PRESENTATION OF THE CHURCH TO CHRIST

^[p. 68] PRESENTATION OF THE CHURCH TO CHRIST

... As to the Lord presenting the church to Himself, it refers, I conclude, to the type in Genesis 2, where we read of Eve, He brought her to the man.... I believe that in one sense you are right in saying that she is as much united to Him now as she can ever be, still there are great additions connected with the presentation and marriage. First, you will have a glorious body, you will be like Him, an immense addition: you will have uninterrupted intercourse in the Father’s house, and finally, you will have passed in review before His own eye, that you and every one may receive the things done in the body. Thus the wife is made ready to accompany her Lord to the earth; the white linen is the righteousnesses of the saints. Our place in heaven is in pure grace, but our place on the earth is determined by our righteous acts here. I do not think the presentation is the same as the public display at the marriage, but I need not say that it is subsequent to the present time, and will embrace the public display.

My thought about the passage in Ephesians 5 is, that there you have the true order: the past — He gave Himself; the present — He sanctifies; the future — He will present; and, as I gather, He will do so as soon as He can....

I believe that the real lack in souls in general is that the resurrection, and all involved in it, is not truly seen: the first man dead, and the second Man risen from the dead; the first man judicially terminated in the cross, and the Man who bore the judgment raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, for He had glorified God in bearing the judgment on man. Unless all this which the resurrection of Christ embraced is seen and accepted, the real import of the resurrection is not apprehended.