The Covenant
I have to say that I was ministered to by being apart of my brothers wedding this weekend. It wasn’t the preaching done by the pastor but the words he said about covenant while performing the ceremony. Covenant…he talked about how its more than a contract. The word is a little funny to me because I think of all the covenant(contracts) churches make people sign. Which is ironic because The Covenant is already there. Gods covenant to His Bride.
It was great wedding to be apart of and easy to draw parallels between God, His Bride and Ryan and Shauna. (Not so much the God part but you know what I mean.) The joy of celebrating the new covenant/marriage, the free food, the dancing(didn’t do)…you know the same thing people have experienced all through out history with different traditions and customs but with the same human experience. Joy of the union. The same feelings you get when you realize that Jesus died for YOUR sins in order to be with you.
How are we handling this Covenant? Not Shauna and Ryans but The Bride(His people) and The Groom(God). Are we doing anything by making other covenants to a specific expression in a local church that you may not even be apart of in a year? I’ve begun to realize and understand how this Covenant is the most important one and it needs to be tended too. Sure one specific church can do things and preach about it but then what for everyone else? If there are two churches right next door to each other and one is a mega church and the other isn’t does that mean the mega church is tending to it “better”? Obviously the answer to that question is NO! I’ve realized we are just people…Gods creation…just trying to find our way and there is nothing new to add. The Covenant is already there. I can’t believe how many churches it takes to find the same thing.
I posted some worthy points before regarding how weddings are viewed in Jewish culture. Here is an excerpt:
A wedding in Jewish history is equated to a union of God and people(Church). The Ten Commandments were seen as a wedding relationship. People(Church) and God make vows to live together in a certain way. Thats why the first commandment is “You shall worship no other Gods”… or if you will “You shall have no other “lovers”. Central to Jewish thought was that there was a wedding (Adam, Eve to God) but the “vows” had been broken. We now believe there is a coming day where God and people(Church) will be brought back together.
So think about this: 1. The first miracle Jesus performed was at a 2. wedding and 3. on a third day. Also notice 4. that in John 2:9-10 the master(God) is pleased. Obviously there is a connection with Jesus pleasing the master(God) at a wedding(Covenant) on a third day(resurrection). In other words Jesus restored the covenant broken by Adam and Eve so that God could have His Bride(Church) back and the first miracle at the wedding was a prophecy foreshadowing this ultimate miracle. He fulfilled the law in how we are to live but also fulfilling his work on earth of connecting us with each other and with him. (Also notice 5. the turning the water into wine is often associated with His blood).
For a better understanding I took the “Wives and Husbands” passage in Ephesians 5 and exchanged the subjects. Husband=Christ, Church=Wife See below. Its a little difficult but read it.
I can’t help but wonder if we are presenting the church(bride) radiantly, without stain…to God?
…present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Its excellent instruction for the relationship between husband and wife but then at the end he says, by the way I’m talking about The Bride and God. So since we know thats what he is talking about why don’t we start taking that a little more seriously? John Piper tells us we need to tend to our marriages so how would we tend this marriage?
Ephesians 5
Wives and Husbands
22Wives(Church), submit to your husbands(Christ) as to the Lord. 23For the husband(Christ) is the head of the wife(Church) as Christ(Husband) is the head of the church(Wife), his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church(Wife) submits to Christ(Husband), so also wives(Church) should submit to their husbands(Christ) in everything.
25Husbands(Christ), love your wives(Church), just as Christ(Husband) loved the church(Wife) and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands(Christ) ought to love their wives(Church) as their own bodies. He who loves his wife(Church) loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ(Husband) does the church(Wife)— 30for we are members of his body. 31“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife(Church), and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ(Husband) and the church(Wife). 33However, each one of you also must love his wife(Church) as he loves himself, and the wife(Church) must respect her husband(Christ).