reminded over and over that he belongs to Christ. In the last place, the ring suggests preparation for the wedding. We are all familiar with the words of our Lord to His apostles in the upper room: “ In my Father’s house are many abiding places (or abodes); otherwise I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you unto myself, that where I am ye also may be” (John 14:2b, 3, literal translation). Here we have the preparation which is going on in heaven. We have no clear revelation as to the full nature or scope of this preparation, but we know that He is pre paring a place for His own. In Rev. 19:7 we read of preparation on the part of the bride: “ Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready (Greek, hath prepared herself).” For added light on this preparation let us go to Eph. 5:25-27: “ Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it (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.” It would seem from the language used here that the process of preparation is going on until the presentation takes place at His appearing. The juxtaposition of these verses cor roborates the thought before us, that this is a time of preparation on both sides of the veil. The Lord Jesus is preparing a place for His bride in His Father’s house; simultaneously He also is preparing her for that place. During the few months between my sister’s betrothal and her wedding over fifty years ago in the city of Damascus, our house was indeed busy. Books showing ladies’ styles were very numerous. Merchants were com ing to the house to show their wares. My mother and sister were buying and sewing. I think my sister had something like ten gowns. She had bracelets from the wrists to the elbows, a chain made of gold pieces across her chest, and several rings with diamonds. All this was only a token of that which was to come — only the pre paration awaiting the great day, the wedding day. On that day the bride periodically absented herself from the festivities to change into another gown in order to display for the admiration of the guests her trousseau, for which the bridegroom had paid, thus showing forth the evi dence of his generosity. Our Lord Jesus Christ is now preparing you and me for .His wedding day. He is deal ing with you and with me. He has to use the hammer and chisel occasionally. We should not complain or think our lot is hard, but rather remember that we are His and He is preparing us for the great day that is to come — the wedding, the glorious marriage — that the display of His riches on us may be worthy of His majesty, or as Paul puts it in Eph. 2:7: “ That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kind ness toward us through Christ Jesus.” The earnest of the Spirit is the token of heavenly betrothal. Should this message come into' the hands of anyone who is not sure of ever having become a child of God by trusting in the blood of Christ shed for your sin and accepting Him as your Saviour, you can receive Him "right where you are and thus enter into this heaven ly relationship. What a challenge this truth brings to those who know Him! Are you living for Him? Do you display Him by your life, by your deeds as you go about? Do people know that you have been with Jesus, “ whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (I Peter 1:8)? God grant that it shall be so.
is two-timing. We do not respect such people. Set apart, she now becomes, shall I say, the property of the individ ual who is the bridegroom-to-be. So it is in the believer’s life. When a person is saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit sets that one apart. He or she becomes His own property. What can be richer than the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel according to John, when the Lord Jesus Christ in His high-priestly prayer says again and again: “ . . . they are mine . . . they are thine . . . they are mine . . . I in them and thou in me . . .” •— stressing the ownership over and over? “ Know ye not that . . . ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price . . .” (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). You are set apart. You belong to God, and the Christian who is unfaithful to the Lord has reason to ask himself or herself the ques tion, “What is wrong with my relationship to the Lord?” There are those who are two-timing, those who are going on with the world and those who are trying constantly to find pleasure in the companionship of others than Christ and even of the enemies of Christ. Would to God that those who come to Jesus for the cleansing of His blood, seeking a holy affiance with Him, would give serious attention to this significance. Does not our Lord make this very clear in His condition of discipleship? Listen to these solemn words: “ If any one comes to me, and hates not his father and mother and wife and chil dren and brothers and sisters, and besides also his own soul, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26, literal translation). Again in the same chapter and the 33rd verse He says: “ Thus therefore every one of you who does not bid farewell to all that he himself possesses, cannot be my disciple.” Strong terms these! If we have sincerely repented of our sins and put our trust in the Saviour, then He has given us the earnest, the engagement ring who is the Holy Spirit. And if the Holy Spirit is in our hearts, He is able to wean us from all other loves. We are weak, to be sure, and we do go astray and cast flirta tious glances here and there; but the RING gently re bukes us and draws us back to our heavenly Fiance. “ Show me Thy face — one transient gleam Of loveliness divine, And I shall never think or dream Of other love save Thine: All lesser light will darken quite, All lower glories wane, The beautiful on earth will scarce Be beautiful again.” In the third place, the ring serves as a reminder to the fiancee of him to whom she has given her heart. It would hardly seem necessary to have a reminder. Nevertheless, there are times when a casual glance or an accidental look at it stirs the emotions and sends fresh thoughts in the direction of the absent loved-one. When we come face to face with certain decisions, we look upon the ring and say, “No, in the light of this relationship it must not be.” In the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of the Gospel according to John, our Lord de lineates the ministries of the Spirit of God to the Chris tian. One of them is that He will bring to remembrance things that He has told us (John 14:26). He will remind us again and again. He comes graciously and whispers in our ear, saying, “ Is this becoming to a child of God? Don’t you know that you are Mine? Can you enjoy yourself?” I attended a banquet which I knew would be a secular banquet all the way through. I knew I was going to offer prayer but not to preach. I prayed before I left home that I might witness to my Lord in the prayer, in my sitting there and in my conversation, for I am His property and belong to Him. The Christian needs to be
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MARCH, 1963
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