All this month on the blog, we’ll be exploring the marriage metaphor found in Scripture.
Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the wedding ceremony of two young Believers. It was a joy to celebrate such a happy occasion! And one of the best parts? The sweet ceremony, beautiful decor, and wonderful music couldn’t even come close in comparison to the looks of love, hope, and joy on the bride and groom’s faces.
Thinking about how they declared their love and promises to one another, reminds me that we are the Bride of Christ. A faithful bridegroom, Jesus cares for this world with a sacrificial, undying love.
We find marriage metaphors throughout Scripture. Yes, we Christians are called the “Bride of Christ,” but that isn’t the first time this general type of metaphor is used in the Bible. Wording in the Old Testament describes Israel’s relationship with God through a marriage metaphor. When they disobeyed Him and committed idolatry, God said that they had in fact committed “adultery.”
Looking at these marriage metaphors in God’s Word will help us in a few ways:
- We will gain a better understanding of how God sees us.
- We’ll better understand our relationship with Him and what a proper response to that relationship is.
- We will inadvertently learn more about what earthly marriage is, since it is a picture of the divine “marriage” of Christ to the church.
As John Piper says here :
“The divine reality hidden in the metaphor of marriage is that God ordained a permanent union between His Son and the church. Human marriage is the earthly image of this divine plan.”
John Piper
We hope you’ll join us for the month of June as we look intently at the Marriage Metaphor of Scripture.
Blessings!
Ali
[…] we consider our relationship with God to be like a marriage (which you can read about here), then we must recognize we have some responsibility in developing and protecting that […]