Analogy

An excerpt from Chuck and Nan’s new book The Kingdom, Power and Glory.

A comparison of the Jewish marriage celebration with the ceremony to the Christian life.

1) The salvation of our spirit (called justification) with the seal of the Holy Spirit, I believe is analogous to the betrothal of the Jewish bride with the down payment, pledge, or seal of “an object of value” (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30 ).

Hosea 2:19-20 puts it this way: “I will betroth thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in justice, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord” (2 Corinthians 11:2). The process of sanctification that we are all in now as we wait for our Lord’s return, can be compared to the long wait between the time the groom leaves to prepare a place for his bride and the time he returns for her.

Note the importance placed upon the Jewish bride during this waiting period to prepare herself for her groom’s return—to make her own gown and her own wedding garment, which we see as “the righteousness of the saints” (i.e., bearing “spiritual fruit.” (Revelation 19:7) This stresses the significance of the sanctification process––our time of preparation, our time of fitting, and our time of making ourselves ready, worthy, and qualified for our Groom’s return.

Sanctification, again, is our bridal preparation! It’s getting ourselves ready for our coming new role: transferring our allegiance from earthly things to heavenly things; learning to love God rather than self; replacing our preoccupation with our friends and families to making the Lord and His will the most important thing in our lives; and finally, going from depending upon self (and our own abilities) to depending upon Christ for everything.