What is the Bride of Christ?
What is the Bride of Christ or who is the Bride of Christ?
Many have wondered about her identity from the Scriptures. Some have suggested her to be the city of God the New Jerusalem referenced in Revelations… “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he [the angel] carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Rev 21:9-10 NIV).
A city is not what God has redeemed nor purchased to be His bride. It was a people whom He redeemed that would chose to love and return to Him unlike a city. Examining Scriptures will help us to identity God’s bride. Isaiah calls the people of God, Zion. “I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand — I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people‘” (Isa 51:16 NIV). And again Isaiah says, “The sons of your oppressors will come bowing before you; all who despise you will bow down at your feet and will call you the City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel” (Isa 60:14 NIV).
Zion is the name given to the bride of Christ it is also the place where His bride will dwell. “Return, faithless people,” declares the LORD, “for I am your husband. I will choose you — one from a town and two from a clan — and bring you to Zion” (Jer 3:14 NIV). The bride of Christ is also described as living stones and a spiritual house. “As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones , are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame” (1 Peter 2:4-6 NIV). Paul writes to the church at Ephesus and said to them, “you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building (the bride), being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22). Therefore the Holy City in Revelation is the dwelling place of the bride of Christ not the bride herself. The city is the home of the bride and her bridegroom Jesus. Many think that the dwelling place of the bride or saved will dwell in heaven. Heaven is where the Bridegroom, Jesus, has prepared the chedar (consummation chamber), and earth is where she will live.
In Revelations 19:7&8, the bride or rather wife of Christ has made herself ready unlike a city which cannot make her self ready. The city, the New Jerusalem, is made by God; it was not made ready by itself. The bride however chooses to prepare herself for her Husband, Christ Jesus, and clothes herself with fine linen. The fine linen is defined as the “righteous acts of the saints”. “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.” And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb’” (Rev 19:7-9 NASB).
Upon His return, Christ descends back to earth with His bride to wage war with the devil. “And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war… And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses” (Rev 19:11&14 NASB). The army with Christ is His bride who has made herself ready and clothed herself in preparation for her wedding with “righteous acts”. Are you ready for your wedding day with the King of kings? If you have not really believed, you are being wed to Christ Jesus, you will not prepare yourself for a wedding? How then can you truly be ready? See Matthew 25: 1-13.
