“You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.”
Song of Solomon 4:7
“so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”
Ephesians 5:27
The perfected bride is not optional to Jesus. His delight in her is expressed in Song of Songs. What proceeds for the rest of the Bible is an immense amount of correction. So much correction that we created Christianity to help us navigate it. Meanwhile Christ sent the Spirit to help our inadequacy and shortcomings.
We need to talk about our shortcomings. The bride is without spot. You and I have flecks in our eyes and logs to remove. These are spots. Spots require removal. “Are you saying Matt that Jesus will make us actually perfect in order to be the bride?” Yes. Not theologically perfect, actually perfect. Take your greatest Christian enemy. Do you delight in them? But, they are theologically perfect (or so theology can argue). But they are not lovely are they? They have spots that need dealt with before pure love can flow. How much more does Jesus need to deal with his bride before the wedding day?
What we are discussing is a work of the Spirit so powerful, so ruthless, so intense that it can only be called the baptism of fire. A season in which God deals with you and I on such an intense plane that unless the Spirit is real in us and to us we would not survive the correction of soul and self that we endure. Such a season is necessary, and predicted. Without the corrections of God we will not actually match in reality what he has done for us theologically. As much as your Christian enemy needs to hear a few things, you and I do too. We need such an immersion in who Jesus really is that who we are gets such a correction, such that we end up spotless and without flaw. Resisting the corrections of God has a simple consequence: we keep our spots, and he does not pour out the preparatory fire, and we are not made ready.
Sitting on the throne of God for all eternity in oneness is such a high calling that it requires from us such preparations equal to the goal. May we become ready to be made ready in our day.
