Married to Jesus
Revelation is a fist-pumping-finger-to-the-sky shout of victory for believers loved by Jesus!
Did you know that the book of Revelation does not contain one, single quote directly repeated from any other book of the Bible but it does utilize more than 500 Scriptural paraphrases, pictures, and parables to focus believers on Jesus? The book of Revelation stands along side - not apart from or above - the rest of Scripture. It does not introduce any new teachings foreign to the rest of God’s Word but reinforces what has already been said.
One of those truths of Scripture it reinforces is that Jesus is married to his bride, the church (that is, all believers of all time). “As a groom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you,” the Old Testament prophet Isaiah assures believers (62:5).
“Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word … to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless,” Paul writes in Ephesians 5.
The point is this, no matter who you are, how sinfully you’ve behaved, how much you’ve doubted or struggled or drifted in your Christian life, Jesus promises you his holy love forever. Revelation 19 focuses specifically on the consummation of your marriage to Jesus in heaven.
“For the wedding of the Lamb has come,” a great multitude at a heavenly reception cheers. Funny, isn’t it, that the saints in heaven don’t use some other description for Jesus in this moment of revelry and joy, something stronger and more glamorous like a king or warrior or lion? But no.
The greatest joy of believers is not just the strength of Jesus but his weakness. Jesus’ greatest act of his love for people was not an act of power but an act of submission. Like a helpless little lamb, a silent victim, innocent to such a deadly destiny as a slaughtered escape ticket from Egypt or a bloody sacrifice of temple worship or a roasted Jewish Passover recipe.
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!” the saints sing because the helpless, victimized Lamb Jesus sacrificed by God’s plan to be punished for our sins rose from the dead! He now rules over death, guilt, evil, temptation, loneliness, and hopelessness. Elsewhere in Revelation the saints sing, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise” (5:12)!
Revelation is a fist-pumping-finger-to-the-sky shout of victory for believers, a victory made certain by the death and resurrection of Jesus the Lamb, your Savior, who says, “You are mine forever.”
PRAYER: Dearest Jesus, you are the love of my life, and I humbly believe that I am yours. I need your constant reassurance of commitment, of promise, and of loyalty because I am weakened by sin and temptation. Make me strong to live as committed to you as you are to me, and make me faithful to doing your will. Amen.