When the
apostle John was looking for a way to describe the relationship between Christ
and his church, the comparison he most often used was that of a bride and a
groom. That makes sense to me, because
it speaks of things like love, faithfulness and trust. However, in Revelation 19, he points out a
few other details which are worth noticing.
“For the
wedding of the Lamb [Jesus] has come, and his bride has made herself
ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was
given to her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints)”
(verses 7-8).
The line
that caught my attention in that passage was the one that said, “His bride has
made herself ready”. That sounds a
little odd, doesn’t it? I mean, I am
used to hearing that there is not much for me to do. God has done the work of salvation through
his son’s death on the cross and all I have to do is accept that gift.
Now, all of
that is true, but so is the fact that the bride is to make herself ready. How does she do that? Well, John spells that out for us too by
describing the bride as wearing this beautiful clothing and then he points out,
just in case we do not understand, that the “fine linen is the righteous acts
of the saints”.
Do you see
what he is saying? Our actions count,
but maybe not in the way you think they do.
You see, our good and righteous acts do not earn us anything. Our good and righteous acts do not “make us
the bride of Christ”. We are his bride
because he has loved us and chosen us.
However, our good and righteous acts are important because they beautify
us to Christ and to others.
Over the
years, I have conducted a lot of weddings.
Each one is unique and each one is special, but they all have one thing
in common: The bride always looks
beautiful! The groom is about a 50/50
shot (some of them clean up well and others, not so much), but the bride always
looks lovely. A lot of thought goes into
the dress that she will wear. Her hair is done just the way that she wants
it. Often, her make-up and even her
shoes have been chosen with great care.
The bride is beautiful because she has made an effort to be so.
As
Christians, we would do well to think about how we act and how we present
ourselves. A little thought and care may
go a long way.
After all, everyone smiles when they see a beautiful bride.
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