Ephesians 5:27

so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Ephesians 5:27

So Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.  The purpose of this was for the cleaning by the washing of the water with the word.  This cleaning was for the purpose of presenting the church to himself without any blemish.  His desire was that his own bride, the church, would be his and would be his in all perfection.  Perhaps this is the significance of a bride wearing white during the wedding ceremony.  In she enters to be presented before her groom, dressed in white, signifying purity.  Would it make sense for her to be wearing a red or black dress?  Would she enter all muddied and dirty?  She is prepared and set apart (holy).  In the illustration of Christ and the church, she his set apart for God.  Marriages have the idea that the bride is set apart to belong only to her husband.  Nowadays, this idea has become muddied, but this is the biblical picture we see.

Now, would it make sense if the groom was dirty?  Jesus isn't dirty.  Well, "he became sin", but he lead a sinless life.  I think that like Christ, husbands need to lead their wives in righteousness.  If one object is pure and another object is not, when they come together, the pure object becomes impure.  A dirty pig who has been rolling around in the mud will immediately dirty a clean little girl in a pretty white dress.  I'm not sure if this quite makes sense, but it makes sense to me that the groom needs to be pure and spotless in order for it to make sense that he presents the bride to himself pure and spotless.  We need to lead in love, lead in the word, lead in selflessness, but also lead in righteousness.  Yes, we're sinful imperfect people who continue to fail.  However, that doesn't negate the calling.