There is a contemporary Christian teaching that it is the Lord desires that the Local Churches in every nation to grow in quantity and quality. But according to the New Testament Scripture this is not the Lord's primary concern. His primary concern is to prepare a Bride for Himself! Quantity is of secondary importance because only the remnant of Christians will ultimately be saved (refer to my earlier message "The Remnant of God's People").
Let us search out the Scripture concerning the qualitites that Christ looks for concerning His Bride.
1. Paul wrote to the believers in the Church in Ephesus concerning the preparation of the Bride:
"Husbands, love your wives just as 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" (Ephesians 5:25, 26, NKJV, emphasis added).
2. Solomon painted a vivid picture of Israel as God's betrothed Bride. Prophetically, it is a picture of the true Church as the Bride of Christ:
"Who is she who looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, awesome as an army with banners" (Song of Solomon 6:10, NKJV, emphasis added)?
3. John heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven (Revelation 19:10) saying:
"Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for 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" (Revelation 19:7, 8, NKJV, emphasis added).
From the above three passages of Scripture (two describe the Church on earth and the other describes the Church in heaven) we observe the following:
- The purpose of Christ's atoning death for the Church and for each individual Christian is to prepare a Bride for Himself.
- Christ Himself prepares the Bride. The Bride is a glorious Church - a holy Church, without spot, wrinkle or blemish. Only those Christians who have gone through a process of cleansing and sanctifying will be in the condition necessary for their final presentation to Christ as His Bride.
- God's Word is the means of sanctifying and cleansing. The operation of God's Word in the life of individual Christian is compared to the washing of pure water. Man's ideas and principles, no matter how convincing and seemingly Biblical, no matter how much research work has been done, can never substitute the purification effect of God's Word.
- The Bride is fair as the moon. The unique function of the moon is to reflect the sun. Similarly, the function of the Church is to reflect the Sun of Righteousness, our Lord Jesus Christ (Malachi 4:2).
- The Bride is "as awesome as an army with banners". The banner speaks of victory. The Bride is not called just to win a battle or two but to proclaim the total victory of the War that her Bridegroom has already won on the Cross. The Bride is responsible to demonstrate and administer the victory that Jesus had already won. The Bride is called to be the Army of God and to get involved in doing God's will - in Spiritual Warfare! In other words the Bride of Christ is a prayerful Church.
- After the process of sanctification and cleansing the Bride is ready to be presented to Christ. She "makes herself ready" by putting on her wedding apparel which is made of fine linen, clean and bright.
- The righteous acts of the Christians become the "fine linen" (clothing material) for the Wedding garment. The Bride herself has to produce the material out of which her bridal garment will be made. The material is "bought" by her righteous acts.
Those Who are Christ"s
As we have seen Christ is coming for His prepared Bride who fulfills the above conditions. Nevertherless only Christ Himself knows who are His:
"Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: 'The Lord knows those who are His,' and, 'Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity'" (2 Timothy 2:19, emphasis added).
Only the Lord Himself knows exactly those who belong to Him. In outward conduct, however, all such believers have one feature in common - They "depart from iniquity". Those who lack this outward seal are not among those whom the Lord acknowledges as His. Those who do not belong to Him will not be His Bride!
Paul gave a further mark by which such people are distinguished:
"And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:24, 25, emphasis added).
Professing Christians who lead careless, carnal, self-indulgent lives following the ways of the world will not be numbered among those who are His!
A way to avoid this problem is to walk in the Spirit because Paul said earlier, "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16).
Christians' Righteous Acts
The New Testament reveals that there are two forms of righteousness - imputed righteousness and outwork righteousness.
Imputed Righteousness
"Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness" (Romans 4:3).
"Now it was not written for His (Abraham's) sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead" (Romans 4:23, 24, emphasis added).
We received imputed righteousness when we are born again. God reckoned Christ's righteousness to us because He was made sin with our sinfulness that we might be made righteous with His righteousness.
Outwork Righteousness
Imputed righteousness is for the purpose of preparing the Christian to walk the Christian walk in holiness and righteousness. It is the beginning of the sanctification process. We have to move from imputed righteousness to outwork righteousness. "The righteous acts of the saints" (Rev. 19:8) are not imputed righteousness but outwork righteousness - the righteous acts we have to perform in order to provide the linen material for our bridal clothing.
John said, "He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous" (1 John 3:7).
John said later, "All unrighteousness is sin" (1 John 5:17).
It is therefore obvious that what is required of the Bride is to practice righteousness because Christ is righteous. An unrighteous person and the righteous Christ cannot be unequally yoked together!
Someone had said, at the moment, in God's eyes, we might have just enough material to make a bikini which is not a suitable attire for a wedding banquet! Something has to happen radically before we can say the Bride has made herself ready.
The right attitude toward the Bridegroom
The real problem of the Church is that we do not have the right attitude toward Christ. We are actually lack reverence and respect for the Bridegroom!
As I shared before in an earlier message we have the spirit of Esau who was a type of carnality. We are more concerned on the things of the flesh than the things of the Spirit. We are living as though there is nothing beyond the present world - living without consciousness of eternity.
As the psalmist said we must ask the Lord to "teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). Let us make the short time we have left in this world count for eternity!
Failing to submit to the Lordship of Christ
It is beyond the scope of this short message to consider more than one area of wrongdoing the Church is committing. One important area that comes to my mind will become clear if we ask ourselves the following questions:
Is Cod's choice our choice? Is the way we do things in the Local Church based entirely on God's choice? In other words, do we always submit and subject to the Lordship of Christ? Do we always get the Lord involved in the things that we desire to do and seek his will in prayers, intercessions and supplication?
Paul said, "And He (God) put all things under His (Christ's) feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all" (Ephesians 1:22, 23, emphasis added).
Notice that God did not put the Church under Christ's feet. He put all things (programs, activities and ministries) related to the function of the Church under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus is the Head of the Church. Therefore, we must submit to the Lordship of Christ in all things related the the ministries of the Church - both Local and Universal.
Paul said, "Wives, submit to your own husband, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything" (Eph. 5:22 - 24).
In my opinion, by and large, Jesus at the present time is not effectively the Head of the Church. The Church is not subject to Jesus. It makes its own decisions, own plans and treats Jesus as a kind of "rubber stamp" to put His Name on most man-made projects and activities!
A parallel truth is a majority of Christian wives do not subject to their husbands at the present time. On the contrary, it is the wife who becomes the head of husband in many Christian homes! Their family relationship is not right. I do not believe the Church is more subject to Jesus than the wives in the Church subject to their own husbands. In other words, if you want to measure how much the Local Church subjects to Jesus just take a look at the Christian couples. Husbands and wives can be a prophetic message to the world! This I believe is how Jesus relates to His Church and the Church relates to Jesus.
Unless we are totally submitted and subject to the Lordship of Christ we are far from ready to be the Bride of Christ!
The Spirit and the Bride
At the end of the Book of Revelation John recorded:
"And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17).
The Bride can only says "come" when the Spirit says first. It is God, the Holy Spirit's choice and decision when the Bridegroom is coming to take His bride. The Bride simply echos what the Spirit says. The Spirit and the Bride cannot say "come" before she makes herself ready.
Are we ready?
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