Who or what is the bride of Christ? Many are confused about this identity due to the twisting of Scripture through the years. New ideas, such as fundamentalism, have stolen and corrupted the pureness of this name. Though this exact phraseology, “the bride of Christ”, is not found in the Bible, it is no doubt there and can be understood by those whom God chooses to shine the light of His Word upon. It is this subject that will require our study today.
First, we must decipher the meaning of this phrase. What is a bride? By definition, a bride is a female who is soon to be married or recently married. Looking in Scripture, we see this word appears fourteen times. Perhaps the most passionate passage and the first one to which I call your attention to is found in Isaiah 62:4-5:Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. In verse four, we see God returning to His people. He gives them a new name, “Hephzi-bah”. This word simply means: My delight is in her. He also tells them that their land shall be named, “Beulah”. In verse five, He says that He will rejoice over His people just as a bridegroom does. This precious bride of Christ is the one in whom the Lord delights.
John speaks of this Bridegroom in John 3:29: He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. In verse twenty-eight, he tells the Jews that he is not Christ, but the one who was prophesied to come before Christ. It was not John’s church, but Christ’s church. He tells them that he is friend of the “Bridegroom”. John’s joy was fulfilled by telling the Jews of the coming Messiah; to be able to watch and hear Christ speak of His love for sinners; to be a part of Christ setting up His church. It is this church that is part of God’s chosen people. Because the Jewish nation rejected their Messiah, Christ turned to the Gentiles and set up His kingdom on earth. He promised to turn again to His chosen people of Israel, but there is a portion of the Gentile nation that is part of His chosen. I would like to show the correlation between the bride of Christ and the Gentile church, God’s chosen people.
Of course this bride is not a universal church (see ‘Jesus’ “my church”: local, or universal?’ in an earlier posts of this blog). His bride is the local, visible, New Testament church. It does not consist of all saved people. There is a common misconception that all saved people, at the time of their regeneration, enter into this bride. These same individuals will also say that those people are the church so that they can say that the bride of Christ is the church for which He gave Himself (Ephesians 5:25: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;). Christ did give Himself for the church that it might be holy, and He might present it to Himself as holy and pure; however, the bride of Christ is not one gigantic, universal church comprised of all those who claim Christ as their Saviour. The bride of Christ is each individual, autonomous church that consists of regenerated christians, baptized into that one body. When you receive the Lord Jesus as Saviour of your life, you become a child of God. John 1:12: But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Being saved makes us a child of God. I John 3 explains who the children of God are. Becoming a child of God does not make you part of the bride. To be in His bride is exclusively for those who are in His church. It is those who are commissioned to carry out His command to reach the world. It is those who are privileged to partake of the bread and the cup in remembrance of their Saviour. That privilege is not given to any one individual and not even to those organizations claiming to be the church of Christ. It is not one universal church consisting of all individual churches. There are many pious individuals with good intentions who are members of a false church; and if not a true church, than I venture to say not a church at all. So there are regenerated persons who want to follow Christ and live a godly life, but are not part of His bride. Matthew 26:29: But I say unto you, that I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers kingdom. Christ told His disciples He would be leaving them. This was HIS church! This was not just the disciples; it was a called out body of believers that had assembled with Christ in their midst. He tells them of that glorious day when they would be reunited and married to their Bridegroom. This is the marriage supper of the Lamb found in Revelation chapter 19. This proceeds the thousand year reign of Christ and His armies. Just as there was a betrothal period in Bible times where the bride and groom were separated until the wedding day, the bride, Christ’s church, has been separated from the precious Bridegroom until the wedding day; the day that the church will feast with Him. Then we find in Revelation 21:9-10: And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. Here we see John’s vision of the new Jerusalem, the holy city that God calls the bride. Revelation 21:2: And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. This is after the church has been raptured, after the marriage supper, and after the thousand year reign. The holy city is coming down from heaven to reside in the new earth. The city is not the bride, but the church that makes up the city. Just as all the students of a school would sometimes be called “the school”, so all the true churches of Christ, his bride, make up the new city.
Jesus refers to Himself as the Bridegroom in Matthew 9:15: And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. He was with His disciples at the time, but the time was approaching where He would be taken from them. We saw in John 3 that John was sent as a forerunner of Christ; to tell the Jews of His coming to teach purity in His church. Ephesians 5:27: 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. He came to bring sinners to His kingdom and teach purity in His church and He promised to come again to meet His bride! His church is to be preparing herself as a bride does in preparation of her wedding. His glorious church, His pure bride, is to be chaste. II Corinthians 11:2: For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. That is the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. The church is expected to be a chaste virgin. Just as in the physical sense, a young lady is expected to come to the marriage altar as a pure virgin, Christ’s church is to prepare themselves for His coming by keeping themselves pure and being faithful to their one “Husband”, to whom they have been espoused. Romans 7:4: Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. That is, we are to become a member of Christ’s church. We are to become part of this bride of Christ. Beware, lest we skip over the last phrase: that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Once we are part of that bride, we are to strive for purity. Christ always commands His church to be holy; He expects holiness from it, and He speaks to His church as if it is holy.
So yes, this bride of Christ is very literal, and not symbolic. We have a commandment to be separated from the world. We are to become a part of the body of Christ, his church. This gives us the privilege to be called “The Bride of Christ”. Now do you see why it is so important for his church to be so pure and holy, without spot and blemish? Christ wants a pure bride presented to Him. Psalm 149:4 tells us that the Lord taketh pleasure in His people. Just as we saw in Isaiah 62, the Lord delights in His people. The New Testament church is part of His people. I Peter 2:9, in reference to the Gentiles, calls them a chosen generation, a holy nation, and a peculiar people. His bride will one day spend their eternity in a land called, Beulah. This very word Beulah is defined in one word: married. Hallelujah!! The bride of Christ will one day spend their eternity with their beloved Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ! What a wonderful thought.
Joel Noyes, Truth Baptist Church
