Ephesians 5:25-27 (NRSVCE)
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, 27 so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish.
In the Book of Revelation of the Holy Scriptures, Revelation 19:7-9 says;
“7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready;
8 to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
9 And the angel said to me,
“Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”
It is evident in that passage, that there will be Wedding Feast in Heaven. Many times in the New Testament, Jesus gave us hints about this momentous event that will take place in the age to come (Matthew 22:1-14). Moreover, He also described Himself as bridegroom many times, two of those instances were; when He was with His disciple during Sabbath, not fasting, and when He shut the door in the Parable of Ten Bridesmaids (Matthew 9:15 and 25:1-13). John the Baptist as well, referred Jesus as the bridegroom, and himself as the friend of the bridegroom. He said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice.” (John 3:29).
In the Bible, (even in our times), a bride should be prepared, perfected for the bridegroom before any wedding takes place. In the Book of Esther, Esther was perfected before she was presented to King Ahasuerus. Esther was the girl that pleased the king and won his favor to be his queen, after which the king quickly provided her with her cosmetic treatments and her portion of food, and with seven chosen maids from the king’s palace, and advanced her and her maids to the best place in the harem. The turn also came for each girl to go in to the king, after being twelve months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their cosmetic treatment, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics for women… but the king loved Esther more than all the other women; of all the virgins, she won his favor and devotion, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen (Esther 2:1-18).
If this imperfect world requires perfection, how much more the Heaven would require such condition? It is clear in our verse for today that Jesus, like the king in the Book of Esther, would also provide everything for his bride-to-be, to be the perfect bride, and in the case of our Lord Jesus, to make His Bride holy, “no spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish”. He will present us His church, the Bride with splendor to Himself because He is Holy. It is not physical perfection though, but Spiritual perfection. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, “For the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
But how? That’s our Eternal News! Jesus will make us holy, perfect, with radiance, no spots, no wrinkles through washing us with water by the WORD! No other means of cleansing, but by Baptism of Water of Repentance, and by immersing us in the Word. Jesus said “You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.” (John 15:3). In His prayer to the Father, He asked, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth… And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.” (John 17:17,19).
We cannot make ourselves holy on our own. It will take someone who is Holy to make another one holy, we are not yet holy that’s why we cannot make ourselves holy. Only the Holy One can make us holy, and it will not be our way, but the way of Holy One that will do so. And His way is this: to sanctify us through the Truth, the Word. So when we are presented, we cannot boast that it is our doing that we are perfect in front of Him. If we do it on our own, we will have no part of Him. Remember when St. Peter hesitated that his feet be washed by the Lord? Jesus said, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” (John 13:8).
What should we do then? We should seek Jesus and start to have a relationship with Him so that He can cleanse us. He already redeem us in the cross and make us worthy to become part of His Holiness, but because we still continue to sin intentionally or unintentionally, we blemish ourselves with the dirt of this world and make ourselves away from the sanctifying grace of the Lord. St. Paul advised us not to try to become perfect by our human effort (Galatians 3:3). Remember Martha in Luke 10:39-41? She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what Jesus was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Marry has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Many of us are Marthas. We like to be perfect or holy by and in our own ways. But the Lord said that all we need is that “ONLY ONE THING” which will not be taken from us. We have to choose the better part, JESUS PART, not ours. We need to go back, repent, receive, and believe His Word (John 12:14) and let this Word work in us, transform us again into GOD’s image, and sanctify us. Because this Word of God is Spirit and Life (John 6:63), It is alive and powerful, It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow (Hebrews 4:12). It can make us Holy because His Word is Holy (Psalm 105:42). Indeed It can!
Here is another confirmation from God’s mouth that It can:
Isaiah 55:10-11 says;
“ For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
...so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
So, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” (HEBREWS 4:7) Let’s submit then to Jesus’ way and be immersed in the Word by constant listening to His Word, and be the Bride He wants us to be. Let’s be blessed and be one of those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb, and have part of Him in the Eternal Life. AND, let us be Holy for our GOD is Holy. AMEN.
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