For the presentation of the bride of Christ to Himself as the Bridegroom, the bride needs beauty; this beauty is nothing else but Christ wrought into us to be lived out of us and be expressed through us.
There are many aspects of the bride, but what matters on the wedding day is that the bride is beautiful, without any spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she is glorious and bright, perfect for the bridegroom.
Hallelujah, Christ is preparing us to be His bride, and He is doing this by working Himself into us to be our beauty, our wedding garment, and our everything!
Actually, the bride of Christ is Christ Himself wrought into us to become in us and with us the bride of Christ.
We have seen that the wedding garment is nothing else but Christ being wrought into us and being lived out of us to be our many righteousnesses, the subjective righteousness.
On one hand Christ is our objective righteousness covering us before God at the time of our believing into Him; as such a One, He covers us, He qualifies us, and He equips us to come to God, enjoy God, and fellowship with God.
On the other hand, however, Christ is not merely something objective to us but something subjective: He wants to work Himself into us “stitch by stitch” to become our wedding garment, the second garment that we need to wear specifically for our wedding day.
So day by day as we enjoy the Lord, as we open to Him, and as we ask Him to work Himself into us for the bride, we cooperate with Him to “prepare our wedding garment” stitch by stitch by our living out Christ.
We need to daily allow Christ to live in us, be expressed through us, and have the ground in our being.
May we open to Him to give us the experiences we need for us to live out Christ and have Him expressed through us.
And may we seek to be found in Christ – not having our own righteousness (our self-made righteousness) but the righteousness which is not our own, the righteousness which is through faith in Christ, out of God and based on faith.
As Christ is lived out of the saints as their subjective righteousness, this becomes their wedding garment.
We cannot attend the wedding feast without the second garment, the wedding dress; as we allow Christ to be lived out in us and be expressed through us in our daily living as our surpassing righteousness, we prepare our wedding garment for the wedding day! Hallelujah!
For the Presentation of the Bride to the Bridegroom, the Bride of Christ needs Beauty
In Song of Songs we see this word “beautiful” again and again; the Beloved and the lover call one another beautiful (Song of Songs 1:15-16; 4:1, 7).
Even in the early stage of the seeker, at the end of chapter 1, the Lord (the Beloved) says to the seeker, My love, you are beautiful. And she echoes this back to Him, My Beloved, You are beautiful.
Then in chapter 6, when she is matured, she is as beautiful as Tirzah and as lovely as Jerusalem, she is like the sun and like the moon; she fully becomes beautiful to match Him and to be His bride.
In Song of Songs the lover and the Beloved both have beauty, and they appreciate the beauty in each other.
What the Lord wants to gain is a beautiful bride. Humanly speaking, a bride wants to look the most beautiful ever during her wedding day, and what the bridegroom wants to meet, see, and marry is the most beautiful bride.
So if she is concerned about any blemishes, she would begin long beforehand to prepare herself for her wedding by eating healthy and nutritious food that will give her a healthy and beautiful complexion.
Actually the bride takes a very long time to prepare herself for her wedding day, and she wants to make sure she looks perfect, beautiful, without any blemish, for her beloved bridegroom.
In the same principle, what the Lord as the Bridegroom will present to Himself is a glorious church, a bride that has no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but one that is holy and without blemish.
So we as believers in Christ need to prepare ourselves for our wedding day by becoming more beautiful, glorious, holy, perfect, and without any spot or blemish or any such thing.
This can be done NOT by improving ourselves, by trying to better ourselves, or by perfecting ourselves by what we know of the Lord and in the Bible, but by eating the Lord properly, digesting Him, and assimilating Him so that He in us may make us beautiful to Himself.
The time is coming when Christ will present the bride to Himself beautiful, without any wrinkles or spots; in His bride, Christ will behold nothing but beauty.
The Lord wants and will have a beautiful bride; such a beauty is not artificial.
There are no “spiritual cosmetics” or “surgery” or “implants” in the spiritual realm; rather, Christ as the beauty itself is working Himself into us to become our beauty for our wedding day.
When Christ looks at His bride, He beholds His beauty becoming our beauty, for we express Him.
In Song of Songs 4:7 the Lord says, You are altogether beautiful, My love; there is no blemish in you.
This is what the Lord will say of His bride, the overcomers; He will see no defects, no wrinkles, and no imperfections – for all these will be washed away organically by the washing of the water in the word, and the beauty of the bride is just Christ wrought into her and expressed through her!
The Lord will gain a beautiful bride and He will tell her, You are beautiful, My love, My bride – you are altogether beautiful, and there’s no blemish in you!
This is what He is producing today; this is what He is working to produce and obtain in this age.
Lord Jesus, we love You as our dear Bridegroom, and we want to become Your beautiful bride with no spots, wrinkles, or any such things! Work Yourself into us a little more today, Lord, and remove more and more scars, defects, and blemishes, so that we may become beautiful to You! Beautify us to be Your beautiful bride, the bride that ravishes Your heart and draws You to come back to marry us! May You as the real beauty be wrought more into our whole being to make us the beautiful bride that matches You on our wedding day!
The Beauty of the Bride comes from the Christ Wrought into and Expressed through the Church
The Lord desires to gain a beautiful, glorious church – see Eph. 5:27 – and He prepares her by the washing of the water in the word, so that the church would not have any spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be holy and without blemish.
What is the beauty of the bride? The beauty of the bride comes from the Christ who is wrought into the church and who is then expressed through the church (Eph. 3:17).
So Christ is making His home in our heart so that He may be expressed through us and be our very beauty.
Our beauty as the bride of Christ is nothing else but the shining out of Christ from within us; what Christ appreciates in us is the expression of Himself in us (Psa. 50:2).
Where does the beauty of the bride come from? It comes from the very Christ who is wrought into us and who is then expressed through us as the church.
Our beauty is not our own behaviour but the reflection of Christ, the shining out of Christ from within us.
When Christ sees Himself being expressed through us, when He sees a corporate entity living out Christ and expressing Christ, He can truly say, This time this is bone of My bones and flesh of My flesh; you are beautiful, My love!
On our side, we need to allow Christ to come into us and be wrought into us; we need to eat Christ as our unique diet and assimilate Him into our being, and then He will be able to shine out of us!
The shining out of Christ from within us is the glory and beauty of the bride; the shining out of Christ is God being expressed and manifested in man.
Real beauty is the expression of the divine attributes through humanity; nothing in the universe is as beautiful as this expression.
When others look at us, they see a normal human being, you and me; however, what is expressed through us is the divine appearance, the divine flavor, the divine nature, and the divine character – this is real beauty!
In a sense, we need to pay much more attention to this, to the beauty of the bride, than to the ability or work; what the bridegroom wants on the wedding day is not a capable, hard-working, able bride, but a beautiful bride!
So our focus shouldn’t be merely to be more capable, more qualified, and more gifted in function; our focus should be to enjoy Christ, be filled with Christ, eat and assimilate Christ, and have Christ lived out of us and expressed through us, so that we may become the beautiful bride of Christ!
It is true that in the church life the matter of ability and function matters, but this should not be the most prominent matter; we all should pay attention to Christ being wrought into us and being lived out of us.
The more we eat the Lord, the more we cooperate with Him to be wrought into us and be expressed through us, the more our blemishes, imperfections, spots, wrinkles, and any such things are being removed, and the more Christ Himself becomes our beauty.
For us to have our blemishes and imperfections removed, we need to take in more and more of Christ. He is not only our energising factor for our function but also the beautifying factor to make us His beautiful bride.
At the time of the wedding, what the church needs is beauty, not work or strength; the church is beautified by partaking of Christ, by digesting Christ, by assimilating Christ, and as a result expressing and manifesting Christ!
The more we eat, digest, assimilate, and express Christ, the more He removes our spots and wrinkles, the more He infuses us with His element, and the more His riches with the divine attributes become our beauty!
Then we will be prepared to be presented to Christ as His lovely bride. The church will become so beautiful and glorious that “Your eyes will see the King in His beauty” (Isa. 33:17), and “the King will desire your beauty” (Psa. 45:11).
We will see the king in His beauty, and we will become as beautiful as He is to the point that the King will desire our beauty.
The Lord’s appreciation of His bride will be, “You are as beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, / As lovely as Jerusalem, / As terrible as an army with banners” (Song of Songs 6:4).
The Lord is delighted in His bride, and the enemy is afraid.
Lord Jesus, work Yourself into us more today so that You may be expressed through us. We want to behold You as the King in all Your beauty and be infused with Yourself until You see beauty in us as Your bride. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to eat You, digest You, and assimilate You to live You out and express You and become the beautiful bride of Christ. May Christ be wrought into us and may He shine out of us until we become a glorious and beautiful church, the bride of Christ! Amen Lord Jesus, we want to take You in more and more each day so that all our blemishes, spots, wrinkles, and imperfections be removed and the divine element would be wrought into us for the beautification of the bride of Christ! Yes, Lord, gain a beautiful bride, a bride whose beauty is nothing else but the expression, manifestation, and shining out of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Revelation, pp. 626-628, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, A Timely Word Concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Recovery (2020 Memorial Day Conference), week 6, The Preparation of the Bride.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Do you see the Lord is coming / For the church for whom He died? / In the churches He’s preparing / Now His holy, chosen Bride. / ’Tis a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, / Filled with the glory of the Lord! / ’Tis a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, / Filled with the glory of the Lord! (Hymns #1257)
– God’s life and building can be seen / Within the Song of Songs; / He shows by types His seeking ones, / The Bride for whom Christ longs! / A city pleasant, comely, too; / No greater building, this! / So beautiful, yet to the foe / A conq’ring army ’tis! (Hymns #1241)
– The Lord is longing for His Bride, / All glorious within. / His heart will then be satisfied / When she is fit for Him. / ’Tis by the Word the church is made / Holy and pure as He; / All spots and wrinkles it removes / That she His Bride may be. (Hymns #1310)
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