Glen Berry
Being Thoughts on Christian Communion and on Christian Marriage
DEEP DOWN the Christian believer must realize that the graces he receives in life, the salvation or redemption that comes as a GIFT to him, even eternal life in glory with God, came at a dear price, though freely GIVEN to him!
The price, the high cost paid, was that God Himself in God the Son, must come in the flesh to be able to DIE, and have His body broken, and His blood shed unto DEATH, in order to buy back from the slave-market of SIN, His holy bride that God the Father gave to the Son. This is what the Justice of God demanded for any soul that was to live with Him forever and be forgiven of his sin and given a new and holy nature compatible with the life and love of God. Even one “small” sin is enough to keep a soul out of the glorious heaven for all eternity. But “one sin” is not the whole problem. There are mountains of sins, plus the very fallen nature of man can do nought but sin and fall short of the glory of God. God demands perfection or perfect righteousness if one is to inhabit His glory-world.
Without God the Son dying, and becoming man in the Incarnate Son, without God working and giving this wondrous GIFT, not one human soul would ever get to Heaven. “For the wages of sin is death; but the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Did you catch that? The wages of SIN is death, but instead of that death becoming everlasting, it must cost the Son of God DEATH so that His chosen and fore-loved bride could be given not just a good life for a hundred or so years, or even for nearly a thousand years, as the man Methuselah enjoyed, but for all the bride of Christ that life will be for eternity, life without any end in a glory-world filled with all joy, love and peace. NO SIN will ever be there. Not even an evil or sinful THOUGHT!
Or in other words, to get eternal life, man must have perfect righteousness, even after being forgiven his many sins. That righteousness cannot be earned or obtained on his own. There is no way a man can earn Heaven. There is no way he can ever become righteous on his own. That kind of righteousness must be the very righteousness of the Savior Jesus Christ Himself. It is impossible for it to come in any other way, certainly not by any merit found by nature in sinful flesh. God calls all the so-called righteous acts of man to be nothing but “filthy rags.” That is indeed “falling short,” far SHORT of the glory of God!
Some think that by doing “good deeds” this will at least help get them to Heaven. If that were true, then man would be obligating God to save him and salvation would NOT be of the Lord but man would be earning at least part of it, so that it would then be “salvation by works” which the Bible declares is NOT to be the case. But salvation is not of works, or even not of the will of man or the will of the flesh! “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is GIFT of God: NOT of works, lest any man should boast. For we are HIS workmanship, CREATED in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10) That kind of works cannot be performed by man unless and until he is “born again” or “from above” and has the new life from God planted within him. See John 3. Man is passive in this new birth, so that he can be active after he has it, and so God GETS ALL THE GLORY for any good work!
The eating of the broken bread and the drinking of the wine at communion time is the biblical way to remember and commemorate the BROKEN BODY AND THE SHED BLOOD, the divine cost for man’s redemption. That means the redemption of God’s chosen people, the bride that the Father gave to the Son. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, where we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
I have hinted at the fact that all this was done so that there could be and would be a marriage in Heaven between God the Son and His bride that God the Father gave Him. So we see a picture of the heavenly marriage where the Husband sacrificed Himself so that His bride could be forgiven and go free—free to love Him and to return His love to Him, and to share that love with others with “the love of God.”
As I say, this speaks of heavenly marriage, of which EARTHLY MARRIAGE is but a picture, but it IS to be a representation and a picture of the heavenly. That is why Christians are told to marry ONLY “in the Lord,” not unbelievers. And that is why husbands are told to “love your wives, EVEN AS Christ also loved the church [His bride] and gave Himself for it [her].” . . . So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.” (See Ephesians 5.)
Also that is why Christian couples are told to “submit yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” And “wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, AS UNTO THE LORD.”
You see, this divine instruction is God’s message to Christian couples because their marriage is to reflect and represent His marriage for His Son to His bride in Heaven.
The earthly picture of marriage is to show forth somewhat the very nature of the heavenly marriage. That is one reason a Christian believer is told to “marry in the Lord,” not to marry an alien or an unbeliever foreign to him.
One other thing I want to point out. Think about the Christian believer marrying a person who never becomes a believer. Can he ever with joy and glorious anticipation expect to see her again as a saved soul? Or if the woman who is a believer married a husband that will never be a believer, should he die and leave her, could she ever with joyful anticipation expect to see him as a saved soul in Heaven? Christ makes it plain that there is not more “giving in marriage” in Heaven. Saints are married to their Heavenly Bridegroom. But surely and truly we will enjoy, and can look forward to loving, serving and enjoying fellowship with our departed mates as brothers or sisters in Christ when we all get to Heaven.
I lost my believing wife less than two years ago. Think of what comfort I would NOT have, what misery it would be, if I had no evidence that I would EVER see her again in Heaven, had she been an unbeliever. You see, it is the wisdom and LOVE of God that graciously tells His Christian believers only to “marry in the Lord.” Think on these things. “Selah.”
One last thought: Some believe that God the Father had designed for the human body of God the Son to be BROKEN and His blood SHED for every son and daughter of Adam. That would mean that there could be billions of souls in Hell for whom Christ’s body became BROKEN and His blood SHED for the PRICE OF REDEMPTION, yet it NOT AVAIL much of what it was given for. To a LARGE extent His death would have been in vain, leaving Him a failure, after all. But this is error; this is a false gospel and no gospel at all. The heavenly Bridegroom gave His life for His bride; Christ Jesus died, as HE SAYS, for His sheep. He prays to His Father NOT “for the world,” but for those the Father has given Him OUT OF THE WORLD. And He has promised that He will NOT lose a single one of His bride, not a single soul that the Father gave Him to save. He will raise them ALL “at the last day.” What a GLORY to believe and rejoice in this TRUTH! (John, 6,10,17)Put it any other way and it is INGLORIOUS to Almighty God, to the Lamb, even Triune God!
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Published October, 2017
“Run to Jesus,” she said.
Maryanne Berry
1937 — 2016
The devil has high interest in tempting, harrassing and hopefully separating faithful Christians from their faith and trust in God. We urge you to go the YouTube on the Internet and google in the name Erwin Lutzer. Then listen and watch his sermon entitled “The Desert, the Devil, and You.” The more faithful the Christian is, and the closer he is to Him in his endeavors, the more the devil will try to thwart him, and the more valuable he will find this message to be. Listen, and may you be edified.—g/b
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