Greg Boyd calls us to participate in the divine-human marriage relationship between Christ and his people. We are made to experience divine love and to live in love, which will be fully realized upon Christ’s return. Now we are called to make ourselves ready, embracing this love by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Happy Ever After
• Greg Boyd
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Greg Boyd opens the final subseries on Revelation by outlining what it means for God’s people to be the Bride of Christ. He does this by summarizing the theology of marriage that runs through the entire Bible, culminating in Revelation 19:1-10.
In the beginning, God created out of his nature of self-giving, triune love. Divine-human marriage is a central way of speaking about the relationship that God desires with us. This is found in the first covenant between God and humans in chapter two of Genesis. Paul also brings it into his understanding of the God-human relationship. Ephesians 5:31-32 reads: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” God wants a relationship with us that is something like the “one flesh” relationship of an ideal marriage union. St. Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
In the context of the biblical narrative, marriage involved two steps. First was a betrothal period, a time of preparation. During this time of one to two years, the bride and groom are legally married, but their union has not been fully consummated. They are promised to one another, and they are getting ready for the time when their marriage will be fully realized.
Second, was the marriage period, which is initiated by the wedding ceremony and celebration. This imagery is used to show how we are the bride who is betrothed, but still waiting on the wedding celebration. The betrothal period is a time of testing and preparation that aims at acquiring a righteous character that matches the character of the heavenly bridegroom. The metaphor of divine-human marriage runs like a thread throughout the biblical narrative. This is most clearly illustrated in the book of Hosea (Hosea 2:16-17, 19-20). God yearns for a faithful bride who can fully know and experience the love that he has for her.
This yearning leads God to do something unexpected. The heavenly bridegroom set aside all of his blessed privileges as God and descended to the level of those who have rejected this marriage relationship. Jesus is the bridegroom coming to rescue and betroth his bride. He makes this point in Mark 2:19-20. Then, when Jesus ascends to Heaven, he sends a betrothal gift, the Holy Spirit, as a guarantee of the coming union (John 14:15-17, 26). This presence of the Spirit lives within us, and empowers us to live as the radiant bride of Christ as we look forward to the bridegroom’s return.
This betrothal-marriage framework lays the foundation for understanding the focus scripture quoted above. Now, at last, with the ever-present aid of Jesus’ wedding gift, the Holy Spirt, the Bride has made herself “ready.” The Bride has finally acquired a wedding garment fit for this heavenly-human marriage made of “fine linen, bright and clean.” The new and eternal kingdom will be established on a renewed earth which begins with a great wedding feast. It is actually a “happy-ever-after story,” one for which our hearts long, and the experience of true love through the unrelenting embrace of God.
Greg offers three take-away points for us to consider. First, embrace this happy-ever-after story. Give yourself permission to dream of a future in which everything and everyone has been reconciled to God, living in perfect harmony with his love. Make space to dream that swords and bombs will be abolished and everyone will lay down their heads in safety and peace. Imagine a space where the embrace of God overcomes all worry, sickness and struggle, where you are receiving and giving love as if love is the only thing that matters.
Second, return to your first love. Our “first love” gets distracted and diluted when we allow our yearning for God to get focused on other things. The Dragon in Revelation is the ultimate deceiver who twists the truth, convincing us to seek after power, position and possessions. It is time to name these deceptions and identify the specific ways that we all have been entrapped by them. We then need to repent and seek after the only thing that will bring about fulfillment, God’s unending love.
Third, ask if we, the Bride, are making ourselves ready. This is both a personal question and a corporate one. Each of us is part of the Bride, and we all play a part in preparing for our ultimate union. Now is the time to seek the gift of the Holy Spirit, to listen to his inner voice, and act on the Spirit’s prompting. This is the ultimate fulfillment, the highest calling and the pinnacle of life. Don’t miss out.
Hide Extended SummaryTopics: Covenant, End Times, Holy Spirit
Sermon Series: The Unveiling, The End Is the Beginning
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The MuseCast: June 2
Focus Scripture:
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Revelation 19:5-9
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.”
Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
