I must admit, sometimes the church looks very little like the Biblical bride of Christ. I look around me and have a difficult time seeing a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle, holy and blameless, as portrayed in Ephesians 5:27. It seems that more often than not the church looks like a bruised and bloodied ragamuffin. So why is there this disconnect between the Bible’s picture of the church and apparent reality?
While my natural tendency is to be an optimistic person, sometimes it is difficult not to lose hope when I look at the church today. There is so much brokenness. There is disunity, discord, and division. This is what the victorious bride of Christ looks like? Sometimes I want to say, “Yeah, right; I don’t think so.”
Even here on the World Race we struggle with the same issues that the whole church struggles with. I guess I thought it would somehow be this magical experience of what the body of Christ is supposed to look like. Please don’t get me wrong; I live in an amazing community of believers here on the World Race. In many ways, we are living as the victorious body of Christ. But we have our struggles as well. Disunity and division are constantly knocking on our door, looking to get a foothold in our hearts. We struggle with pride, selfishness, and stubbornness. Sometimes I want to pull my hair out in frustration.
Lord, why do we still struggle so much with these issues if you say that we are more than conquerors in Christ? Right now, I don’t feel like more than a conqueror. Right now it feels like the Enemy has got the upper hand and is dealing out a pretty good thrashing.
I don’t believe that there is a simple answer to this question. I do believe that God is in the process of making His church into a victorious, radiant, pure bride; but we have not yet reached maturity. The church today is comprised of broken people living in a broken world. The result is a broken church.
Thankfully the story does not end there.
We have Christ. We are covered with His righteousness, not our own. God chooses to be glorified in the midst of our brokenness and messiness. He uses broken instruments and makes them whole. The fact that anything good comes from us is a testament to God’s goodness and grace living in us and has nothing whatsoever to do with us. What a relief! We are holy because God has made us holy. We are righteous because we are covered with Christ’s righteousness. We are pure because God has made us pure. It is all God. Period.
This gives me great hope when I feel hopelessness creeping up on me. God is at work in the midst of our brokenness. He is making us into a victorious bride. One day we will stand before Him – radiant, pure, and clean. No wrinkles. No stains. No blemishes. Until that day comes, we commit ourselves into the hands of our Redeemer and Savior.
