If you have spent any time studying scripture, or even just listened to sermons preached over the years, the topic of marriage to God – being the bride of Christ – will eventually come up. And this is very interesting terminology, and can jump-start the imagination in a bunch of different ways. Countless pastors and theologians have gone in many different ways regarding this single idea of a marriage to God; and some have gotten into deep trouble with it as well. Yet since Jesus was the one who taught on this topic and used this terminology, and the Father even spoke along the very same lines back in the Old Covenant, we can make a couple of conclusions:
First, that it is not out-and-out wrong to think of our relationship with God in marital terms. It is not high-minded, or presumptuous.
And secondly, there is something very important about this perspective of our relationship with God, that He wants us to see and receive.
So today in this study, we will be examining our relationship with God, from the perspective of marriage, and what this means for us today in Christ as part of the New Covenant.
One of the more familiar records of a healing by Jesus, is the woman with the issue of blood. This story is remarkable for several reasons, yet contained within it are several pearls of wisdom that most people do not even realize are there. As you may have heard me say before, there are no insignificant details in the Bible; every detail recorded in scripture is there for a reason. And so today what we will be studying are the details of this account of the woman with the blood issue being healed by Jesus, and how they can be applied to us today.
Many people when they read the accounts of Jesus performing miracles (and especially healing) they read the story and then say “I wish that would happen for me”, but then it never progresses beyond that point. However the Bible is clear that every thing that happened and was recorded, was done so for our benefit, so that we could learn the mercy and the grace and the love of God for us (Romans 15:4). So let’s now examine the scriptures, and see what they show us about Jesus and His healing.
There is much confusion and differing ideas regarding what it means to “walk” from a Christian standpoint. It is often said that we are to “walk worthy of our high calling in Christ”, and this is generally thought of to mean that we should guard against sinful acts in order to prove our worthiness. But is this what the Bible actually means when it speaks of our walk in Christ? Are we really supposed to prove our worthiness by our performance or behavior?
In this study today, we will be examining this question in the light of the finished work of Jesus Christ, because there is no other light by which things can be clearly seen. Everything will either stand or fall by Jesus Christ. 1st Corinthians 3:11-13 makes it clear that anything built on Christ will stand firm, but anything built on another foundation will be burned-up. So we will see if this idea of proving our worthiness by our performance stands up by Jesus.