A BEAUTIFUL DRESS FOR AN UGLY BRIDE
“Lord, when your glory I shall see and taste your kingdom’s pleasure, Your blood my royal robe shall be, my joy beyond all measure! When I appear before your throne, your righteousness shall be my crown; with these I need not hide me. And there, in garments richly wrought, as your own bride I shall be brought to stand in joy beside you.” This is the eighth and final stanza written by Paul Gerhardt for his famous Lenten hymn: “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth.” Of course, our current hymnal only contains the four out of the eight stanzas. But because these words were so poetic and beautiful, a new tune was written for them and this one verse became its own hymn: hymn 219. The melody is probably unfamiliar to many of you - although others of you have sung it before and have even heard an arrangement of this hymn performed by the Seminary Choir. But whether you have heard the music or not, the words are undeniably beautiful. They put to poetry Scripture’s picture of Christ the Groom and his bride the Church. They describe with stunning expressions the robe of righteousness that he gives us and the blood that he used to make that garment clean. It is a hymn about the intimate spiritual union we will one day enjoy with Christ in heaven. It is a wedding song.
And this wedding song uses a picture that is scattered throughout the pages of Scripture. From the Song of Songs to the prophet Isaiah, from the letters of Paul to the revelation given to John, the illustration of Christ as the Groom and his people as the bride vividly describes the relationship between the Lord and his Church. It demonstrates the holy Husband’s love for the one he is about to marry.
The apostle John understood this concept better than anyone else. Because not only did he hear about it and write about it and read about it, he actually saw it. Near the end of the vision of Revelation, the apostle John was given some visual insight into the effects of this marriage love from the Groom for his bride. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the first things have passed away.’” This vision that John received is, of course, the final result of Christ’s love for us. We will experience his grace in full on the day we meet him in Paradise. And we will personally enjoy what John only caught a glimpse of. But we aren’t there yet, of course. We are still here in a sinful world. And we are part of a Church that is filled with sinful human beings. And so when Scripture describes Christ’s bride while we are still here on this earth, the description isn’t so pretty. In fact, God’s Word’s makes us out to be a rather ugly bride of Christ in this world.
This ugliness is nowhere more evident than in the Old Testament books of Hosea and Ezekiel. In the words of these two prophets God’s people were not only described as ugly or unattractive, God’s people were said to be prostitutes. They had rejected their Lord. They had forsaken their husband in heaven and they had turned to different gods. They had spiritually prostituted themselves with something or someone other than their holy Groom. These words of Hosea and Ezekiel were strong words of accusation against God’s people of that day - and they are strong words of warning for us. Because we too are God’s people. And we too can fall into the same grotesque sins against our Lord. In fact, maybe some stronger words of warning are in order to get our attention.
In our daily devotions together, my wife and I are now reading through a book that contains - among other things - readings from both the Old and the New Testaments. But the translation this volume uses is a more literal translation than what most of us read in the NIV. And the only reason I bring this up is because I was struck by one of the readings from the book of Exodus a few weeks ago. It wasn’t because I hadn’t read that part of Scripture before, it was because of the word used in this particular translation. Instead of using the word “prostitution” when referring to God’s people worshiping other gods, it uses something a little harsher: “When they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods” (Ex. 34:15-16). I almost felt embarrassed a few weeks ago when I read these words out loud. And I would imagine your first reaction to these couple verses might have been: “Did he just say the word ‘whore’ in a sermon?” And I suppose your second reaction might have been: “Is that an appropriate word for a Bible translation?” But, my friends, sometimes blunt words need to be used to make us take notice. Sometimes an extra sharp verbal sword needs to be wielded to pierce through a calloused conscience. And so allow me to be blunt: don’t be a whore. You are the bride of Christ, after all! Don’t be a spiritual whore. Don’t give yourself to anything or anyone other than to your spiritual husband - Jesus himself.
Of course, we’ve all been caught in the act by our husband before. Have you sometimes depended on the amount of your paycheck or the balance in your retirement account to give you peace of mind and to bring you happiness and to comfort your worries? If so, you’ve acted like a spiritual whore because your spiritual husband is the only one you should depend on for the peace and happiness your mind wants. Do you pretend God’s law is nonexistent at times so that you can gossip just this once or stretch the truth a little bit or subtly brag to others about something you’ve accomplished? If so, you’ve acted like a spiritual whore because you have given in to other desires instead of following the desire to be faithful to your husband’s will. Have you occasionally placed your family or a day of relaxation or your laziness above reading and hearing and learning God’s Word? If so, you’ve been selling yourself. You’ve been offering yourself to another person or another thing or another opinion than to your loving and faithful husband. It really can’t be denied: You and I have been involved with spiritual prostitution for our entire lives!
I don’t know if you’ve ever been labeled with such a nasty word like “prostitution” before - I know I haven’t! - but let’s cut out all the niceties and the political correctness when dealing with who we really are and what we’ve really done. Let’s talk plainly. We have acted like a whore. We have been extremely unfaithful. We have shown our husband no loyalty whatsoever. We have been a very ugly bride. A disgusting bride. A repulsive bride.
The apostle John was part of this hideous prostitute, this whore of a Church. He wasn’t excluded and he knew it! Even though he was “the disciple whom Jesus loved” - he was just as ugly as we are. But as he looked at the vision Jesus was showing him on the island of his exile, he didn’t see an impure and desecrated bride of Christ. He didn’t see the disgusting group of sinners that makes up the Church on earth. Instead he saw “the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” The Church was not wearing its earthly prostitute’s clothes here. It was not covered in the whorish accessories of its past. No, this once ugly bride was now beautifully dressed for her husband. She had been transformed. She had been given a stunning wedding gown to wear. And she would live with her glorious Groom forever.
And this is exactly what the Church will look like on Judgment Day because our husband will not accept an ugly bride. Christ will not allow a practicing prostitute to enter his house. And so to make sure that each one of us would be able to come into his heaven, our husband took the penalty for our infidelity. We have spiritually prostituted ourselves countless times and spiritual prostitution deserves eternal death and nothing less. It deserves a permanent divorce from God. And so our husband offered himself up in his bride’s place. He took the humility and the accusations. He shouldered the embarrassment and beatings. He suffered a complete separation from his dear Father and dove into the most vile parts of hell to carry out the sentence. He wore the “scarlet letter” in a way so that we didn’t have to. And our husband did it without complaining, without second-guessing his decision. And he went through it all without ever planning to hold it over our heads as leverage at a future date. Our husband sacrificed himself for his bride out of pure love - purer than anything we could ever imagine in this life. And he did it for an ugly bride! He did it for a sickening creature! The holy and pure Christ himself put up with unexplainable pain and heartbreak to earn righteousness - to earn perfection - for a whore!
And for this unfaithful bride-to-be he holds a robe in his hands. And not just any robe. A robe that is woven with his righteousness, colored with the blood of his cross, and lined with his love. And our husband stretches it out and places it on our shoulders. It’s not heavy, but light. It’s smooth and comfortable. And it’s a perfect fit. And now with this robe wrapped tightly around us, we aren’t ugly anymore. We aren’t dirty or nasty or contaminated anymore. We are pure; we are lovely; we are beautiful just like he has always been. And despite our checkered past in the red light district of this world, we can proudly and confidently proclaim with the prophet Isaiah, “He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10)! He has forgiven me! He has given up his life for me! He has taken me back despite my failures and I will be married to him forever! With this robe I am ready for the wedding. With this robe I will enter Paradise! With this robe I am his.
And these are your words about your husband. These are not the joys expressed by “better” Christians or believers somehow more deserving than you… Every Christian once was ugly; every Christian now is beautiful, clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness through baptism and faith in his name. And although the actual Wedding Day will not take place until Christ comes again, you are wearing that wedding gown right now. And wear it with the knowledge that you did not buy it; you did not pick it out. Your husband bought it for you with his blood. He picked it out personally with hands that have been driven through with nails. And he wants you to wear it with joy as you await the Day on which you will meet your Groom for the very first time and will live with him forever in the bridal suite he is preparing for you right now. In anticipation of that Day, we listen and pray one more time the beautiful words of Paul Gerhardt, which are really the beautiful words of every Christian: “Lord, when your glory I shall see and taste your kingdom’s pleasure, Your blood my royal robe shall be, my joy beyond all measure! When I appear before your throne, your righteousness shall be my crown; with these I need not hide me. And there, in garments richly wrought, as your own bride I shall be brought to stand in joy beside you.”
Amen.
“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.” - Rev. 19:6-7
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