“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready”

(Revelation 19:7 NASB).

After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.’ And a second time they said, ‘Hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever.’ And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, ‘Amen. Hallelujah!’ And a voice came from the throne, saying, ‘Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.’ Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.’ It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, ‘Write, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are true words of God.’ Then I fell at his feet to worship him but he said to me, ‘Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy’” (Revelation 19:1-10 NASB).

“Then God said, ‘Let Us, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness; and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, and over the entire earth, and over everything that creeps and crawls on the earth’” (Genesis 1:26 AMP). Please keep this verse and its understanding always!

Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage. Their gladness and rejoicing is because the marriage has come. As in the First Coming of Christ, a long period of waiting is about to conclude. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9 NASB).

The hopes and dreams of His servants will find consummation in His approaching intimacy. The time has arrived for Christ to marry His bride. Most of us believe the bride is the Church, having been previously taken to heaven in the Rapture. Remember that it was Eve, having been formed from Adam’s body, who was organically united with him.

“So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:21-24 NASB).

In a similar way, the Church, consisting of all those baptized into the body of Christ by the Spirit, “which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words” (1 Corinthians 2:13 NASB), after our baptism we are spiritually joined with Christ in a unique way. She is His Church. “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (Matthew 16:18 NASB).

Furthermore, His wife has made herself ready, or should I say, she has prepared herself. She is both the subject and the object, herself, of the preparation. The puzzling aspect of her having prepared herself is answered in an understanding of the relationship between faith and works. Scripture teaches that true biblical works are the result of faith. “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works’” (James 2:17-18 NASB).

Scripture also teaches that faith is a gift from God. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44 NASB). “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, ‘Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life’” (Acts 11:18 NASB).

The puzzling aspect of her having prepared herself is answered in an understanding of the relationship between faith and works. Scripture teaches that true biblical works are the result of faith. “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3 NASB).

Now for those who lack understanding of what it means to suffer, “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Philippians 1:29 NASB). Thus, she made herself ready by the power of God working in her. Paul said this very same thing: he labored, even striving, but that which was working in him was of God. So it is with the wife of the Lamb.

Here is the paradox of grace. The bride has made herself ready. She has prepared herself. She is clothed in fine linen, bright and clean, the righteous acts of the saints. And yet, every bit of that preparation is the work of God in her. The faith that produces the works is a gift from God. The power to labor and strive is God working in us. Even our suffering for Christ’s sake has been granted to us.

So how did the bride make herself ready? By yielding to the work of God in her life. By allowing Him to form her, shape her, sanctify her, just as Eve was formed from Adam’s rib. The Church did not create herself. She was formed from the wounded side of Christ, from His body broken and His blood poured out. She is bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh.

And now the long period of waiting is about to conclude. The hopes and dreams of His servants will find consummation in His approaching intimacy. The marriage of the Lamb has come. The bride has made herself ready by the power of God working in her. And blessed, eternally blessed, are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. These are true words of God. Hallelujah! Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him!