruler is an excellent example of this:

“As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.'” “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:17-23)

Jesus told the rich young ruler precisely what to do. When the young ruler turned away, Jesus didn’t chase after him. He let him go. He wanted the rich young ruler to follow Him unhindered by the things of the world. Jesus wanted total and complete devotion to Him. This is why Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).

Another example is that of Nicodemus. In the gospel of John, we are introduced to a Pharisee named Nicodemus who goes to Jesus by night so that others in the religious sect wouldn’t see him meeting with Jesus. He asks Jesus what he must do to have eternal life. Jesus tells him, but due to Nicodemus’s position in the religious council, He chooses to save his position rather than boldly follow Jesus. Jesus doesn’t chase after him. Jesus doesn’t say, “Oh come on, Nicodemus. Just follow me. I’m right here. You can do it!” Jesus let Nicodemus choose whom he wanted to serve, and for Nicodemus, it was his position in the religious council.

Jesus will allow us to choose whom we serve. Joshua made the same statement to the Israelites when they left Egypt and were about to enter the Promised Land. “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:14-15). Those who chose to follow and serve YHWH were blessed. Those who chose to serve other gods were forsaken, destroyed, and abandoned until they repented and returned to the Lord.

What makes us think that Jesus is going to come back and accept an unfaithful, promiscuous bride? What makes us believe that Jesus will save us when we cling to our old ways? The Bible says that God is a jealous God. The first commandment states, “You shall have no other gods before me!” (Exodus 20:3). This should be a wake-up call to all Christians. To claim to be the follower of Jesus means to forsake everything else and follow Him. We deny anything and everything that is not God. We live fully submitted to Jesus Christ. We do not allow our old boyfriends at the table.

When we sin – miss the mark – and repent of our actions and choices, it is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that saves us. If we allow sin to be a part of our relationship with Jesus, there is no saving us. Salvation comes through grace, and grace comes when we repent of our sins. There is no room at the dinner table for our old ways and Jesus. To think that we can live clinging to both Jesus Christ and our sin, is to invite eternal damnation. I never want to hear my Lord and Savior tell me, “Depart from me, for I never knew you.”

If we are the bride of Christ, let us live as such. Let us live holy, fully submitted to our Lord. Let us publicly stand, proclaiming our dedication and commitment to Jesus. Let us show that we have forsaken anything and anyone who is not Jesus Christ. Let us live committed to the husband of our souls till death brings us face-to-face with Him!