Our Marriage to Christ

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3 NASB1995)

What Jesus Christ described here to his disciples parallels over to the biblical Jewish marriage, which was a two-stage process:

A biblical Jewish marriage was a “serious, legally binding betrothal (Kiddushin), often arranged by fathers, involving bride price (mohar) payment and contract (ketubah) signing, making the couple married but not yet living together. The second stage was the nuptials (Nissuin), where the groom would prepare a home and then bring the veiled bride to live with him, culminating in a celebratory feast, solidifying the union.” (Source: AI) 

And so is our marriage relationship with Jesus Christ. First, we cannot even come to faith in Jesus Christ unless God the Father draws us to him, i.e. unless he persuades us as to his holiness and righteousness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to believe in Jesus, to die with him to sin, and to be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but as servants of righteousness in obedience to his commands. By biblical faith in Jesus Christ we are now married to Christ.

(Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; Romans 6:1-23; John 6:44)

Although married to Christ, we are not yet living with him face to face. Our marriage to him has not yet been consummated (completed). We are more like in an engagement period, although it is still a marriage. But right now our groom, Jesus Christ, has gone to prepare a place for us. And he will come again one day to receive his faithful bride to himself, that where he is, there we may be also. But this is contingent on us remaining faithful to him in walks of obedience to his commands and no longer as slaves to sin.

(Matthew 10:22; Matthew 24:9-14; Romans 8:24; Romans 13:11; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-2; Philippians 2:12-13; 2 Timothy 1:8-9; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5,9; 2 Peter 1:5-11; 2 Peter 2:20-22; 1 John 2:24-25; John 8:31-32; John 15:1-12; Romans 11:17-24; 1 Corinthians 15:2; Colossians 1:21-23; 2 Timothy 2:10-13; Hebrews 3:6,14-15) 

So it was with the biblical Jewish marriage covenant. The bride had to remain faithful to her husband while she waited for him to return to get her to take her to be with him in the place he had gone to prepare for them. And that is why Joseph, when he learned that Mary was pregnant, planned to divorce her quietly, because he assumed she had been unfaithful to him. But then an angel of the Lord spoke to him and let him know her pregnancy was of the Holy Spirit, and her child was Jesus, our Savior, so he took her home.

Jesus continued saying, “And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:4-6 NASB1995)

So, Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

And we learn in 1 John 1-3 that if we claim that we have fellowship with God, but yet we walk in darkness (sin), we are liars. If we claim that we know God, but we do not obey his commandments, in practice, we are liars. For it is not the one who claims he is “in Christ” who is “in Christ,” but it is the one who has denied self, died with Christ to sin, and who is now walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in practice, and no longer in sin. We have the hope and the promise of eternal life with God in heaven.

(Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22)

So, please do not take faith in Jesus Christ, salvation from sin, and eternal life with God as something that is guaranteed you no matter how you live. How we live matters for our salvation and for our eternal life with God.

Our Marriage to Christ

An Original Work / December 29, 2025

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love