I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2-3).
Paul viewed his service to the Corinthian believers as a betrothal. That is, he saw himself as the instrument whom God used to betroth the Corinthian believers to “one husband…Christ.” Christ, however, was not a husband to whom the Corinthian believers were actually married. Rather, he was a husband to whom they were betrothed. That’s an important distinction.
Paul’s stated goal was to ultimately present the Corinthian believers to Christ “as a pure virgin.” That was his hope. It was a hope for the future, not an established reality, and that fact becomes even clearer in the second sentence of the passage we are considering.
If we read that second sentence honestly, Paul believed there was some danger that he might not succeed in his goal. Note his stated fear: “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” Obviously, if they were, in fact, “led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ,” his hope of presenting them “as a pure virgin” would not be realized. If you don’t believe me, read the passage again. It is indisputable—if we read honestly.
We often hear it said that “the church is the bride of Christ.” A bride, however, is “a woman on her wedding day or just before and after the event” according to the dictionary. Believers are not yet married to Christ, and so they are not yet His bride. They are only betrothed to Him.
Recall that, under the Mosaic Law, betrothal was taken very seriously, but a betrothal could be broken, as exemplified by Joseph’s intention to break his engagement with Mary when he discovered that she was pregnant. Under the Mosaic Law, betrothed women who were discovered to have been promiscuous were supposed to be stoned (see Deut. 22:23-27).
The “Marriage of the Lamb” to His bride is still in the future, and you can read about the future event in Revelation 19. But just because we are currently engaged to Christ doesn’t guarantee we will ultimately be married to Him. To borrow Paul’s words, if we are “led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ,” we will not be presented to Him “as a pure virgin.” This is no doubt what James had in mind when he wrote, ” You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Jas. 4:4, emphasis added).
The same idea is contained in other scriptures, for example, in Revelation 19:7-8, when John heard “the voice of a great multitude…like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder” saying:
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Note that the multitude declared that Christ’s bride had “made herself ready.” She did something to prepare herself for her wedding day. What did she do? We read that she was given “fine linen, bright and clean,” in which to clothe herself, but that fine linen did not represent the “legally-imputed righteousness of Christ.” Rather, it represented “the righteous acts of the saints.” That is how she “made herself ready.”
Am I claiming (as some will probably say) that we can save ourselves by our righteous acts? No, honest readers know that I am saying that the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of all our righteousness. He died for our sins, and if we have repented and believe in Him, He forgave us of all our former sins (2 Pet. 1:9), caused us to be born again, and came to live in us by His Holy Spirit who fills us with “the fruit of righteousness” (Phil. 1:11) and who empowers us to live holy, obedient lives. But He did not make us robots. And so we (obviously) have something to do with our obedience or disobedience to Him. Jesus’ purpose in dying for our sins was not to give us a license to sin or to “impute His righteousness” in some legal sense without making us righteous in any practical sense. That is why He comes to live inside believers by the Holy Spirit…to make them actually, practically righteous! Take note of Paul’s words to the Ephesians that also draw from a marriage analogy:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless (Eph. 5:25-27, emphasis added).
Are we really to believe that Paul was only writing about a so-called “imputed righteousness”—something that is just a legal standing that has no association with how we actually live our lives? It would be foolish to think so. No, in giving Himself for the church, Jesus’ goal was the same as Paul’s goal that we initially read in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3: to “present to Himself a “sanctified,” “cleansed,” “washed,” “glorious,” “without spot or wrinkle,” “holy” and “blameless” bride, a “pure virgin” wholly devoted to Christ. That describes a lot more than “imputed righteousness.” And that is Christianity 101.
So, the truth is that all of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are betrothed to Him, but we will be examined before our marriage to Christ. Only pure virgins, faithful and devoted to Him, who have made themselves ready by “righteous acts” will be prepared. All others will be unprepared. Which is why the author of Hebrews wrote that Jesus “became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation” (Heb. 5:9), and “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
I of course realize that what I have written contradicts much of what is believed and preached in many professing Christian circles. But you may notice that I’ve backed up what I’ve written with Scripture. And I’m not trying to win an argument; I’m trying to wake people from their slumber and get them ready to stand before Jesus.
And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard (Col. 1:21-23).
We are saved by grace through faith. We are not saved by a grace that somehow nullifies the necessity of faith. And faith works. That is, it obeys.
