The New Purpose

Isaiah 62:5 As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.
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Ephesians 5:27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 
 
IN creation’s perfection, God established a true loving, intimate relationship between a man and woman, recorded in Genesis 2:22-25: Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
    In the first creation, this holy marriage is given to mankind to be the image of God’s desired relationship with each of us. This is also God’s will for the new creation. As a Christian, born to a new life in Christ Jesus, the triune God sees us as his bride – perfectly, beautifully adorned for a glorious relationship with Him. We are purely connected to the Father in the broken bones of Jesus’ body and his blood poured out for us.
    Our role as the individual and collective church, then, is to be as a faithful bride. The Bible records the many ways of love, its benefits and its purposes. To love God and to love others is to release your own will to dutiful submission to the Lord. This becomes a joyful work as we display God’s love into the world divorced from the Father’s pure bond.
    Called to Christ, this is your new purpose. Seek an intimate love relationship with the Holy God. Submit to the Lord’s will for your life. Live in his radiant relationship with you now and forever.
 
Prayer: Lord God, I thank you for the beautiful, intimate image of marriage you give to our relationship with you. I pray for Christian marriages to honor and bless you. I pray for each of us as your church to be a faithful Bride of Christ. Amen.