The traditional Jewish wedding arrangement is also the pattern, broadly, of the plan of God’s redemption of those who accept Jesus as their Savior and receive His gift of eternal life. The parallel is unique, as the Scriptures use that pattern of events to reveal in prophecy what will take place as the end of the age comes about.

In the Jewish wedding the bride-to-be is betrothed to the husband-to-be, and they are separated for a period of time before the marriage ceremony is performed, normally about a year. The bridegroom then returns to his father’s house and there prepares a place of residence for his bride. Other preparations that are needed he will take care to do, then when ready, sometime within the year, at a time not fixed, he will return for his bride. A final wedding ceremony will take place, and a wedding feast will ensue. The couple will continue their lives together.

A knowledgeable Jewish person would fill in the spaces I have missed, but that is something of an overall picture of the major events that compare to the Scriptural presentation of God’s plan for His redemption of His saints.

In the prophetic picture of that redemption plan, the Bride is the body of Christ, the redeemed church; the Bridegroom is Jesus, the Christ, Messiah, Redeemer. The betrothal happens when a person responds to the Lord’s offer of His gift of salvation and that person is born again. He or she is no longer singularly alone and separate from the basic purpose God gave to Adam and Eve—reproduce and populate the earth. This time, though, the reproduction is to be that of born-again believers as a result of the witness of that body of believers, the Bride, being appropriately related to the Bridegroom by living a holy life.

When Jesus departed for His return to heaven, He left the disciples with this command in Acts 1:8: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Peter picks up the process to be followed by the disciples and those who are reached with the gospel: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). Paul, then to the Philippians, sets out the life-plan of believers: “…Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do, according to His pleasure” (Philippians 2:12b-13). This does not mean we are to be working to secure a salvation that we do not have yet, of course. We have the sure word of Christ that His gift of salvation, once received, will never pass away, so recorded many times in the New Testament, including 1 John 5:11-12.

Meanwhile, Jesus has returned to heaven, the place of His Father, and John 14:2-4 tells us this:

“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

What else is happening from heaven’s viewpoint during this time of His absence, physically speaking? The parable of the wedding feast being prepared by the King for his son fills in that information of how the Lord justly builds His church. It is told in Matthew 22:1-14:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. 

“Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, ‘See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.’

“But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore, go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

 “For many are called, but few are chosen.’”

(It is very clear in the parable and in its closing statement that those willing to come to the wedding were choosing to come in response to the invitation. It establishes clearly that no one will be in heaven who does not want to be there.)

This parable illustrates the following thoughts of that Acts 1:8 commandment to be witnesses going into all the world with the gospel. As in Romans 1:16’s declaration, the gospel is to the Jew first, then to the Greek, or Gentile. Then John tells us in John 1:11-12 that Jesus went to His own kinsmen first and they did not receive Him, but “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”

Before Peter and his generation had passed away, scoffers were expected to come, railing about the return of Christ taking so long, and Peter writes of that in his second epistle, at 2 Peter 3:3-9, that the reason being that God is patient and long-suffering, “not willing that any should perish, but that all might come to repentance.”

Repentance is a choice to be made by a person, and that calls to remembrance what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “The road to righteousness is narrow, and few there be who find it, but the road to destruction is broad, and many are found on it.” It also brings to mind that last statement in the parable of the wedding feast above, that is, “many are called but few are chosen.” The rejection of Christ is a willful response of many. All of these things have been happening over the centuries of the Christian era. Have they prepared the church for its accounting before the judgment at Christ’s coming? Today’s church at large seems to be one that Jesus would spew out of His moth as lukewarm and basically ineffective.

Thus, finally, one other activity has been going on for all these centuries since Jesus returned to heaven that explains what has happened. It is told in that parable of the ten virgins, in Matthew 25:1-10. This is a return to a scene based on the traditional Jewish wedding feast, where ten virgins are the bridesmaids to the Bride during her time of waiting for the return of her Bridegroom for completion of the marriage ceremony.

What were the duties of the bridesmaids? Their task was to keep the Bride in safety, pure and faithful to the Bridegroom while separated from him. The Bridegroom would not be returning for the bridesmaids, but for the Bride. (I have capitalized the Bride and the Bridegroom to link this to the relationship of Christ to the church, His body of believers.)

Five of the virgins had plenty of oil, but the other five did not—they let their supply run low, not paying attention to their lack. Oil is an illustration of the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, the more oil, the evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit. Well, then, who do the bridesmaids represent in this world of mortals for all these centuries? It must be those who are leaders—preachers and teachers of the Word, evangelists, as described in Ephesians 4:11-14 to do the duties of “bridesmaids” over the Bride until He returns:

“…For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;  that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.”

The final indictment of the modern church, which is a composite of those seven churches in Revelation 2-3, is Jesus saying they are a lukewarm church, and He will “spew them out of His mouth” (Revelation 3:16).

Is it likely that half of the Body of Christ are not prepared for the Lord’s return? Jesus said that in the last days there would appear many false prophets and false teachers, leading people away from the simple gospel that merely calls for repentance and receiving Jesus Christ into their lives by faith. It calls for caution and a close reference to the principle in Acts 17:11, to check what is being preached and taught against the Word of God. No doubt there are multitudes of local churches with a mingling of false doctrines in their congregations, and their “bridesmaids” have run out of oil. Will there be time for their repentance?

Contact email:  andwegetmercy@gmail.com

 

The typical false doctrine of false teachers is arrived at by intricate calculations and illogical interpretations of the Scriptures. A system of steps to salvation that lists requirements that man must do in order to be acceptable to God and find that salvation is off-base at the beginning if it requires man’s efforts. But the Apostle Paul has one word that covers the whole landscape—simplicity:

“But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).

That most important theological question is the one asked by the Philippian jailer recorded by Luke in Acts 16:30-31: “What must I do to be saved?”

Paul answered, immediately: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!”

Now wait a minute! What about being baptized and joining a church? I have looked and found it to be a principle of false doctrines that one must join their particular church and be baptized by that church in order to be saved. Check them out—Roman Catholic, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons), Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Church of Christ (Campbellites). The list could go on, for the works of man, himself, are the basis of their beliefs. How much clearer can it be? However, in Ephesians 2:8-10, that salvation has nothing to do with “doing” but has much to do with “believing.” Note how even that is a gift to be received:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Much heavy preaching is given to the sins of man and laying those sins aside to be righteous. Actually, it points to repentance, or turning from those sins. However, one can quit drinking, smoking, cussing, adulterous activity, stealing, even killing, and still go to hell! That is where the “why” of this article comes into the picture—that and the “most important” part, which is vividly expressed in Mark 8:36-37:

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Because a person born of Adam’s legacy, as all are, is a sinner by nature, so that is what he does—he sins. There must be a radical transformation from that sinful nature to one that is, at its roots, righteous and acceptable to God. Jesus nailed it when he told Nicodemus, “You must be born again” in John 3. He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.'”

Some look at that statement and say, “O yeah, ‘born of water'” and conclude that baptism is necessary for salvation to be complete. But Jesus clears that up with that next statement of the difference between physical life and spiritual life. Being born again is a spiritual transaction that the Spirit of God accomplishes when a person wholeheartedly receives Christ into his life and submits himself to Christ’s lordship. Physical birth involves water in the process.

Look at Titus 3:5 for how it works: “…Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

But there’s that word, “washing.” “Doesn’t that mean water baptism?” you ask. No, for it is a regeneration of spiritual life, and physical water cannot accomplish spiritual transformations. As Jesus said, “That which is flesh [physical] is flesh, and that which is spiritual is spiritual.”

We are getting closer to the “why” in the title as we press on. Just as Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart” (Job 1:21, NIV). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds us to “build treasures in heaven for they will not fade away there.” In other words, we cannot take our “stuff” with us!

There are those who say there are more ways to heaven than just by Jesus, but the Scriptures tell of no other way. Is God a liar? If there are other ways to heaven, then why did Christ come into human history with the very purpose of providing an offering for the sins of mankind that man, himself, could not provide. Paul declares, in 2 Corinthians 5:21, that fact: “He [God] has made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be righteous in Him.”

Peter declared of Jesus, at that great fulfillment of the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, in Acts 4:12, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

The thief on the cross by Jesus did not join a church or get baptized, nor did he have any way to get a theological education and follow all those man-made rules and hoops to jump through. There was no time for that, and justly so; there was no need for anything but believing in Jesus. Even that was without much expectation, for he merely asked to be remembered when Jesus came into his kingdom. “Today,” Jesus said, “You will be with Me in Paradise!”

Simplicity in Christ, that’s it. Aren’t you glad, dear redeemed sinner, that it is so? That answer says it all which the late theologian Karl Barth gave to the question of “what is the greatest theological truth you have learned in your life?” After a thoughtful moment, he replied, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!”

May we each treasure that truth in our hearts forever!

Contact email:  andwegetmercy@gmail.com