Jesus is the Messiah, the “anointed one” in Hebrew. He is the Son of God, born without sin through the power of the Holy Spirit. He ministered in Israel, healing, teaching and forgiving sins. He did this for one purpose, to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven, the world of God’s ideal, on earth (Mt 4:17). The life, death and resurrection of our Savior are rooted in and understandable through God’s plan for man and woman, set forth before He created the world.

Adam and Eve were blessed to become one flesh, give birth to godly offspring, fill the earth and subdue it (Gen 1:28, 2:24). Had they done so, the Kingdom of Heaven would have started right then and there. Because of the fall, however, sin and evil entered the world. God grieved that He had created man (Gen 6:6). But God is almighty and unchanging, and He determined to send a new Adam, the messiah, Jesus. Paul calls Jesus the “last Adam” (1 Cor 15:45), for Jesus was all that Adam was meant to be: wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of peace (Is 9:6).

It follows as night follows day that just as Adam needed Eve, Jesus too needed a bride, for it is not good for Adam to be alone (Gen 2:18). This is why John the Baptist called Jesus “the bridegroom” (Jn 3:29; cf. Mk 2:19-20). A bridegroom, should have a bride. Jerusalem should have known “the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:42) and exalted Jesus as prince of peace (Is 9, 11, 60), with a bride bringing forth a sinless family. Marriage is God’s original institution for all His children, beginning with His firstborn, Jesus. The Redeemer would have shown humankind the perfect way of marriage and family.

But it was not to be. Jesus had no bride because the people were not ready for it. They “received him not” and were “stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart and ears” (Jn 1:11, Acts 7:51). Despised and rejected (Is 53:3), the Savior became a suffering servant and died to purchase our lives. Jesus, the God-man, made the perfect sacrifice, and there need be no other. But he sacrificed more than just his physical life. Jesus sacrificed the love of a husband, the joy of real fatherhood, the pride of being a grandparent. He sacrificed the kingdom of heaven that was at hand.

But God claimed the cross in a miraculous way. He claimed Jesus’ sinless birth and his triumph over Satan. Liberating the spirits in hell, the Son of God resurrected. He spent 40 days with his disciples, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and sent the Holy Spirit. Jesus set the stage for all people to be reborn and, at the end of the age, for the second coming. God so loved the world! We know for a surety that because Jesus’ love for those who rejected him went beyond death, God’s ideal will be fulfilled, God’s true family will appear.

The “Marriage of the Lamb” at the conclusion of the New Testament (Rev 19:7) promises that Christ will come again and receive his literal bride. As True Parents, they will open the way for all people to be like Jesus (Col 3:4), dwell with God (Rev 21:3), and share the bounty of God’s creation abundantly (Rev 22:1-2). As Jesus has called innumerable people to God’s service over 2,000 years, Jesus called Sun Myung Moon to pioneer, with him, the ministry of True Parents on earth. It is a messianic anointing that is Jesus’ to give, and, through the True Parents, for us all eventually to receive.