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Redeeming the Bride

Published by Rob Skiba May 26, 2014 at 10:54 PM

If the “church” didn’t show up until 50 days after the Resurrection (as many teach), how then can this Scripture make sense?

EPHESIANS 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

It doesn’t. It only makes sense in light of…

DEUTERONOMY 24:

1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

2 And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife.

3 And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife;

Her former husband, which sent her away, MAY NOT take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

In Mark 3:19,20 (early in His ministry), Yeshua identifies Himself as the Bridgroom. We see elsewhere that He came to redeem His bride. Thus, Ephesians 5 explains why Yeshua said what He said in…

Matthew 15:24 But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

He loved His Church, the Bride, which is Israel (as confirmed by Acts 7:38, Romans 11, Ephesians 2, Revelation 21 and MANY more) so much that He gave His own life to redeem her back to Himself. Redeem from what? From being divorced in…

JEREMIAH 3:8 “And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.”

The ONLY way the Husband could take back the Bride He had divorced without breaking His own Law (Deut. 24) would be to die for her! I believe this was the “great mystery” that Paul figured out concerning the Church. Though a man can divorce his wife, she can not remarry, for despite the marriage contract which is easily broken, the two become one flesh. That is not something that can be separated so easily. If she remarries, she causes the other man to be an adulterer. And she can never return to her first husband, for she has been defiled by the last husband. This problem remains in effect until the original husband dies.

1 CORINTHIANS 7:39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

Now watch this:

ROMANS 7:

1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Did you catch it? The adulterous wife—in this case Israel—was freed from the curse of adultery by the death of Christ/who is the Word of YHWH made flesh. Thus, the Father redeemed His Bride (Israel) through Yeshua! It’s the most amazing love story ever! In order to get His Bride back, the Groom had to die. The Holman Christian Standard Bible renders the above verse a lot clearer for us:

ROMANS 7:4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the crucified body of the Messiah, so that you may belong to anotherto Him who was raised from the dead–that we may bear fruit for God. (HCSB)

This is an absolutely amazing fulfillment of a beautiful plan that YHWH had from the beginning. But if the Church did not exist until 50 days after the Resurrection and it was something new (as the Dispensationalist believes), how could Christ have loved and given Himself for something that at the time He “gave Himself ” did not even exist? No. That whole doctrine DESTROYS the plan of YHWH by nullifying massive amounts of Scripture and causing an identity crisis of epic proportions.

There is only ONE Bride. One Groom. And one plan to get her back: Christ came and gave Himself for an existing Bride/Church that had gone astray and He did so within the limitations of His own Law.

Amazing!

– Rob Skiba

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