13th March 2005

Willie Hunter

All Bible references in this sermon transcript are taken from the English Standard Version. This can be found at www.biblegateway.com

Are you all ready to be a bride? I can see some of you men looking dubious. Don’t worry! You won’t be wearing false finger nails and flowers in your hair, because what we are talking about is not something that applies individually and separately to any of us. It is the whole church corporately as one body, all people of all genders, male, female and in-between – and I don’t say that flippantly; we do need to emphasise that natural orientation is not what makes you right or wrong with God, it is behaviour that God judges. What brings you into that body, the fellowship of the church, is identical for everyone, whoever you are: it is, first, accepting that you have a part in the death of Jesus as he pays for our sins on the cross, a part both as cause and as beneficiary; and second, as you entrust your life to him, receiving a new spiritual birth by the work of the Holy Spirit. We enter individually, but as we all draw our new life from the same Spirit who unites us to Christ (which is the only way of sharing in the benefits of his work on our behalf), the Bible can speak of the church as a single body and of our relationship to our Saviour in terms of a marriage. All together we are going to be a bride – if we belong to Jesus.

This kind of language is used in several places in the New Testament. We saw it in our second reading in Ephesians (5: 22–33), but the classic examples are in Revelation. Revelation 19 (6–7) describes a great cry of exultation in the presence of God: Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him glory; for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. The Lamb refers to Jesus as the sacrifice given for our redemption, and what is being described is the celebration of the triumphant outcome of all his work as the church of all peoples and all the ages is presented to Him in heaven at the end of historic time. Later in Rev. (21:1–2, 9ff.) we have another more complex picture in which the people of God, the church, is depicted as a city, the new Jerusalem, Jerusalem representing the place where God dwells and is worshipped: I saw a new heaven and a new earth. ... And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ... Then came one of the angels ... saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb”. And he ... showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel. (Jesus used the same wedding language too, although with a different focus, in his parables of the wedding feast and the guests, and the wise and foolish virgins with their lamps waiting for the bridegroom to come.) But the language is not new in the New Testament. All over the Old Testament we find Jehovah’s relationship to his chosen people Israel expressed in terms of husband and wife, and Israel’s idolatry is seen as marital unfaithfulness, adultery (e.g., Isaiah 1:21; 50:1; 54:5 and context; 62:4–5; Jeremiah 2:2; 3; Ezekiel 16; Hosea 2). In the same way Jesus calls his own age an “adulterous generation” (Matthew 12:39; 16:4; Mark 8:38). So we have to ask, What is it about marriage that makes it so appropriate as a picture of the relationship between God and his people in the OT and in the New? And that will be the first of our three specials for today: 1. What’s special about marriage? 2. In Psalm 45, What’s special about the Bridegroom? 3. What’s special about the Bride?

1. What’s special about marriage,

... that makes it so suitable for describing the relationship between God and ourselves? The most obvious and the most exciting reason is that we are dealing with a love-story, “a love affair, the greatest romance in the world, the love of God for his people”. Why does he love us and want us? Just because his nature is love – God is expressing his inmost desires through reaching out to embrace what is not himself, to share himself with others, to find pleasure in others. And all through Bible history from Genesis to Revelation we see his extraordinary commitment to having a people for himself with whom he can have a living two-way relationship and whom he can bless; and the lengths to which he is prepared to go in patience and longsuffering and self-sacrifice – literally – in order to cement that relationship and undo all the wrongs and causes of estrangement. Isn’t this a love-story like no other? Our God is the greatest lover.

Of course, in our human experience lovely love-stories don’t always end in a perfect marriage, do they? Indeed your own painful experience as a marriage partner or in a family may be making it difficult for you even to consider this picture that God has given us of the relationship between his people and himself. But please don’t close down, and we shall see how God’s own perfect conception of what marriage is, wonderfully reflects what he intends for us whom he is preparing to be the perfect Bride to present to his Son.

The first and most fundamental thing about a marriage, upon which everything else is based, is that in it two people become one. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). That is what God said at the beginning, and Jesus repeats it, adding that it is God himself who brings about that union (Matthew 19:5; = Mark 10:7). It is this fundamental union that explains the exclusiveness that God expects in a marriage, and the requirement of faithfulness, and the self-commitment to the welfare of the partner, as Paul explained in our Ephesians reading. It is this union which should be seen and expressed in intimacy, in depth of friendship and trust, in joy and delight in each other. This is marriage as God says it should be – not Claire Rayner or other flawed marriage guru – as the fulfilment of love. And just see how closely it fits the essentials of our relationship with our Saviour as the individuals who make up the church – and it is true on both sides, note, his and ours –: a union which, once established, lasts forever; a total dedication to each other; a willingness to give up everything for the sake of the other; a delight in each other. This is what is special about marriage, and what makes it such a wonderful picture of how it should be, and will be, for us and Jesus, our husband-to-be.

But what is our husband like? Will he be handsome, will he be tall? Let’s find out by looking through the window of Psalm 45. Forget your royal re-marriage in a registry office! What we see is an oriental king in all his finery marrying a beautiful princess with lavish ceremony. In recent weeks we have been thinking of Jesus, the Messiah, as rejected and betrayed, suffering death and abandonment, and some of it has been grim indeed. But now we see in a blaze of glory and with a fanfare of trumpets what all the pain and suffering has been for, because there is no doubt that the Psalm is speaking of Jesus and his bride, the Church, and the consummation of the divine love affair. Why are we so sure? Not just because the language seems too lavish to apply to any human ruler. You might explain that as poetic licence, with conventional flattery and a portrait of the ideal that the people wanted their king to aspire to (compare Psalm 72). No. It is because we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, and verses 6–7 are quoted entire in Hebrews 1: 8–9 as applying to Jesus to show how much superior the Son of God is to any angels. In Psalm 45, the inspired poet is giving us a sense of the joy and celebration that will greet the marriage of Christ and the Church. He tells us what we will see and rejoice in as we look at our perfect Bridegroom, and what will give him joy in us his perfected Bride.

2. What is special about the bridegroom?

When we see our Saviour it will be the reverse of what happens in most weddings. Usually it’s the groom turning to see the girl he is to marry enter the church and he is transfixed, because he has never seen her dressed like that and glowing from hours of soaking and creaming and titivation. But when we are the bride it is we who will be open-mouthed as we look at our glorious bridegroom. The Psalmist highlights four things.

1. In v.2 our Bridegroom is beautiful in graciousness. He is the most handsome of the sons of men and grace is poured upon his lips. Yes, his mouth is lovely, but it is the gracious words he speaks that are truly entrancing. Similarly, his handsomeness points beyond mere appearance to the perfections of who he is and his moral character. Superb!

2. He is also in v.3 majestic in might. He bears a sword, and not for ceremonial purposes only. The word for mighty one is the word for a hero, a proven warrior. So when he goes out it is to victory (v.4). His right hand does deeds that strike his friends with awe and his enemies with terror. So invincible is he on the battle field that in v.5 his sharpened arrows have hardly left the bow before he is riding over the corpses of the enemy. Awesome!

3. But it’s not just a macho display of power, a Bruce Willis extravaganza of slaughter. The Saviour to whom we are engaged is passionate for the right. V.4: In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness. Vv.6–7, looking at the character of his rule in his kingdom: The sceptre of your kingdom is a sceptre of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. When he deals with the king’s enemies in v.5, all the powers ranged against him, he is defending God’s moral order and dispatching those who would undermine it and do away with himself, God’s own champion. So is this paragon-warrior, for all his moral fervour, aloof and remote from ordinary people and their concerns? Anything but! The cause he serves in v.4 has at its heart the protection and vindication of the meek. Who are they? They are those who have no false estimation of themselves, who are rightly humble, and who in their vulnerability and need put all their hopes of rescue on God. They are the people of God: us. Only a king majestic in might and passionate about truth and righteousness is able fully to serve the interests of the meek.

4. Beautiful in graciousness, majestic in might, passionate for righteousness engaged on behalf of his people. What a profile! But we still haven’t finished. To crown all these perfections, he is uniquely and supremely favoured by God. V.2: You are the most handsome of men; grace is poured upon your lips; THEREFORE God has blessed you forever. V.6: Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever. V.7: You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. THEREFORE God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

So far I haven’t felt it was necessary to spell out how all that we have been reading applies to Christ and reflects what we read in prophecies such as Isaiah 11:1ff. We could have spent a very enjoyable hour or two doing so. But we do need to spend a few moments unpacking the “therefores” of verses 2 and 7. We are looking at Jesus not as the eternal unchanging Son of God, but as the Son who for our sakes became a man in order to be our Saviour and our High Priest as described in the letter to the Hebrews. As a Man, Jesus can refer to his Father as his God (Matthew 27:46; John 20:17), and the letter writers of the New Testament continue to use this style as valid even now that the risen Jesus has ascended to his Father’s side (Romans 15:6; 2 Corinthians 1:3; Ephesians 1:3, 17; 1 Peter 1:3; Revelation 1:5–6; compare 3:2, 12). And God the Father can look with delight at the Son in the light of his obedience and his accomplishments and grant him rewards and accolades.

Turn with me to Philippians 2: 5–11 (p. 1180). [Read. Note “THEREFORE”] Isn’t that a great commentary on the verses of our Psalm? Or this, from Hebrews (2:9): We see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Or again (12:2): Jesus, ... who for the joy [note] that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. We could easily multiply the references (e.g., Ephesians 1:19–22; Hebrews 1:3–4; Revelation; Matthew 12:18–20) telling how Jesus was esteemed and exalted by his Father through fulfilling his role and mission as redeemer. Yet when we are led to him as his Bride, and see him eternally blessed of his Father and exalted in his eternal kingdom, all we will be able to think is: all this blessing and honour and celebration and gladness, it’s because of what he did for us to bring us to our wedding day.

Finally, and all too briefly:

3. What’s special about the Bride?

What’s special about the Bride, and astonishingly so given who she is, is that she is perfect! Us, a Bride worthy of such a Bridegroom? Oh yes! How often have we heard at the end of our services these words: Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless – unblemished, faultless – before the presence of his glory with great joy ... (Jude 24)? (Compare Ephesians 5:27.) Our Psalm indicates the two stages by which this miracle comes about.

First, vv.10–12, which apply to our life now, in this world. The section is itself in two parts: (i) Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear. We are about to be given a very important lesson. Forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty. In our Christian terms, this is the absolute starting point and condition of the Christian life: turning from the old life in order to give ourselves to Christ. It’s also the point we return to every time we need to repent. Forget the attractions of the world. Don’t be seduced by temptations. Don’t listen to the devil. You have a new Husband and your life is bound up with his. Union with Christ demands faithfulness: “forsaking all others ...”. And the consequence, or better, the reward is: the king will desire your beauty. Remember the special bonds of intimacy and friendship that belong to marriage that we thought about at the beginning of our study? (ii) Since he is your lord, bow to him. Nothing more need be said about that; the application is obvious, isn’t it? And again there is a consequence or reward in verse 12. In the imagery, Tyre is a wealthy foreign merchant state and ally of Solomon, whose marriage to the Egyptian princess recorded in 1 Kings 3:1 may well have inspired the Psalm. For us it is the promise that as we submit our lives to pleasing Christ, other people will be drawn to us, the church, by the attraction of Jesus seen in our lives. But they are not paying tribute to us for who we are, but for the bond with the Lord we serve. Really they are hungry for him and want to know him and be associated with him. Forget and bow, these are the conditions of our lives as Christians, and the way to the Saviour’s love and favour and to effective shining for him in the world.

And then secondly and finally finally, in verses 13–15, we look beyond this life to the great day when the Bride is brought forth in the perfection of her marvellous multi-coloured robes and led to her Bridegroom, the king. And do you know what these robes represent? Revelation 19:6–8 (p. 1249) explains. (Don’t be distracted by the replacement of colour by whiteness): [Read]

How can we have righteous deeds to adorn us at the marriage of the Lamb? Don’t we owe our righteousness to him alone? Absolutely. But the righteousness of Christ that pays for our sins and satisfies his Father’s demands is given to us so that we can receive new life in Christ that grows and develops and expresses itself naturally in dedicated obedience and service. That is entirely owed to Christ too; it is only true service if done in faith and dependence on him. But it is our service. In Paul’s image (1Corinthians 3:11–15), it is what we have built on the foundation of Christ alone. It is all to his credit again, because without him we are nothing and can do nothing, but our contribution nonetheless to the marvellous robes of the bride that will make her even more beautiful in the Bridegroom’s eyes.

We are saved without works by grace alone, through faith; but we enter the new life, re-created in Christ Jesus for good works, says Paul in Ephesians (2:8–10). This is the responsibility of each of us individually to contribute to what the church is and does. We can’t be Christians otherwise than in the body, and there is no body independent of its members. The body is what we are. So having seen how special the Bridegroom is and how wonderful the wedding day will be, do we need any greater motive and encouragement to commit ourselves heart and soul and mind and strength – you me, Trinity – to this most special marriage that will be the joy of heaven on the Great Day?