Becoming the Bride of Christ - Part 1
The Apostle Paul spent the latter part of His life preparing disciples to be ready to meet the Heavenly Bridegroom—the Lord Jesus Christ.
He expressed this passion to the believers in 2 Corinthians 11:2.
“I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy because I have promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” (AMP)
But, as Jesus told us more than once, “many are called, but few are chosen.” Despite Paul’s best efforts, many believers will not be prepared to meet the Bridegroom. They will find themselves locked out of the wedding celebration, and they will miss out on their only chance to be included among the chosen ones who will enjoy life forever as the Bride of Christ.
The wedding of the Son of God is a monumental event. There has never been anything like it before, and there will never be anything like it again. All of creation will be impacted by this event. No one’s life will be the same after this wedding. When Jesus spoke of this event, He spoke of it in a way that seemed to reveal that this wedding was a high priority of God and central to the activity and the purpose of the Kingdom of Heaven.
“The kingdom of Heaven,” he said, “is like a king who arranged a wedding for his son.”—Matthew 22:2 (PHILLIPS)
Many are called to participate in the wedding celebration, but many will not appreciate the priceless opportunity that is offered to them, and they will lose out. Jesus made this clear to us in Matthew 22.
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent his servants to call those who had [previously] been invited to the wedding feast, but they refused to come. Then he sent out some other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Look, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened calves are butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention [they disregarded the invitation, treating it with contempt] and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest [of the invited guests] seized his servants and mistreated them [insulting and humiliating them] and killed them. The king was enraged [when he heard this], and sent his soldiers and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding [feast] is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.”—Matthew 22:1-7 (AMP)
It is just as Jesus warned us in the parable of the sower. Many people believe in Jesus and accept his gift of salvation, but afterwards they are distracted from what is really important by the cares of this life, the pursuit of money, and desires for other things (Mark 4:19). Because of these distractions, they will lose what is truly valuable, like the rich man in Luke 12 who spent his entire adult life pursuing greater wealth and missed out on what was truly valuable.
**“**But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own all the things you have prepared?’ So it is for the one who continues to store up and hoard possessions for himself, and is not rich [in his relationship] toward God.”—Luke 12:20-21 (AMP)
It is an incredible honor and blessing to be called to join the Son of God as His Bride!
Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.’” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”—Revelation 19:9 (NASB)
But just being called is not enough. In the end, we are told that “those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.” (Revelation 17:14 NASB)
We who are called must *respond *to the invitation of God. We must strive to be—not only called—but also to be chosen, and then to be faithful in the calling we have been chosen to fulfill.
Scripture is clear that not all those believers who are called will be chosen to participate in the wedding celebration.
**“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish [thoughtless, silly, and careless], and five were wise [far-sighted, practical, and sensible]. For when the foolish took their lamps, they did not take any [extra] oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil along with their lamps. **
“Now while the bridegroom was delayed, they all began to nod off, and they fell asleep.** But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! The bridegroom [is coming]! Go out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins got up and put their own lamps in order [trimmed the wicks and added oil and lit them]. **
“But the foolish virgins said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’** **
“But the wise replied, ‘No, otherwise there will not be enough for us and for you, too; go instead to the dealers and buy oil for yourselves.’** **
“But while they were going away to buy oil, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut and locked. Later the others also came, and said, ‘Lord, Lord, open [the door] for us.’** **But He replied, ‘I assure you and most solemnly say to you, I do not know you [we have no relationship].’ Therefore, be on the alert [be prepared and ready], for you do not know the day nor the hour [when the Son of Man will come].”—Matthew 25:1-13 (AMP)
Traditional belief is that the whole church will be the Bride of Christ, but it seems obvious from Scripture that those who are accounted worthy to be included in the bridal company will have made extra efforts to prepare themselves to meet the bridegroom.
The five wise virgins had prepared themselves with extra oil to ensure that their lamps would be burning brightly when the Bridegroom came. The foolish virgins had not taken the necessary extra steps to prepare themselves. When they realized their mistake, they tried a shortcut to resolve their problem by just taking oil from the wise virgins who had paid the price for it. The wise virgins informed the foolish ones that they would have to pay the full price, just as they had, to get the oil that would help prepare them to be ready to meet the Bridegroom.
But it was too late for the foolish virgins. They could not make up in such a short time what they had neglected for so long.
When the Bridegroom responds to the pleading of these foolish virgins, He tells them what the real problem is. They never prepared themselves to become His Bride. They never bothered to develop a deep, intimate relationship with Him.
Why would the Bridegroom want to be married to someone who didn’t show any interest in really getting to know Him?
He doesn’t.
And He won’t.
