Her Condition ~ Part 2

It’s been a while since we’ve visited and discussed this topic.  However, I hope that since the last post, you’ve been able to ponder and consider the question:  How would you describe the bride’s background and former condition?  If not, please review our last post here.
 
So to recap, we’ve been using an allegory to learn and gain insight into our relationship with Christ as our Groom and we as His Bride.  We’ve seen that the Bride is arrayed in bridal splendor with a beaming countenance and joy in her eyes.  However, this was not her former condition.  

On the contrary, she was a poor waif living a life of drudgery, poverty, and absolute misery.  Instead of wearing fine, clean garments, she clothed herself with rags covered in dirt and grime and smelling of the sewage in which she lived.  Her life was lived out in slavery to an overbearing master, and her heart was made hard from the pain, bitterness, and hardship of her life.  She had no hope of escape, no one who loved her, and no aspirations of a happily ever after. 
 
But then one day, everything changed.
 
A Savior stepped into her life and offered her a way out.  While in her state of poverty, filth, and slavery, He asked her to become His Bride and join Him in a better life.  And she said, “Yes!”  So He bought her freedom with His blood, and brought her into His Father’s house where she received cleansing from her life of dirt and grime, fresh new garments of luxury to wear, and sweet smelling perfume.  She was no longer a slave, but the daughter of a King and future Bride of a Prince. 
 
This is our bride’s story; but she is not the only one with this story, you are the Bride of Christ, and the girl in the allegory.  So do you see yourself mirrored in this metaphor?  No?  Well, let’s break this down together and see how our former condition was exactly the same.
 
Before knowing Christ…

• Dressed in rags.  The Bible tells us that our own righteousness is like filthy rags to the Lord.  “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”  (Isaiah 64:6 NIV 84)
• Covered with dirt and grime.   Our lives were once covered and saturated with sin.  It dirtied our lives, made us miserable, and unclean.  “Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness. … Thus they became unclean by their acts.” (Psalm 106: 6, 49a)​
• Enslaved to an overbearing master.  We were once slaves to sin with Satan as our cruel, overbearing master.  (Romans 6)

 
After…

• Dressed in beauty and clean.  When we put our faith and trust in Him, Christ washed us and replaced our dirty vestments with His perfection.  “And the angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Remove the filthy garments from him.’  And to him he said, ‘Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.’”  (Zechariah 3:4)  “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.”  (Ezekiel 36:25)
• Covered in sweet smelling perfume.   We are covered in the fragrance of Christ.  A sweet smelling perfume to our fellow believers and to God.  “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”  (II Corinthians 2:15)
• Daughter to a King.  We have been adopted as children of God.  “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’  So you are no longer a slave, but a son [or daughter], and if a son, then an heir through God.”  (Galatians 4:4-7)
• Engaged to a Prince.  Jesus is the Prince of Peace, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and He is our promised Bridegroom.  “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.”  (Revelation 19:7-8a)

 
Do you see yourself now?  Do you see how far the Lord has brought you and what He’s done for you?!  Are you amazed by the absurdity of it all?  That the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace would choose for Himself a girl from the mire and cesspool of sin and make her beautiful, spotless, clean, and His chosen Bride!  This is the amazing testimony of our story, the astounding fact of our current status, and the wonderful grace and love of God.  So are you not yet teary eyed and joy filled by the love of your Bridegroom?!  Do you now more fully grasp how miraculous it is to be called the Bride of Christ, and the significance of what that actually means?
 
If not, just wait!  We have much more to study and learn on this topic.  So until next time…  

“The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give.  You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.  You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.  For … as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”
~Isaiah 62:2-5​