Standing Firm in Your Faith预览

 Jesus as Bridegroom

Sinful human beings are troubled in particular by these two ideas in the Bible: man is subject to God (God is King), and man is answerable to Him (God is Judge). This is why so many people seek to make Jesus out to be only a teacher or a wise man. 

A person can respect and appreciate a wise man without giving his or her life to him. While praising the good Teacher, people can answer to something else (even themselves), and they feel they can still live as they please. But calling Jesus King and Judge means they have to reckon with Him. They have to live as He desires and be held accountable to Him if they do not.

Humankind rages against this idea. The rebellion of the Fall caused a massive and tragic divorce from God, and from that time forward, people have been going their own way and building up their own knowledge and power. Some tried to make things easier by deciding that God is not real, but once God has been removed from the picture, people must rely on their own souls.

Encountering Jesus as the Bridegroom transforms how we feel and relate to Jesus the King and Judge. We move from fear and anger to confidence and tenderness. We shift from feeling compelled to do His will to wanting to do His will. 

As we grow more mature in love for Him, we grow increasingly confident about standing before Him one day. We discover that He wants to help us do well on the day of our judgment—and it fills our hearts with gratitude and appreciation. His generosity and kindness toward us are overwhelming.

This is the revelation of Jesus that will fill the earth at the end of this age. In the beginning, God revealed certain things about Himself. The end of the age closes with a different face of God, seen through His Son, Jesus. This serves to bring together everything we know about God so that we can stand with Him in confidence as He shakes the nations to bring them into the age to come, the age in which the Bridegroom, King and Judge will rule on the earth in view of all the peoples.