Get Your Pretense On!

66 • Get Your Pretense On!

John the apostle, in his vision of the end, referred to our final destination, the holy city, the New Jerusalem, as being dressed in the attire of a bride to be given to her husband (Rev. 21.2 – And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.) This relationship is referred to through the Bible as the end of God’s divine rescue of a new people for himself – a bride being prepared to be his and his alone, forever. This bridegroom-bride relationship rightly defines the goal of all apostolic ministry – to present the church to Christ as a “chaste virgin” (2 Cor. 11.2 – I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.) Paul viewed his role as one who was charged with presenting the church to Christ as a bride prepared for her husband. In my judgment, this is the way to view and read Jesus’s reply to Peter’s confession, his notion of “building his church:” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” [16] Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” [17] And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. [18] And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. [19] I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

~ Matthew 16.15-19

Viewed in this way, the church (universal and every Jesus-honoring local assembly) is central in God’s dealings with human affairs through this figure of the bride. God’s passion is to draw out a remnant of humankind for his own possession, those with