Ephesians 5:27 - All Stainless

"...in order that He Himself should present to Himself the glorified assembly, not having stain or wrinkle or any such of these, but rather in order that she should be holy and blameless.

-Jesus laid it all down and gave Himself up in order to cleanse His bride, but do you know why He did that?  Apparently He did it for Himself.  Because in His wedding registry, He wanted all stainless.  That’s right.  He wanted (and no doubt deserved) a bride who would be without any stain, no spot or wrinkle or blemish, undefiled, blameless and pure and holy.  A glorious bride, breathtakingly good and beautiful and perfect - this is who He and all of creation sees walking down the aisle - a bride for the ages of ages, to take your breath away.  And He went to extreme lengths - the ultimate sacrifice - in order to procure this for His bride, to insure that she would in fact be glorious.

-Incidentally, Christ-follower, that is what you and I are.  All stainless, we are (not just a preference for modern kitchen appliances!).  Breathtakingly good and beautiful and perfect.  That, in spite of my warts and wrinkles and weaknesses.  But no, in God’s eyes, we are completely forgiven and washed-whiter-than by His grace through the blood of Christ.  Remember He lavished His grace on us, slathered us all up in it, so much so that all that remains is completely holy and blameless (Eph 1.4-8).  We are both adopted sons- and daughters-in-law.  Don’t ask me how it works, but the salient point is that we are so clean, so precious, so treasured, that we are family.  The thrice-holy King of kings has brought us into His forever family.  To the praise of His glory (Eph 1.12-14).  That is the theme of this letter, and it informs the way that husbands then should be relating to our wives.  Husbands have this incredible example of how to love their wives, sacrificially, with additional built-in incentive in that as a husband, an all-stain-less breathtakingly beautiful bride looks good on me...!  Next verse...