GOD’S INFINITE LOVE; GOD’S INFLEXIBLE JUDGMENT.

On the one hand we read that Christ’s love is eternal and will never change. Paul writes that “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” In another place he asks, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ” (Romans 5:5: 8:35)? Later on that same apostle will describe a wholly different Christ, one who “in flaming fire will take vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel” (2 Thessalonians 1:8). What principle unites these two seemingly divergent Christs? It is this seeming disparity that often causes the world to dismiss Jesus. Who wants to worship a Savior that is so capricious that at one moment He might love you eternally and in the next moment damn you forever? There is a clear answer given in the Bible to this conundrum. It is the concept of covenant. What makes Christ appear completely for one individual and completely opposed to another is rooted in a covenant relationship. Christ has chosen some to be His bride before the foundation of the world. His choice is from His holy and free will. There is nothing in any person that would cause Christ to lavish His love on him. Nor is there anything in any man that would cause Him to love Christ. All men are born sinners born with a complete aversion to Christ’s love. Yet in eternity past Christ vowed to love some; He put His covenant ring on them and will love them completely to the end. Such we read in John 13:1, “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” To His “own” Christ’s love will never diminish. It will abide eternally perfect. The covenant can never be changed no matter how hard the wayward bride tries to run away from it. The bride’s security lies in the love of the husband, not in her own deservedness or goodness or faithfulness. Outside this covenant relationship things are completely different. Christ must judge those who are not “His own.” He has no relationship with them and they have no relationship with Him. They are not His bride but a strange woman who finds her attachment to anyone but the heavenly Husband. For this group Christ must and will come in the flaming fire of judgment and rightly judge them for their sins. Thus we see that we do not have two Christs in the Bible, but one. To those who are His bride and have a covenant relationship to Him He is pure love and grace. To those who are not in covenant relationship to Him, He is pure wrath and judgment. This one thing, this covenant, makes all the difference in the world. Does that mean every person should simply sit back and fatally accept what their relationship with Christ must be? Resoundingly no! The Bible invites all to come to Christ, passionately, indiscriminately, freely. And all who come to Him by faith will know at that very moment that they were the bride of Christ from eternity past. This is the mystery of the gospel. Christ knows who are His, but man chooses to be His with a will that is not forced. May all who read this post stop thinking whether they are the bride of Christ or not. May every man and woman stop looking at their hand to see if they have Christ’s ring on it. Rather may every man and woman simply look to Him who holds the ring. And in the mystery of the gospel, all who trust Him as the One who died on a cross for their sins will suddenly look down and find that the covenant wedding ring has magically appeared on their finger. If you trust in Jesus you are most certainly His bride. So believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you are His bride forever.