Revelation 19:7 KJV – “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.”
The fact that Jesus is coming for His bride isn’t debatable. The Bible is clear. He will come for us in one of two ways. Either He will come for us at our death, or He will come for us at what is referred to as the Rapture—when believers will be caught up to meet Him in the air, as Paul described in 1 Thessalonians 4. While old age or infirmity may alert us that our physical death is near, the return of Jesus at the Rapture will occur suddenly, with no warning beyond the signs given in Scripture. How do I know? Because He said so! And He is The Truth. He clearly stated that He would come again to receive us to Himself (John 14:3; Revelation 22:20). If I believe what He said about sin, salvation, forgiveness, the love of God the Father, eternal life, His own identity, and all the other big truths (John 3:16–17; 5:17–21; 11:25–26.), then it stands to reason that what He said about His return is equally true. Jesus is coming! “The glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” is imminent (Titus 2:13)!
We live in a world filled with blasphemy, obscenity, profanity, and outright rebellion against God; a world that is morally, spiritually, and environmentally filthy; a world of selfishness, greed, pride, abuse, where the family unit is being destroyed (2 Timothy 3:1–4); a world of hate, rage, lies, corruption, cruelty, confusion, lawlessness, and delusion. But make no mistake: our blessed hope is that a new world is coming! Even now it is being prepared as a Home for the Son’s bride. And when all preparations are complete, He will come, whether or not we are ready.
In Your Inbox
The ten young women in Jesus’ story in Matthew 25:1-13 had several things in common: Each had a lamp, which represents a profession of faith. Each believed and expected that the bridegroom was coming. Eventually, all grew so tired of waiting when he seemed to tarry that they went to sleep. But there was also one life-changing, destiny-altering difference: Five of the young women had oil for their lamps, and five of the young women had none. Throughout Scripture, oil represents the Holy Spirit. In other words, half of those waiting for the bridegroom’s coming were ready because they had a personal relationship with Jesus and were indwelt by the Holy Spirit, while the other half had only a profession of faith. They looked the part, they were religious, but they had no oil—no indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They had never been born again. Jesus said earlier that while some people may know His Word, they don’t live it out (Matthew 7:26–27). The apostle Paul described such people as “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5). In His story, Jesus called them “foolish”.
To be honest, it can be very difficult for you and me to tell the difference between wise and foolish people, between those who have an authentic relationship with God through faith in Jesus and those who are simply outwardly religious. Jesus told this story not to prompt us to speculate about or be judgmental of others, but to stir us to examine our own hearts.
From His point of view, are you wise or foolish? Do you have the oil of the indwelling Holy Spirit? If the answer is yes, praise God! And do all that you can to get someone else ready, too!
