We are Whores, He is Faithful

I was thinking the other day about God's faithfulness.  I'm amazed at how faithful He is to us.  I mean, really.  Why in the world would the Creator of the universe be so loving and faithful in the lives of such sinful people.  The church is constantly being called the Bride of Christ in the New Testament.  But I think on a more personal level, a fitting metaphor is that of a marriage.  We are married to Christ.  He is the bridegroom and we are His bride.  The moment we commit to follow Him, we have entered a covenant with Him to be faithful for the rest of our lives.

"I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine."  Ezekiel 16:8

But I'm going to be honest, I can't go an hour without cheating on Him.  Whenever we sin, we are cheating on Christ, our bridegroom.
This makes me look at sin in a completely new light.  In Ezekiel 16, God goes on a rant to the Israelites about how unfaithful they are.  He is talking about us in that chapter.  He calls his bride, Israel (today, the church) a whore.

"But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby."  Ezekiel 16:15

As harsh as it sounds, it's so true.  We are whores in our marital relationship with Christ.  But what's amazing is the faithfulness of Christ.  He will never leave us or forsake us.  He is committed, unlike us.  He is the perfect loving bridegroom.  When we learn to look at sin in this light, we should be broken over our unfaithfulness and cling to our relationship with the Beloved!
In light of his faithfulness, we need to recognize our unfaithfulness and pursue a faithful relationship as the Bride of Christ.  Think about how Christ feels when he looks at his Bride whoring herself around.

"I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God."  Ezekiel 16:62-63

This is unbelievable.  The faithfulness and love of Christ should never cease to amaze us.  He has atoned for our unfaithfulness with his death!  He has laid down his life for his unfaithful Bride!  Our response should be that of love and a longing to run into the loving arms of our faithful bridegroom.

"As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you."  Isaiah 62:5