Daily Word
A word of encouragement for your day.
THE CHURCH (2)
"Christ 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."
"This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church."
(Ephesians 5:32)
No other passage in the Bible shows more clearly than this that Christ gave his life to "buy" a glorious "bride" for himself: the Church.
And what a bride He bought!
In His divine sacrificial love, He gave every drop of His holy blood to redeem her from her slavery, to cleanse and sanctify her by His Word and Spirit to become the glorious and spotless bride worthy of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Paul says that this is a "great mystery" – an unfathomable secret.
The word "mystery" concern God's eternal plan for the ages from the beginning to the end, from eternity to eternity – and in this the Church plays a very central role.
The Father's eternal desire to provide a worthy bride for His beloved Son – this is the hidden, secret theme of Scripture from the beginning to the end.
And at the end, in the last book of the Bible, we see the bride emerging in all her beauty and dignity ready for her groom: "the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints."
Then we see "the bride, the Lamb's wife" as a city filled with "the glory of God, her light like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal": the eternal dwelling place of God on the new earth.
Have we understood anything of the immense greatness and importance of the Church both in this age and the ages to come?
And even more important: do we love the Church with the same sacrificial love as Christ?