A SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE

Matthew 22:1-2

 “And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son.”

            What is the kingdom of heaven like?  In the parable of our text, the Savior says that there is nothing like it here on earth.  He speaks of a wedding feast where the Son of a King takes a bride.  We know, of course, that the King is God Almighty and that His Son is Jesus Christ.  What we may not realize is that the bride is you and I, the whole family of believers in heaven and in earth.

            Let’s talk about this marriage between our Savior and us.  The concept is overwhelming.  We don’t go around with a wedding ring to indicate that we are married to Jesus.  Our union is closer than that.  It is a spiritual union so intimate, so comforting and so reassuring that nothing on earth can describe it.  The only estate that even comes close is the estate of holy matrimony, the “one flesh” union, the closest possible union in this life whereby God figuratively cements a man and a woman together and makes them one, a union so close that even the apostle Paul could not understand it.  He writes, ”This is a great mystery”: but then he adds, obviously alluding to our text, “but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”  Ephesians 5:32

The marriage state here on earth is primarily a state of mutual trust.  The Proverbs tell us, “The heart of her husband trusteth in her.”  Proverbs 31:11   A husband entrusts his body and life to his wife.  His money and possessions, and honor are her money and her possessions and her honor.  Just as he gives himself to his wife, so the heart of his wife cleaves to him: He is her highest, dearest treasure on earth.  She finds in him respect, protection, and help in time of need.  This remarkable relationship can be found in no other station of life, not between friends, or relatives or children and parents.  Nothing compares to the “one flesh” union of marriage where the wedded couple shares everything that befalls them, good, or bad.  Each accepts each other as they are and imparts help to the other in every way possible.  They mourn, suffer, enjoy, and laugh together.  Oh, that our young people who live together outside the estate of marriage could begin to grasp what God would have in store for them.

            Christ’s church is exactly this way.  You and I are joined to our Savior mysteriously and wondrously in a union even closer than the divine estate of marriage.  This union would not have been possible had not the holy Son of God come to earth.  He was born in a manger from a sinful mother so that He could share the same flesh and blood that we have.  He suffered pain just as we do.  He wept just as we weep.  He had to endure the scorn and ridicule of the unbelieving world as we do.  The difference is that He did everything perfectly in our place.

            When you think about it, you might wonder how God in heaven would choose you and me as a bride for His Son.  Why would anyone want a bride that is filthy and dirty with sin?  “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”  [Isaiah 64:6,   writes the prophet Isaiah.  It is one thing were God to pick us up out of the gutter of sin, but it is quite another for Him to choose people who are resentful, who don’t want to be picked up.  That is a description of you and me.  Naturally, we hate God; we don’t want Him to interfere in our lives.  We really don’t want anything to do with His Son.  The fact that holy God should choose us unworthy and unwilling sinners, that He should send His holy Spirit to create a new heart within us,  that His Son should forgive us our sins and not be ashamed to have us as His bride reveals an incomprehensible love.

St. Paul beautifully describes how God lifted us from the mire of sin and for only one reason, because He loved us.  Listen to his words: “Among whom also we all had our lives in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.  But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;).”  Ephesians 2:3-5.  Shouldn’t this make us want to love Him in return?  The hymn-writer sings, ”Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”   #175.  The big word in marriage-relationships is love.  People in our world sing about it in secular songs day after day.  They acknowledge that without love there can’t be much of a marriage.  Yet, I’m afraid, most young people don’t really understand what love is all about.  It is more than physical attraction, much more.  Love toward each other is a total dedication that only the love of God can work in our hearts.

God’s love toward you and me is so intense that He not only sacrificed His only Son to make us His bride, but He also shares all His treasures with us,  treasures like wisdom and righteousness and strength and the hope of everlasting life.  Love for God is behind the wonderful relationship that we have with our Savior.  We are united with Him and He with us in the closest possible way, a union the Savior describes very simply when He says “I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”  John 15:5.

 For natural man this beautiful spiritual union is impossible to understand.  How can one love a bridegroom that you cannot see?  In human relations, it takes deep faith for a husband or wife to love and trust each other when they can’t see each other.  Distrust easily creeps in and finally indifference so that neither cares for the other.  This goes on in the world all the time.  When they hear that the Bible calls Jesus our spiritual bridegroom, they laugh it off as an interesting fable.  For them to think of a spiritual marriage with a Savior you carry in your heart is pure nonsense.

            Because of sin, even we Christians are reluctant to give ourselves completely to our Savior.  Our thoughts and feelings are naturally centered on the things of this life, on things that we see and feel.  Earthly sorrow and problems are more real than spiritual joy.  Earthly death is more real that the promise of life.  Earthly possessions, our families, our work, our enjoyments are more real than inner peace and hope and joy.  How much we need the Savior to live in our hearts, to turn our attention away from our feelings and ourselves to the comforting picture of this text where our bridegroom opens His heart, a heart with love much warmer and fidelity much greater than any bridegroom on this earth could show his dear bride.

            As a further indication of His great love for His Church, our Savior uses the picture of a wedding dress.  The most expensive dress designed in the most exclusive shop in New York does not even come close to what the Savior offers us!  Listen to the Apostle Paul.  Our Lord gives us a dress “having no spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing!  It is holy and without blemish.”  Ephesians 5:27.  This spiritual dress covers all our spots and wrinkles, our sins and shortcomings and failures.  It is a dress that we could never afford, a dress so expensive that it cost our Savior his very life.  “Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.”  Ephesians 5:25.  Only this dress gives us inner peace and joy and the hope of heaven.  Not all the fine clothes of the world can do it.  The fancy dress of our own worth and importance and hurt feelings and self-esteem can never gain us entrance to God’s eternal home.  God’s chosen people, the Jews, were the first ones to whom the promise was made, but they were so submersed in self-righteous pride that they saw no need for the garment of Christ’s righteousness.  In fact, in their pride, they resented so much the prophets that brought them God’s loving invitation that they put them to death as well as our Savior.

Today God invites you and me to enjoy all the blessings of His wedding feast.  With the touching picture of a bride and a bridegroom, He wants us to appreciate the intimate love and concern He has for each of us.  He made us His bride with His word and He will never forsake us, but, with the same word, will keep us in intimate union with Him unto all eternity.  May we ever joyfully thank and praise God for the garment of our salvation with these beautiful words from the prophet Isaiah, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels”.  Isaiah 61:10.

1. Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness

     My beauty are, my glorious dress;

     Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,

     With joy shall I lift up my head.

5.  Lord, I believe were sinners more

    Than sands upon the ocean shore,

    Thou hast for all a ransom paid,

    For all a full atonement made.

 6. When from the dust of death I rise
    To claim my mansion in the skies,
    E'en then, this shall be all my plea:
    Jesus hath lived and died for me.

 ----------------- TLH # 371, 1, 5, 6