SPECIAL PREPARATORY BATH( FOR THE BRIDE OF JESUS CHRIST) Cleanliness is next to godliness, so the saying goes. People bathe practically everyday and especially when they are dirty or when they smell. No sane person will put on a clean garment, much less a wedding garment, if ones body is filthy and smelly. In the Orient, there are certain baths which are taken on certain special occasions only. They are usually taken as rites of purification. And one such occasion is the wedding. Just before the wedding, the groom and the bride will take a special bath in their respective homes. (The Jews have what they call a mikvah a bath in running water.) They do not just want their bodies to be thoroughly clean but also to smell and feel clean because bad body odours and sour perspiration are very offensive. Odour can very easily permeate the garment. Hence, perfumes and aromatic herbs are added to the bath. After the bath they will anoint their bodies with special precious ointments (oils) before they put on their wedding garments. The Lord Jesus Christ took His special bath before He started His ministry to seek out a Bride for Himself. He was cleansed by the running water of the River Jordan and subsequently anointed with the sweet smelling Spirit of God upon Him (Matt.3:16-17). And His personality exuded a heavenly sweet savour. But what kind of a garment did Jesus wear after His bath? The Word of God, of course. The Scriptures records that when Jesus was tempted of the devil, in the wilderness, He defeated him with the Word of God. He was so clothed with the GARMENT OF GODS WORD that He defeated His enemy with the Word. He used It three times when He spoke — “It is written! It is written! It is written!” (Matt.4:1-11). Amen! (By speaking the Word backed by the revelation of the Sacred Word, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, overcame the adversary of God.) Christ Jesus Himself is the Word of God made manifest. The Word with which Jesus Christ was so clothed is the very vesture that has been given to His chosen Bride. It is given to her as a covering for her spiritual soul as well as a Wedding Dress — Garments of Salvation (Isa.61:10; Eph.6:11-18). The special bath of the Bride of Christ comprises of three stages. And it is the same Holy Spirit that leads her through all the stages. The First Stage is her BLOOD BATH. She must be cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb of God, her Saviour-Husband, Christ Jesus, Who purchased her with the price of His Blood at Calvary. This is the most important and solemn step. Without justification by His Blood, her sins will remain and she will not be clean (Rom.5:9; Heb.9:22; 10:14). It is the same Blood that takes care of the nature of the original sin which she inherited from the Fall (Heb.10:15-18). The Bride of Christ is not purchased with the Precious Gifts which the Father has given to Christ. She is “purchased with His own Blood” (Acts 20:28), which is His dowry. Second Stage WATER BAPTISM is the next bath in which the sins that she had committed are remitted. The one and only right way for her to take this bath is to do it according to Acts 2:38. This is the way directed by the Heavenly Father. The bath identifies who she is. She has to take it, by immersion, in water in the precious Name of the Lord Jesus Christ (her Husband). No other name or way is acceptable. If she truly loves Him with all her heart, mind, body and spirit, and is truly converted by the Spirit, she will have put on Christ as Paul has said: “For those who have been baptized in the Name of Christ have been clothed with Christ” (Gal.3:27). That is right! Every bride must bear the name of her husband! “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” Ephesians 5:25-27 This is the THIRD phase of the special bath, “THE WASHING OF WATER BY THE WORD” of GOD. This completes the whole ceremonial cleansing for the Bride. Unlike the first two phases of the bath which cleanse her of the original sin and the attributes of sin, the WORD BATH is a continuous cleansing process for the spirit of the Bride (to keep her free from her erroneous thoughts and teachings, deceitful nature and carnality contentions, presumptions, selfishness, jealousy, anger, fear, indifference, pomposity, pride, etc.) that she might be “made ready” for the “Marriage Supper of the Lamb”. Then, and only then, would she be granted to be arrayed in FINE LINEN, PURE AND WHITE, which is her Robe of Righteousness. To array her in that white raiment before she has made herself ready is certainly unthinkable, because putting on that dress is a testimony to all witnesses at the Marriage Supper that she is POSITIONALLY PLACED AS THE WOMAN WHOM CHRIST KNEW intimately as His wife on His Wedding Day. Hence, that dress could not be worn until she has proven herself worthy to be His Wife.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 09:58:45 +0000
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