Page 158 - Ephesians

The New Jerusalem is the Bride. It’s us! The New Jerusalem is
the Church, as it will be some day in its maturity and fulfilled
destiny.

Let me illustrate and then come back to this point. Picture a man
complaining about his wife in words something like this, “Oh sure,
it’s easy to read Ephesians 5, ‘Husbands love your wives.’ But
Paul wasn’t married to a porcupine, like my wife. She’s always
crotchety. Nothing seems to please her, and she’s never
satisfied. I work my hands to the bone all day. Then I come home
tired and hungry, and there’s no dinner. She’s been yacking on
the phone all day. Sure, it’s easy for you to say to love your wife
but, man, she’s pretty unlovely. Am I responsible to love her?”

Listen to the principle again. That’s the illustration, but of course
it’s extreme (I hope it’s extreme). The love of the husband
transforms the wife. In the passage, the wife is pictured as dirty,
spotted, and wrinkled. That’s the picture. Let me ask this
question. Does our heavenly bridegroom/husband love the
Church because she is lovely, without spots and wrinkles? Is
that why God loves you? Because, you are so pure and perfect?
According to the passage, Christ loved the Church when she was
dirty, and when she was spotted, and when she was wrinkled.
She had many faults and many imperfections. Christ loved the
Church, not because she was lovely, but according to this
passage, in order to make her lovely. His love makes her
lovely. 25-26,

“Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church
and gave Himself up for her that He might sanctify her,
having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory,
having no spots or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she
might be holy and blameless before Him.”

Read a passage like that, then, tell me He’s talking about the
family. He is NOT! He’s talking about union with Jesus Christ.