[Author: Bruce]
In the last blog I posted, I posed the question of whether God takes anyone back. I truly appreciated the comments and feedback in your responses. I really love to have my mind changed by the scriptures, and as we discuss differing opinions and interpretations, our horizons are broadened and if we are listening the Spirit guides us into deeper truth that brings us closer to God and shapes us more into the image of his son.
The comments seemed to focus on sovereign choice vs free will. While this debate has kept churches divided for centuries and has been the topic of many volumes of literature, it was not my heart question. In my wondering I was not as concerned with how we come to God in Messiah, but rather who we are when we get there. This leads to my next question.
As we come to God, do we come as a bride (wife) or a son?
I believe this has great bearing on how we respond to redemption. If I understand my relationship with God as one of a wife, then when I return to sin, I am an adulterous woman. In my continued cycle of sin and repentance I wonder how many times God will take me back. I wonder where the line is of final divorce. God would be totally justified to send me away forever for my adulteries.
On the other hand if we come into relationship to God as a son, I no longer have to worry about the certificate of divorce. As a son, when I wander off in some wayward fashion, I simply need to remember who I am and return. Like Yeshua’s story of the “prodigal,” we simply return to the Father and he recognizes our repentance and celebrates. As a son I recognize my need for the instructions and discipline of my father. I know I am intended to mess up and not get it right, yet God still loves me and I continue to grow.
Thinking along this line brought me peace and assurance in my salvation, but then I thought, “who is the Bride of Christ?” And “isn’t Israel the one in Ezekiel 16:6-8 that LORD God marries?” The relationship of marriage is throughout the Scripture as an image of God and his people and also as Yeshua and his people.
Praying through these things I believe God revealed to me the difference in the way God relates to his people and to a person. Together we become something we are not by ourselves. It is where two or more are gathered together that Yeshua is in our midst. Paul went to great lengths to describe the body we become as we share our gifts and live out our callings in community. Scripture continues to reveal to me these differences as I try and differentiate between what I am in messiah and what we are in messiah.
I am a child of God, a brother to Yeshua.
We are the bride of Christ. Awaiting his return.
Maybe you agree, maybe you don’t. I really look forward to hearing what you think and why. Change my mind with the word of Hashem.
Shalom – Bruce