The Lord's admiration of His Church is very a wonderful, and His
description of her beauty is very glowing. She is not merely fair, but "all
fair." He views her in Himself, washed in His sin-atoning blood and clothed
in His meritorious righteousness, and He considers her to be full of
comeliness and beauty. No wonder that such is the case, since it is but His
own perfect excellency that He admires; for the holiness, glory, and
perfection of His Church are His own glorious garments on the back of His
own well-beloved spouse. She is not simply pure, or well-proportioned; she
is positively lovely and fair! She has actual merit! Her deformities of sin
are removed; but more, she has through her Lord obtained a meritorious
righteousness by which an actual beauty is conferred upon her. Believers
have a positive righteousness given to them when they become "accepted in
the beloved" (Eph. 1:6). Nor is the Church barely lovely, she is
superlatively so. Her Lord styles her "Thou fairest among women." She has a
real worth and excellence which cannot be rivalled by all the nobility and
royalty of the world. If Jesus could exchange His elect bride for all the
queens and empresses of earth, or even for the angels in heaven, He would
not, for He puts her first and foremost--"fairest among women." Like the
moon she far outshines the stars. Nor is this an opinion which He is ashamed
of, for He invites all men to hear it. He sets a "behold" before it, a
special note of exclamation, inviting and arresting attention. "Behold, thou
art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair" (Song of Sol. 4:1). His opinion He
publishes abroad even now, and one day from the throne of His glory He will
avow the truth of it before the assembled universe. "Come, ye blessed of my
Father" (Matt. 25:34), will be His solemn affirmation of the loveliness of
His elect.
