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| BridgeWay242's blogspot has moved to:
http://www.bridgeway242.org/blog/
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| Here is a question for you as you begin the new year:
Do you have enough desire for God in order to discipline your pursuit of God in 2009?
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| Genesis 2:18-25 is a word of grace. There we learn about the first man, who was alone and in need of a counterpart, that is, a wife. The animals were brought to the man and he named them. But no counterpart, no suitable helper, was found among the animals. So the Divine Artist created a woman out of the man's side and brought her to the man. We had begun in Genesis 1:2 with a blank canvas and in Genesis 2:4-5 with a barren landscape; now we have God's masterpiece – an ordered universe, a beautiful garden, and, in the center, the energy and joy of a wedding. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame" (Gen. 2:24-25 NIV).
But what would happen if we transposed this beautiful song of covenant love into the key - the tragically sinful key - of Genesis 3? Do you remember what Scripture says about marriage? Scripture says that Genesis 2:24 refers to Christ and the church. Paul writes, "'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife.' This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church" (Ephesians 5:31-32 NIV). Human marriages exist in order to proclaim the excellencies of another marriage – the marriage between Christ and his bride, the church. The marriage between Adam and Eve, recorded in Genesis 2, happened in order to display the future glory of a far better marriage – the Son’s marriage to the people of God. What would happen if we read Genesis 2 in this light?
We would say, first of all, that there was a Father with a one and only Son, whom he dearly loved. This Father was pleased to imagine his Son as having a radiant and glorious bride – a bride composed of his image-bearers. But no such bride existed, since all of the image-bearers were blemished, corrupted and flawed. So the Father and the Son weaved together a plan for the most astonishing marriage ever. The Father designed to put his Son, not in a beautiful garden, but in a barren wilderness, in order to seek and save what was lost. Scripture says, "A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife." And so the eternal Son, willingly and lovingly, left his Father in order to fulfill his Father’s design and claim his bride – and at great cost. And when the time was right, the Father, who had once caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep in order to take a rib from his side, did something far greater in the case of his Son; it pleased the Father to wound his Son, in order to take away all the blemishes and flaws of his Son’s bride.
And so we should delight to say that as the woman was created out of the man’s side, so the church was created out of the side – the pierced side – of the Crucified One. And we should marvel that the perfect Son would condescend to call us his wife: "bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called [the bride of Christ], for she was taken out of [Christ]" (NIV). And we should treasure our Hope, namely, that Christ has united himself in covenant love to his bride, and that we have become one. For Scripture says, "He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him" (1 Cor. 6:17 ESV). And finally, we should be stunned that, in the end, the blemished and flawed bride will be so transformed, that she will actually be presented to Christ as a pure virgin (see 2 Cor. 11:2), spotless and blameless, and she will experience unashamed and unhindered fellowship with her husband, forever.
When we transpose Genesis 2 into the key of Genesis 3, we see God’s eternal purpose of grace in the gospel of his Son. On its own terms, Genesis 1-2 begins with a blank canvas (Gen. 1:2) and ends with the energy and joy of a wedding (Gen. 2:24-25). But in the light of Genesis 3, a greater story is told: we now begin not with a blank canvas (Genesis 1:2) or barren landscape (Gen. 2:4-5), but with the distorted and darkened canvas of Genesis 3. The Divine Artist applies his redeeming skill to this canvas, too, and this time we end, not with the energy and joy of Adam's marriage to Eve in Genesis 2, but with the energy and joy of Christ's marriage to the church in Revelation 19. "Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready" (Rev. 19:7 NIV).
"Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine."
(from "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" by Charles Wesley)
*taken and adapted from an Advent sermon titled "God's Coming To Us: Lessons from Genesis 1-3", preached by Brian Wilbur at BridgeWay242 on November 30, 2008
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| ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6
We are having our first "Friends of BridgeWay242 Christmas Dinner" - for our friends. A thirty-five pound pig and two turkeys are on the menu, and a skit and short talk will be presented.
ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7
We will welcome John Lauber as a guest speaker. John works as a counselor with Hindsight Biblical Counseling (see http://www.hindsightcounseling.com/home.html). John will continue our Advent Sermon Series - "God's Coming To Us" - by sharing from Exodus 3:1-12.
For more information about BridgeWay242 call the church office (703-527-9200) or visit our website at www.bridgeway242.org . | | |
| Four Sundays, Nov. 30 - Dec. 21: Advent Sermons. Theme: God's Coming To Us
Saturday, December 6: Friends of BridgeWay242 Christmas Dinner
Tuesday, December 16: Caroling at Brighton Gardens
Friday, December 19: BridgeWay242 Christmas Party | | |
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