One would understand if God made an inner vow such as “I’ll never open My heart to man again!”
But, that’s not what happened.
Something truly, jaw-dropingly, amazing happened.
God opened His heart wide .. to the whole world.
John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world...”
But hang on a minute. God is ‘Holy, Holy Holy’
And I think it fair to say, we in this fallen world are not.
So how can a love affair, leading to a forever marriage, ever be considered between The Holy and the unholy?
Well, relentless love can find a way.
Part and parcel of perfect Holiness is perfect justice and perfect compassion.
Our sin, the little white lies, the ‘what about me’ selfishness, the immorality, the pride, the hatred, the murders must be justly punished otherwise Perfect Holiness has been utterly compromised.
The Bibles states clearly that ‘The wages of sin are death’
So God did something so radical that many cannot understand it.
He allowed His Son – His beloved and only begotten Son - to step into the dock on our behalf, take ownership of our sins, and take upon Himself the full penalty due to us. Death.
That’s reckless love! Crazy love!
For God so loved the world ... that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
God the Son, scripture tells us, set aside equality with God, took on human flesh, and came in the likeness of sinful man.
God His Father, Mary His mother.
‘The son of man’ and yet also ‘the Son of God’
Emmanuel - God with us.
I love John the Baptist’s shout when he first saw Jesus approaching,
"Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29
No more lambs need be sacrificed in the temple for the people’s sin.
Jesus was indeed ‘The Lamb of God” who takes away the sins of the world.
Jesus is referred to in the Bible as the last Adam.
The first Adam, as we remember, was put into a deep sleep and his wife was drawn from his side, to be his bride.
On that hilltop, outside Jerusalem’s city walls, Jesus - the last Adam - was put into a deep sleep when that Roman spear was thrust up into His side, spilling forth blood and water, and thus confirming His death.
Why did He allow Himself to go through that?
The Bible tells us that He went through this naked humiliation, this torture, and this deep sleep of death for the ‘joy set before Him’ (Hebrews 12:2)
That joy was His future bride. A bride made up of all who love Him, live for Him and long for Him.
Isaiah 53 – written some 700 years before the event – foretold what the divine exchange at the cross would be all about.
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:4-6
If you ever doubt that God really, really, loves you, look at the cross.
Through the cross Jesus made a way for His Father in heaven to be ‘our Father in heaven’
And that way home to the Father is open to anyone.
No matter what kind of life you have lived the Blood of Jesus can cleanse you utterly and completely.
Nearly 30 years ago, on August 11th 1989, after being raised in a Christian family, attending Sunday School, going to church for a decade in my 30’s, having a home group in my home every fortnight, I finally surrendered and opened my heart instead of just my mind.
I said, “Lord I’ve been doing it my way for forty two years. If you can do anything with the rest of my life it’s yours, lock, stock and barrel”
And I meant it from the depth of my heart.
God referred to Jesus as, ‘My Beloved Son’ and in the New Testament He also refers to all who love Him as ‘beloved’ - some 50 times in total.
He calls us ‘heirs in Christ’, and ‘joint heirs with Jesus’.
Joint heirs with Jesus! He loves us as much as He loves Jesus!
As Jesus did, God also invites us to call Him ‘Abba Father.’ Abba means Daddy.
Imagine such intimacy with the Creator of the Universe!
Over these three decades I have come to know God -Father, Son, Holy Spirit - more and more, and to love Him more and more.
No earthly love, no matter how strong comes close to the love I have known from God through Jesus.
Indeed my love my trust, has grown so deep that…
In 2011, I wrote a book called Loved Like Never Before and to my surprise it is the publisher’s best seller.
Other nations asked for it to be translated for them. It is now in Arabic, French, Swedish and Norwegian. This year it became the publisher’s first audio book.
You see, in this broken world, both rich and poor, educated and uneducated, all know there is a missing part, an empty part, within them and that deep desire to be recklessly loved like this is hard to ignore.
The Bible closes with the coming marriage of the Lamb - when Jesus - The Bridegroom - is finally presented with His Bride. Revelation 19:7-8
“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”
The Bride is made up of those who have opened their hearts to Him.
Kyle, you opened your heart to Rebekah, and Rebekah you opened you heart to Kyle.
And so this marriage today foretells the final chapter in the Bible’s story.
Let me close with this short extract from Ephesians 5:25-32 where the apostle Paul confirms that today’s marriage wonderfully foreshadows Jesus and His bride to be.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word… that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.... For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
We all received invitations to this Marriage today.
On the invitation it gave us the option to accept, or to decline.
Everyone here gladly accepted.
At the cross, God opened His heart to you and invited you to come into that relationship with Himself
Today would be a good day to do just that.
Kyle and Rebekah.
God bless you!