The Bride of Christ

The Bride of Christ
Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. —Revelation 19: 7
In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul said, “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11: 2). In those days, marriages were arranged because parents felt the decision was too important for a child to make. Paul, speaking as a father to the Corinthian church, tells them the arrangement has already been made. They are betrothed to Christ. Revelation chapter 19 describes the marriage of the Lamb to His bride, the church. “His wife has made herself ready.”
In this heavenly scene, the espousal period is over, and the time has come for the marriage ceremony. Every wedding has a bride. We read here that the bride of Christ is “arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright.” And we are told that the fine linen “is the righteous acts of the saints.”
**The bride of Christ will be dressed in righteousness.
Isaiah said regarding our self-righteousness: “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64: 6). When we present ourselves to Jesus, we can either wear our own filthy rags—which represents our best efforts at righteousness—or we can wear the beautiful, clean, white garments of a bride—the righteousness of Jesus Christ through faith. What will you choose to wear when you meet your Groom? Are you dressed in your own righteousness today, or His?
Father, we thank You that we can be clothed in Your righteousness, and that through Christ, we can stand before You, holy, pure, and clean. In Jesus’ name, amen.