There is a wedding in my family this month. The groom was looking for Scripture for the ceremony and observed, “Most marriage passages in the Bible talk about the Church.” He wasn’t looking for that. After all, a wedding is one man and one woman entering a life-long covenant. It is a holy ceremony cementing an exclusive two-person relationship designed by God at the beginning of time (Genesis 2:18-24). And in a Christian wedding, God is the third strand of the covenant cord that holds those two people together (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
Marriage is the foundational relationship of a functional society. Even so, it is merely the shadow of a much larger and resplendent concept that holds Christ Himself as the groom and the Church as His bride.
That idea is fleshed out by the image of Christ as the head of the Church and the Church as His body. Christ loved the Church so much that He gave Himself up for her, literally dying for her like a Passover lamb. According to Paul, everyone nourishes and cherishes their own body (Ephesians 5:29), and this is the divine model for headship in the marriage relationship.
Christ’s goal for the Church is to make her holy. Holiness brings bells into the biblical story. Aaron, the high priest anointed and consecrated by the Lord, was required to wear a robe that had bells around the hem. These bells indicated God’s holiness placed on Aaron. The sound of the bells will be heard when he enters the Holy Place before the LORD and when he comes out, so that he will not die (Exodus 28:35). The sound of bells was made holy to the Lord.
The inscription “HOLY TO THE LORD” appeared on Aaron’s turban. But Zechariah (14:20) prophesies that in the new earth, “HOLY TO THE LORD” will be inscribed everywhere, even on common objects like bells on horses.
Weddings often are spectacular, but the most glorious of them all is yet to come. The bride of Christ is getting her clothes ready; she will wear fine linen, bright and clean. (“Fine linen” is a metaphor for the righteous acts of God’s people.) The day is coming when Christ will come to take His holy bride, the victorious Church, home with Him.
Imagine it! The bride of Christ standing next to her Bridegroom, the Lord of all creation. Hallelujah! Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready (Revelation 19:7-8).
I hear wedding bells!
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