All Things Beautiful #12 – Ken Williams

The Marriage of the Lamb:

Wow! In the beginning the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, created all things through his Son, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and then looked at it all, and “seeing it was very good” (Gen. 1:1, 31 OSB throughout). He finished his work by creating man and woman in his image, the image of the Triune God (v27). Then God gave them a command that, amazingly, humans obeyed. He told them to multiply and fill the earth (v28). My dear deceased friend, Dave Lafferty, said God cheated by making this command fun. Whether trick or treat, humans obeyed, migrated and filled the earth. For those who are willing and able, we are still obeying God by populating the entire earth.

Genesis, chapter 2 explains that God united the man and the woman as one flesh. Jesus used this phrase “one flesh” to explain that God created marriage. So, there is the divine origin for marriage, and as Jesus explained to the Sadducees, there will also be an end, a time when humans will no longer marry (Matthew 22:29-30). So, here we are in between the beginning and the finale, what is God’s purpose for marriage now?

Multiple millennia passed after the beginning and suddenly, something new, something unique in all human history occurred; for that matter something new for God. The Son of God became flesh, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bones (John 1:14 and Luke 24:39). Humanity had multiplied and migrated into all the earth. Humans designed communities, religions, philosophies, and nations, influenced by the spirit of wrath, made war with one another, seeking power and wealth.

The Lamb of God became one of us to take away the sin of the world. He not only came to save us from ourselves, but he also came to complete his creation of humanity. But as in the beginning, humanity turned from God, who is love.

We rejected God who washes feet, but he will not reject us. He not only washes dirty feet, but he also washes us, cleansing us of wrath. He didn’t use a weapon to crush the wrathful serpent’s head. He defeated it by his self-giving, self-emptying, selfless divine nature of Love. Amazingly (to human rationale) he cleansed us by hanging powerlessly on his Cross. He did what none of us could do; he lived a perfect human life and revealed the Father’s heart, who loves all of us unconditionally. He drew earth’s nations to himself when he was raised up (John 12:32). Now, the resurrected, glorified Son of God, and son of Mary, offers his hand in marriage to anyone and all nations that have filled the earth.

The apostle Paul expounds this in his letter to the congregations in Ephesus. He shared that the Bridegroom’s divine nature is selfless, self-giving, self-emptying, and it is natural for him to give himself to save his beloved church, his body, us! We are members of his body and are reminded to follow him by “submitting to one another in the fear of God” (Ephesian 5:21). The longer we hang out with our future husband, the more he rubs off on us, preparing us in this “…great mystery” the future marriage of the Lamb. (Ephesians 5:21-33).

“And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.’” (Revelation 19:6-7)

Ken and Nancy Williams served for some 25 years in pastoral ministry, and then almost another 20 years serving and mentoring other pastors.  With the heart of a pastor Ken continues to write and blog from upstate New York where he and Nancy live close to their grandchildren.