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(Since this post was published in May 2017, Justify became the thirteenth Triple-Crown winner in June 2018. Love, love, love his name!)
My husband, Steven, is an avid sports fan.
He loves to watch most sports, including all three Thoroughbred horse races here in the United States—the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes (also known as the Triple Crown).
To win all three races in the same year is considered the most prestigious accomplishment in Thoroughbred horse racing.
Since its inception in 1919, there have been only twelve Triple Crown winners to date, the most recent being American Pharaoh in 2015.
As great and rare an accomplishment as winning the Triple Crown is for a Thoroughbred, its comparison is extremely trivial to the triple-crown kiss of salvation that Jesus secured for His bride, the church, through His death and resurrection.
Sadly, most of Christ’s bride focus on only one aspect of this triple-crown kiss because they are unaware of the other two.
The aspect most focused on is our forgiveness.
Yet most believers don’t even understand the fullness of this gift.
As a result, they lack the assurance and confidence the holy bride of the King of Kings should experience in their daily living through their union with Him.
Each of the three aspects of this triple-crown kiss is wonderful in and of itself, but having a personal knowledge of all three will help Christ’s bride to consistently experience and express His cherishing love and exuberant life while on this earth.
In salvation, Christ’s finished work on the cross secured the following for His bride:
Complete forgiveness of sins through His shed blood. Hebrews 9:22 says, “Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Through Christ’s one-time offering of Himself on the cross, we have been forgiven forever for all the sins of our lifetime—past, present, and future.
Complete identity change through His crucified and resurrected body. Romans 6:6 tells us that “our old self was crucified with Him,” and 1 Peter 1:3 says that we were “born again … through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Second Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we are now brand-new creations in Christ. Through Christ’s body, our identity has been forever changed from sinner to saint (Rom. 1:7; 3:7).
Complete life change through His indwelling Spirit. First Corinthians 6:17 says that “the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him,” and Colossians 3:4 tells us that “Christ … is our life.” Through our union with Christ’s Spirit, we have been given eternal life. His life is our eternal life! (1 John 5:11).
Personal knowledge of this triple-crown kiss has caused the door of my soul to fling wide open to Christ’s Bridegroom love and enjoy sweet intimacy with Him.
It has given me permission to be completely loved by Him.
Before Christ’s Spirit caused these objective truths to become personal realities for me, I experienced many ups and downs in my daily living.
I did not have total assurance that I was completely cleansed.
I felt sure that there was something in me that kept Christ from wanting to fully lavish me with His affection.
Had I known of this triple-crown kiss when I believed the gospel as a nine-year-old, I daresay my life between the ages of nine and thirty-three would have played out very differently.
Even though I spent many years in the dark about the triple-crown kiss from my Savior, Jesus Christ, I am so thankful that God, in His grace, has allowed me to see and understand the fullness of this kiss!
It almost makes me want to go out and buy a hat!
This post is an excerpt from my first book—my six-week study on the first two chapters of the Song of Songs, His Banner over Me Is Pursuing Love.
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To learn more about Your Bridegroom's tender affection for you, I invite you to check out my books and my video series based on my first devotional.
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