05/22/2025
Is our relationship with God close enough? Are we one with other believers and with Jesus? These are the kinds of thoughts regarding our faith that we should be considering as we go through our days. This is not an easy contemplation but let’s join together this morning as we search for the answers to these questions within ourselves and the community of believers we associate with. Let’s meditate on them throughout our days so that by understanding we will be transformed into the Lord’s image from one degree of glory to another.
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV
“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV
Jesus wants more than a casual relationship with us, and in this desire of His, He is exhibiting the will of the Father. They don't want to just know us superficially and have us know them; they desire for us to become one with them. God wants us to join Him in a relationship that is far beyond a skin-deep acknowledgement...
“that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
John 17:21-24 ESV
We see a physical parallel and reflection of this spiritual joining in the relationship between man and woman in marriage. This understanding of man’s relationship with woman began almost immediately in Genesis when we read these words regarding God's intention for Adam and Eve... and for us.
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Genesis 2:24 ESV
And God's will for this oneness of flesh between man and woman carries on throughout the Bible and remains alive in us to this very day. We read this in the book of Mark as Jesus teaches...
“But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."”
Mark 10:6-9 ESV
It has always been interesting to me how the Lord gives us images of the spiritual in our physical lives. He gives us love, desire, humility, want... all of these are reflections of Himself. He also desires for us to become one, not because we are identical; because Adam and Eve were not the same... no, He does this to complete us in one another.
By joining man and woman as one flesh we see a reflection of the will of God for us spiritually too. In one flesh man and woman bring forth new life and join in love. In becoming one spiritually with Jesus we also increase in love and see a rebirth, and a newness of Spiritual life. In our joining with Jesus and through Him, our divine relationship is extended, and we are joined with God. In this way we find ourselves bound tightly in a spiritual marriage. Is there any wonder that the Church is called the bride of Christ? In the flesh we are bound “until death do us part”, but in the spirit we are joined with God forevermore, for eternity.
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”
Ephesians 5:25-27 ESV
Physically we are imperfect and sadly we see that imperfection in ourselves and our marriages, yet our love for one another can hide those faults. Love erases any blemish our spouse has, and we come to see them differently from the rest of the world. When we join with Jesus, His sacrifice will have made us perfect. In the eyes of God we are new creatures and have no fault. This too is a parallel between the physical and the spiritual in us. So our desire today should be to draw closer to Jesus; so close in fact that we become as one with Him and that in Him we find that we are not only one with Him, but with God as well, and are seen as perfect through His loving eyes… We are made perfect by reflecting Jesus in every aspect of our lives and selves.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for loving me so much that you sent your Son Jesus to perfect me by redeeming me from sin. I thank you Lord God for your plan to become one with your Son, and, through Him, to become one with me. Let me love you Father, just as you love me, and in our joining let all my faults fall away before you. Lead me as you lead your Church, the bride of Jesus, before you... even as a man and a woman take each other in marriage. Let our becoming one flesh teach us about becoming one with you in spirit, and one the love of man for woman teach us of spiritual love... you for us, and we for you. So as man becomes one Church and the Church becomes one with Jesus, and Jesus becomes one with you... let us find perfection and new life in you for eternity, and realize that in this way your will for us is made complete. As we strive each day to increase in faith, we pray that we are coming closer to becoming the bride you desire and to the moment in which we will become spiritually one. We pray Lord that in your eyes we have become acceptable, and that our faults find no home in us. I pray that by your love we appear perfect before you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who has loved us, is loving us, and will always love us. Holy are you whose mercy and grace have found a way to forgive us and wash us clean of sin, and free us from death, through the eternal promise and blood of Jesus Christ… not at just this moment and what comes, but throughout eternity… from the alpha to the omega. Great are you who knows no beginning and no end. We honor and glorify you like a starburst that radiates in every direction and forever. You are the light of the world and of all creation and everything uncreated. Praised be your name that knows no echo. Praised are you with the eternal voice of eternity. Let all say Hallelujah and Amen!
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah… and Amen, Amen, Amen!
““I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.””
Revelation 1:8 ESV
Rich Forbes