As we seek to understand whether the church can hasten or delay the promised second coming of Jesus, we need to ponder who is “the Lamb’s wife” who must first “make herself ready” (Rev. 19:7, 8). Those who say the church can do nothing to hasten the return of “the Lamb” tend to be perplexed on this issue.
They see Revelation 21:6-27 as defining “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” as the literal “city” of the New Jerusalem. This raises a question: if “God is [its] builder and Maker” (Heb. 11:10), how can the “city which hath foundations” be said to “make [itself] ready”? And further, wouldn’t Jesus be guilty of idolatry if He loves a material city of golden streets, walls of jewels, and literal gates? When He cried out to the old city, “O Jerusalem, ... thou that killest the prophets” (Matt. 23:37), was He addressing its literal gates and stones, or the people who inhabited it? When you were married, did you love the bride or your house?
When John in vision saw “the Lamb stand on mount Zion,” was it the literal city or the “144,000 who had His Father’s name written in their foreheads”? As John saw them, as a group they apparently had by that time “made [themselves] ready,” for “they sung as it were a new song before the throne [and] ... [followed] the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. ... Without fault before the throne of God” (Rev. 14:1-5).
No woman in the world is worthy to be the Bride of the Son of God! But all through the Bible His church in a corporate sense is said to be the object of His conjugal love. Neither Luther nor C. S. Lewis had much use for the Book of Revelation. But those whose hearts yearn for Christ’s soon return are thrilled with its message; they don’t help to save themselves by a legalistic do-it-yourself method, but they stop resisting “the Lamb” and they let Him “wash” them “in His blood.” And they let Him GIVE them the GIFT of special repentance (3:19). Is it not in that sense that the Bride, “the Lamb’s wife,” can “make herself ready”?
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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