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Present Yourself a Glorious Church

By Ray Watson

A song written to accompany a Sunday morning communion service.
Tired of guilt? I wrote this song to help alleviate some of the sin-consciousness that seems to plague certain sectors of the Body of Christ today. You may be blessed not to have this problem, but many believers I have encountered in life seem to suffer from a severe hangover of guilt. This song reminds us that it is all about grace and the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

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Song Lyrics

I come just as I am
‘Cause You are the spotless Lamb
Accepted now am I
Through the sacrifice of Christ
My worship is true
‘Cause it only points to You
And by Your blood I’m justified
All glory goes to You

And when I present my life
And all the things I do
I’m perfect in Your sight
‘Cause You made all things new
And I’m only here by grace
And not the things I do
I’m accepted now in Christ
And I belong to You

Present Yourself a glorious church (x2)
Present Yourself a glorious bride

Song Notes

A commentary on the lyrics of the communion song

Tired of guilt? I wrote this communion song to help alleviate some of the sin-consciousness that seems to plague certain sectors of the Body of Christ today. You may be blessed not to have this problem, but many believers I have encountered in life seem to suffer from a severe hangover of guilt.

“I come just as I am
‘Cause You are the spotless Lamb”

I don’t have to be perfect to come into His presence, because my performance is not the criteria that gets me behind the curtain. It was His performance that ripped the curtain, not mine. Having begun in the Spirit, am I now about to be perfected by the flesh? I come just as I am, because it’s not about my perfection, it’s about His.

“Accepted now am I
Through the sacrifice of Christ”

In the Old Testament when a sinner came to worship he brought an animal without blemish to be examined by the priest. The priest did not examine the sinner, he examined the sacrificial animal. If the sacrifice was without blemish, both the offering and the sinner were accepted. In the New Testament God does not examine us, He has already examined Jesus and found Him to be a perfect substitute for our examination. That is why we are “accepted in the Beloved!” For more about this read the following article - Passover Lamb.

“My worship is true
‘Cause it only points to You”

The devil used to tell me I had no right to worship, because I wasn’t a good enough Christian. These days I worship whether I feel worthy or not, because now I realise it was never about my worthiness in the first place. It’s all about His worthiness. My worship is acceptable to God, because it only points to Him, not me!

“Present Yourself a glorious church”

I feel there has been some misunderstanding regarding the role of the believer in preparing for the coming of the Bridegroom, and it is yet another guilt trip we all have to deal with.

Ephesians chapter 5 tells us that Jesus loved the church and gave Himself for it, “that He might sanctify and cleanse it … that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph. 5:25-27)

“Without blemish” actually means to be faultless and unblameable. Who is going to attain to that? The only way this is going to happen is to be credited with the faultless record of God’s own Son. And does it not say that Jesus is the one who is going to present to Himself the glorious church? We are not the ones presenting ourselves, it is His finished work.

So how do we reconcile Ephesians 5 with Revelation 19:7 where it says, “the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” How does one ever get to a stage in their Christian walk where they have “made themselves ready” to be married to God? Fortunately the next verse provides us the solution. “And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.”(KJV)

What exactly is the righteousness of the saints? Is it not the finished work of the cross? Isaiah describes our own efforts (outside of abiding in Christ) as filthy rags. We put off our own rags of unrighteousness when we get saved, and to us it is granted to be arrayed in fine pure linen – the robe of His righteousness. We are ready. We are made ready the day we are born again and change our wardrobe. He makes us perfect in His sight - “without spot or wrinkle” - wearing the robe of His righteousness.

I once argued with the Lord that it was all very well being “imputed with His righteousness” but that I still had to deal with the knowledge of my own failings. He told me that I would feel a whole lot better about myself if I realised that He sees me with the record of Christ’s performance and not my own. What a revelation! If we could only grasp the truth of our doctrine in a way that made it tangibly real for us, we would be much happier Christians!

He truly is Jehovah Jireh our provider. Abraham told his son Isaac, “God will provide for Himself the Lamb for the sacrifice.” God Himself has provided our righteousness, and it is perfect righteousness, without spot or wrinkle. Thank God for our wedding attire! The Bride has made herself ready!

Who gives this Bride in marriage? He does! Present yourself a glorious church Lord!