The Bride of Christ
The Holy Bible begins and ends
with a marriage. The first marriage
occurred in a pristine place called the Garden of Eden. The last marriage will occur in heaven.
The way that God created Adam and Eve
prefigures the way the Lord Jesus Christ brought the Church unto Himself.
“And the Lord God caused
a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and
closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had
taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And
Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall
be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." (Gen. 2:21-23)
God did not create Eve
the same way that He created Adam out of the dust of the ground. In creating Eve God put
Adam in a deep sleep. In the Scriptures
a deep sleep signifies death (Jn. 11:11-14; 1 Thes. 4:13). When God took the rib from Adam’s side blood
must have flowed out from it.. This
prefigures the shedding of Jesus’ blood on the cross.
“But when they came to
Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But
one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and
water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is
true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.” (Jn.
19:33-35)
When the soldier
pierced the Lord’s side with a spear Jesus had already died. Through His death and shedding of the Lord’s
blood God created the Church.
“Therefore take heed to
yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own
blood.” (Acts 20:28)
“And they sang a new
song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals;
For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every
tribe and tongue and people and nation,” (Rev. 5:9)
Genesis 2:22 states, "he brought her to the man." This is a
picture of God acting like the father of the bride, escorting her down the
aisle in order to present her to the bridegroom.
The relationship between a man and
his wife beautifully portrays the intimate fellowship between the Lord Jesus
Christ and the Church.
“For we are members of
His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to
his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’
This is the great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the
Church.” (Eph. 5:30-32)
There are some examples in the Old
Testament that typifies the bride as the Church.
The story of Abraham sending his servant out to retrieve a bride for his son
Isaac is widely accepted as allegorical to the heavenly Father sending out His
servant, the Holy Spirit, to retrieve a bride for His Son (Gen. 24:1-4; Jn.
14:16).
“Now the young woman was
very beautiful to behold, a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to
the well, filled her pitcher, and came up.” (Gen. 24:16)
Rebecca aptly typifies the Bride of Christ. She was a chaste virgin thus representing
the Church that is faithful only to the Lord Jesus Christ. Her filled pitcher with water represents the
Church that is seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. The apostle Paul wrote:
For
I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear,
lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may
be corrupted from the simplicity* that is in Christ. For if he who comes
preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different
spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not
accepted--you may well put up with it! (2 Cor. 11:2-4)
“These
are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are
the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among
men, being first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no
deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.” (Rev. 14:4-5)
Some Bible
expositors look at Song of Solomon’s portrayal of “My dove, my perfect one, is the only
one,” as the Church (Songs 6:9) but the
preceding verse “There are sixty queens and
eighty concubines” presents problems.
Our Lord Jesus Christ never married, needless to say, He did not have
sixty queens and eighty concubines.
Solomon wrote “Song of Solomon” and dedicated it to his favorite wife when
he had a smaller harem. When he became
older he increased his harem to seven hundred wives and three hundred
concubines who turned away his heart from the One True God. “So the
LORD became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the LORD God
of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.” (1 Kn. 11:9) Song of
Solomon does not give us a good example of the Bride of Christ.
There are prophetical allusions and descriptions of the bridal relationship
between the Church and the Lord Jesus Christ in other Old Testament passages.
“For
as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; And as the
bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you.” (Isa.
62:5)
There are many times that the Word
tells us that God rejoices over us.
This is the only place that says how He rejoices, "like a
bridegroom over a bride."
"And
it shall be, in that day," Says the Lord, "That you will call Me 'My
Husband,' And no longer call Me 'My Master,'” (Hos. 2:16)
Here Hosea is speaking of the day
when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. In
that day He will be the Church’s husband.
That will be the day when the Bride is ready to meet her Bridegroom
“Let us be glad and
rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife
has made herself ready." And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine
linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the
saints. Then he said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are called
to the marriage supper of the Lamb!' " And he said to me, "These are
the true sayings of God." (Rev. 19:7-9)
The marriage and the
marriage supper of the Lamb takes place in heaven in the future when the Bride
has made herself ready. God is now
preparing the bride for that great event.
“Husbands, love your
wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He
might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He
might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph.
5:25-27)
Just as the bridegroom
will only come when the bride has made herself ready, so our Lord Jesus Christ
will come when the Church becomes “a glorious church, not
having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and
without blemish.”
Many Christians look at
the Church as an organization and do not see themselves as making a personal
effort and commitment to become perfect.
“Now you are the Body of Christ, and members
individually.” (1 Cor. 12:27). The
Bride of Christ consists of individual
Christians who are one hundred percent faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ and
His teachings They place Him in the
center of their hearts. They follow Him wherever He went. They have righteous acts that will exalt the
Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Therefore you “shall
be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Mt.5:48).
Here is how the
marriage of the Lamb will take place.
“For the Lord Himself
will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with
the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” (1 Thess.
4:16-17)
Let us get ourselves ready for the Bridegroom to
come to take the Bride to heaven for the marriage of the Lamb and rejoice with
Him in the marriage supper.