Bible Concepts

The Bride of Christ

The Bible often describes God’s people as His bride. In the Old Testament, the prophets often portrayed God’s people as a beloved bride who is also an adulterous wife. God proves to be a faithful husband who pursues and wins back his bride time and time again, as He Himself is steadfast in love. In the book of Hosea the prophet is directed by God to remain faithful to a wife who was repeatedly unfaithful to him. This gives us a picture of what God is like in the face of our own idolatry, (Hosea 3).

Jeremiah contains this same imagery of God’s people as a formerly loving bride who has become a prostitute, chasing after other men who abuse her (Jeremiah 2). Ezekiel portrays the tender and generous love of God for his people, which is then thrown in his face as he watches her not even accept payment for her prostitution, but instead bribe other men, paying them to let her be with them (Ezekiel 16).

After showing the unfaithfulness of the people in dozens of chapters, Isaiah ends with a beautiful reaffirmation of God’s faithful and enduring love for His people:

"Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah; for Jehovah 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."

Not abandoning his adulterous people, God himself draws near as "Immanuel." John the Baptist calls himself a friend of "the bridegroom," Jesus, saying: “The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete” (John 3:29). Also, when challenged by the Pharisees about the fasting practices of his disciples, Jesus again calls himself the bridegroom, saying: “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Matthew 9:15).

This beautiful idea that the church is the bride of Christ is ideed, mysterious, but the apostle Paul explains the mystery after giving instructions to Christians husbands and wives:

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it;
that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,
that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself:
for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church;
because we are members of his body.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.
This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church."

As a bridegroom loves his bride, so God adores his Church. He has shown that love through sacrificial actions: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). All the great love stories of the world echo this greatest of love stories. God’s actions towards the Church are always full of love. Cherishing her in everything, he sees that she is not left alone (Matthew 28:20), that she is provided for (Philippians 4:19) and protected in all things (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

Like a glowing bride in here white gown on her wedding day, the Church is portrayed as washed and splendidly pure because of the work of Christ. Though made up of sinful people, redemption restores the Church and looks forward to glory when everything wrong will be made right.Then God will see his Church made whole and holy, gloriously and graciously freed from the stains of sin. We also should rejoice that God delights to cleanse his bride in an ongoing way when she stumbles: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

While the wedding supper celebrating the eternal union of God with his people is still to come, we should await this feast with great joy and anticipation and always strive to prepare ourselves. Revelation 19:7 allows a glimpse of the future that is to come: “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”