You Are the Father’s Perfect Gift To Jesus

Dec 16 2022 - Eric Buresh

Last summer, my eldest son was married. Next summer, my second son is getting married. The Lord has blessed both couples with a great gift that he specially prepared for each of them. I watch my sons delight in their bride and soon-to-be bride. So much love. So much joy. Each bride is enchantingly beautiful in the eyes of their beloved. It’s all given me impetus to meditate on the bride of Christ, the Church. 

Let me start by saying that Jesus died for His Church -- each of us who call on His name in faith -- to provide a suitable sacrifice for the fair wages of our sins because He loves us deeply. Jesus’ love for us is beyond description. See e.g., Galatians 2:20, 1 John 3:16, Ephesians 5:2 (and many others). However, Jesus had a parallel motivation for taking on human flesh, willingly going to the cross, suffering and dying: He loved His Father and wanted to do the Father’s will for the Father’s glory. This is evident throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry. At the start, Jesus says - “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish His work.” (John 4:34). “It was for this very reason that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:28); “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” (John 6:38). And, of course, Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane highlights the depth of pain Jesus was willing to endure for His Father- “Not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42). 

We see from Jesus’ own perspective that God the Father was giving the orders. It was God’s will, flowing from the Father’s infinite love, grace, and mercy, that sent Jesus to die. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:16-17). “This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrificed for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10). God sent; Jesus obeyed. 

The Father was greatly pleased with the Son (as He stated at Jesus’ baptism and the Mount of Transfiguration), and the Father, by the work of the Holy Spirit, has been moving throughout time to create and to perfect an infinitely beautiful Bride to give to His Son. The perfect gift for Jesus’ perfect sacrifice! The very sacrifice that made the gift possible. You and I are God’s perfect gift to Jesus! We are “those [God] has given to [Jesus] out of the world.” John 17: 6, 9, 24. Jesus will be infinitely glorified in and by His beautiful and perfect Bride. 2 Thessalonians 1:10-12. He is our perfect gift from the Father, and we are His perfect gift from the Father. 

The full beauty of Jesus’ Bride will not be revealed until the end of time, but we do know the Bride (individually and collectively) will be without “spot or wrinkle or any such thing, and that she [will] be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:27) We also know that God will draw the perfectly united Bride “out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” (Revelation 5:9). By God’s will and work, you, the Bride, will be holy and perfect. Christ will receive you as an infinitely beautiful gift. And together, we will form a manifold tapestry that reflects the diversity of all humanity across all time and yet in perfect unity. 

Last year, Pastor Tim delivered a video message addressing racism, which can be found at https://visitgracechurch.com/watch/190. We need to keep this topic in front of our minds for many reasons, and among those reasons is that Revelation 5:9 reminds us that Christ’s blood purchased this multi-colored, multi-ethnic, multi-national, multi-linguistic Bride. One Bride with immense and beautiful diversity. We should not devalue the blood of Christ by entertaining any form of prejudice or fear of others who are different from ourselves. Both prejudice and fear are insidious sins that we can commit often without even being aware of what is happening. A little decision to turn away instead of engaging in conversation. A little discomfort (what are we going to talk about when we have nothing in common – a total LIE by the way) leading to a decision not to extend an invitation for hospitality. A small but present belief in the superiority of whatever people group you identify with over another. We are practicing being the beautiful Bride of Christ right now, and this is an area where a little practice could benefit. Christ’s blood is worth the effort!