Revelation 19:7-9 refers to the marriage of the Lamb (Jesus) and the Bride having made herself ready. Who is the Bride of Christ and how can we be made ready?
Everyone who receives Christ Jesus as their Savior becomes betrothed to Jesus. In Jewish custom, a betrothal is considered a legal and mutually-binding, marriage covenant between a man and a woman. However, the groom does not take the bride to himself right away. He returns to his home in order to prepare a place for her there. While the bride is waiting for him to come for her, she focuses on preparing herself to become united in oneness with him.
In becoming a Christian, you make a spiritual covenant to give your life in marriage to Jesus. The spiritual marriage between Jesus and mankind has nothing to do with physical gender. It is not about a relationship between a man and a woman. It is about coming into an intimate, heart-to-heart relationship between Jesus and those of mankind who will love and commit themselves to Him. He is preparing a place for you in His home. This does not just mean that you get to go to Heaven when you die. Many Christians view ‘giving their heart to Jesus’ simply as receiving a free ticket to Heaven. Jesus is not coming back for ‘ticket holders’. He has made it clear that He is coming for a Bride who is so in love with Him that she is willing to give up all for the sake of His eternal purposes!
From the very beginning, God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden because He wanted to share His heart of love with mankind in intimate relationship. Adam and Eve forfeited their place of intimacy with God because of sin. They were then banished from the Garden of Eden. However, when you become a Christian, your heart becomes God’s Garden of Eden. You have been given an invitation to return to a relationship of intimate oneness with God.
God desires our relationship with Him to develop beyond that of a servant into intimate, heart-to-heart friendship. Though Jesus desires that we give over our will in submission to His, He wants us to choose to do so out of our love for Him, not out of duty. Jesus called ‘laying down your life for a friend’ the greatest love that man can give (John 15:13). Although this is the greatest form of human love, God longs for an even higher form of love relationship between Himself and mankind – that of becoming completely one with Him in His divine love.
God is pleased when you serve Him out of your love for Him, and it touches His heart deeply when you love Him enough to lay down your life for Him. But, God longs for our relationship with Him to transcend our human ability (rise above; go beyond the normal limits) to love. The great longing of His heart is that we would choose to become one with Him in His own great love.
This is why Jesus referred to Himself as the Bridegroom and those who have given themselves completely to Him in pursuit of this higher love are referred to as the Bride.
1 Corinthians 13 beautifully explains our need to be filled with God’s divine love.
Revelation 19:7 says, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”
How does the bride make herself ready? The Bride is made ready by pursuing intimate relationship with Jesus above all else, so that she comes to know Him so well and love Him so much that her life becomes completely hidden in His (Col. 3:1-3). Then the Bride will be ready to be united in oneness with Jesus. The ultimate desire of God has always been for oneness between Himself and mankind.
In Matthew 25:1-13, Jesus told the parable of the ten virgins:
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. The other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
Scriptures that refer to Jesus as the Bridegroom:
John 3:29, Matthew 9:14-15, 2 Corinthians 11:2, Ephesians 5:25-27, and Revelation 19:7
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