Wedding Garment

The Bridegroom

On August 7th, I am getting married to Leah. She didn't let me see her wedding dress, but I know one thing about it. It is white! That's all I know. Why is it white? Why is her father walking her down the aisle? Tradition, i guess. But when we look at the wedding dress, we should think of the spotless dress the Church wears through the Word and Sacraments. Yes, through our baptism, we are washed clean of our sins, driven to repentance, and given faith in our savior Jesus Christ. Johann Quenstedt describes the Trinity working in this way: The Father brings the bride to the bridegroom and offers up the bridegroom for the bride. The Son, the bridegroom, not only accepts the bride, He pays for her with his death on the cross, and He seals the payment with His resurrection, killing the sting of death that once was bound to His bride. The Holy Ghost prepares the Church, the bride, for her bridegroom, cleansing her with the means of grace.

These means of grace are the pure preaching of the Word of God, the law and the gospel, and the correct administration of the sacraments according to Christ's command. He commands it! He commands this to His ministers for the sake of his flock; for the sake of his bride whom He loves. Why does He love her? Because she is beautiful? Because she is cute? No! He loves her despite her corrupt nature and original sin. He loves her because He is love. He is peace. He is righteous. He is her righteousness. That is what she is clothed with! The white garment; the spotless lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who obediently took on Himself our sins and offences. He unites Himself with her through water and the word. He gives to her his own perfect body and blood to eat and drink for the strengthening of her faith and forgiveness of her sins. This is truly a mystery. But the Church believes and confesses it by the faithful preparation of the Holy Ghost through the pure and trustworthy Word of our Lord and God Jesus Christ, who speaks not by His own authority, rather because the Father has sent Him to speak and do all this for His bride, the Church.

We are the Church. All who have been baptized in His name: the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We are His bride, but according to our flesh, we hate. We make fun of people. We nit-pick at others' weaknesses, putting ourselves up on that pedestal that to God, was equivalent to the tower of Babel. This pedestal is nothing. This pedestal is built by our own filth. We hated Him, and He loved us. That is why He died in our place and paid the ultimate debt that no special financial, social, or psychological method could pay. Christ took it all on Himself because He loved the world. He loved the twisted killers and molesters. He loved the thieves and blasphemers. He loved those who cursed Him, and we could not come close. But He has clothed us with His righteousness in our baptism, uniting us with Him in His death and resurrection. Now, we are dead to this pedestal of filth and sin. We are free to love our neighbors. We are free to stick up for the nerds and losers who are picked on by the in-crowd. We are free to be forgiven when we fail to do so, and we are free to confess Jesus, His work, and His Word.

I am commanded by Christ to love Leah as He loved the Church and gave Himself for her. She will be commanded to submit and hold to the love and support I will provide for her. I will fail, but by Christ's blood and righteousness, and in my baptism, I will be daily driven to repentance and forgiven. I am free to love Leah. She will also fail, but by the same means of grace, she is free to submit herself to me. We are both, along with the entire Church, free to submit to Christ.

Satan lies to us, telling us that our debt is too big to be forgiven, and Christ's death and resurrection are irrelevant or simply not enough. He also lies by telling us that we don't need Christ; that we may simply put away with our own sins or ignore them. He also uses his fabricating sword to pierce our consciences, driving us to look for pious means in order to cover up that guilt. But we know what is within us. We live with it everyday, and no matter how much we try to ignore it, we still sin repeatably. We gossip; we still lust and covet. But the law tells us that we are guilty. The same law that Christ fulfilled and obediently lived according to, shows us to be filthy sinners deserving of eternal torment.

So we plead guilty. Christ has bore our guilt. He bore it on the cross where He suffered and died an eternal death. Isaiah spoke of Christ's death in the past tense even though he lived hundreds of years before it took place. That is because it was eternal. It was what we deserved, and He bore it. He didn't sneak out the back door. He didn't heroically escape from its grasps. No, He bore it, and He triumphantly conquered that eternal death in His resurrection. We share this triumph and victory in our baptism. We are driven back to it and strengthened in our conviction of it in the forgiveness we receive at the Lord's Supper. We are the Church, and Christ is our bridegroom. We are clothed by Him, and His righteousness is ours.

Lord, keep us in Thy presence.
Grant to us all repentance
And guide us by Thy Word.
Thy means of grace give to me
Thy righteousness to be free
From Satan's fabricating sword.
Amen