The Husband’s Glory

The Husband’s Glory

The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory.

Isaiah 62:2

IN WORD We get hung up on the word righteousness. It points to moral perfection, and we know we don’t have it. But the biblical word isn’t just about morality; it signifies a fulfillment of a covenant. So when God says the nations will see the righteousness of His people, He means that the world will see the marriage covenant of God fulfilled in the bride He has chosen. When the bridal veil is removed, we, His beloved, will shine with His glory.

A few verses earlier, Isaiah says that God has clothed him with garments of salvation and arrayed him in a robe of righteousness (61:10). He gives God’s people a poetic image of a couple getting dressed for the wedding. There will come a day—the biggest day of our lives and one that we’ve dreamed about as long as we can remember—when we will walk the aisle and be presented to our divine Groom. We’ll be a little nervous, because everyone in that situation is. And we’ll have plenty of reason for our nervousness, as the whole world has been given a mandatory invitation to the big event. The revelation of the bride’s glory is for the entire Kingdom to see.

Meanwhile, the engagement is to be very visible. The preparation for the nuptials is not a secret process. The righteousness—the expression of the covenant—“shines out like the dawn” (62:1). The nations are to see it, and they’ll know it not by how we behave ourselves, but by how we love. We are to be models of propriety, of course, but that’s not the righteousness that will impress them. The righteousness they need to see is the kind that fulfills the covenant: with our extravagant, blushing adoration of the Bridegroom.

IN DEED Does the world see that in your life? If not, why not? If you’re like most of us, you easily get caught up in the wedding details and forget the passion that won your heart in the first place. Whatever it takes, recapture the passion. Let the people around you wish they were as in love as you are—and tell them how they can be.

The finished product of all the ages is the spotless Bride of Christ, united with Him in wedded bliss.

—PAUL BILLHEIMER