For a long time I only wanted to see Jesus as King. One who rules and has dominion. One who cares about His people, but not necessarily as a personal friend. Jesus as a King to me was a man with power, but underneath of that I didn’t think He really cared about real justice or real mercy…distant to me.
Then I learned who Jesus was as a Judge. I learned that He really does despise evil and doesn’t tolerate us taking it lightly. He really hates wickedness and since I was full of it, I didn’t know if He really loved me. Jesus as a Judge was a man who didn’t budge on the law, He had limited mercy upon the unjust and was more of an inspector than a man who ever really cared about me getting better as a person.
Then came the time when I learned that Jesus was a Bridegroom. This is the reality that shifted my paradigm of who God was altogether. Not just how one day I will be married to Him, and not just how He really cares about what I think and say, but from the smallest decision of ‘what should I wear today’ to ‘what am I going to do with my life’? For a long time I was held in the bondages of thinking if I messed up or didn’t choose the right path that He wouldn’t be there with me. But that’s not what a bridegroom does, a bridegroom like Jesus nonetheless.
I’m just now realizing the impact that knowing Jesus as a bridegroom has made in my life. That was my story, and I didn’t even know that’s what I thought! But you can’t just look at Jesus as that bridegroom and forget about His true and righteous judgments. And we can’t just look at Him as a King who is distant and who doesn’t care about us. It is a fact that we have to choose to believe everyday. God, just as He is three in one with the Father, the Holy Spirit and the Son, He is three in one as the King, Judge and Bridegroom. Once you get a hold of this, don’t let it go. Jesus is perfect, but only in His identity as the King, Judge and Bridegroom, anything more or less of Him is a wrong view. God deserves out love and understanding this identity of Him helps us give it!
