Bridegroom and His Bride
Jeanne Stewart,
The day of her wedding has arrived. Vibrant
voices are heard in advance of the jubilation as the place begins to fill with guests
assigned their proper places in anticipation of the bride. Adorned all in white
attire, every eye will be upon the bride as she ascends from her closet of
preparation. Her bridegroom quietly dresses, pondering the day’s events that
will change his course forever, bringing an excellence to the end of his
search. He descends from his chamber, beginning a lasting commitment of
faithfulness to the love of his life.
Weddings can be very beautiful occasions, as
each person speaks vows of love and faithfulness in expectation of, ‘…a future and a hope.’ (Jeremiah 29:11) They will grow
old together as true companions of God’s plan and purpose for marriage between
a man and a woman here on earth. But sad to say, many marriages will fail as
commitments waver and unions dissolve because of the way many hold to a selfish
view of love and marriage. Instead of God’s perfect plan of a covenant between two, these individuals strive to meet
the need of self instead of their
companion. They will go on searching the faces of strangers in an attempt to
meet an inward void in the heart God created for covenant relationship in Him.
Our Lord Jesus, (God’s Son) has many names throughout
the Word of God. One name of Jesus speaks of the intimacy in oneness of
covenant relationship with the church as His Bride: the Bridegroom.
All love comes from the One who is
love, as all life comes from the Giver of life. Our future hope of glory
impacts how we live each day in the present. Living mired in failures of our
past accomplishes nothing of spiritual value, so let us look into the heavenly
marriage between the Bridegroom and His Bride. He brings His Bride out of her
closet of the sin nature of earth to the perfection of heaven’s glory, without
spot or wrinkle. ‘For the Lord
Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel,
and with the trumpet of God.’ (1
Thessalonians 4:16) God’s great redemptive plan continues to move
forward through the ages, tearing down strongholds of sin that separate the
creation from its Creator. Jesus our Redeemer descended from heaven, died for all mankind’s sins, arose again to
ascend back to the Father in heaven. The principal delight of heaven is this: to
be with the Lord, to see Him, to worship Him, living with Him, and taking
pleasure in knowing His complete love and provision without end.
In today’s
culture many find it hard to understand the church as being the Bride of Christ because we have both men
and women in the congregation. When God (singular) said in Genesis chapter one,
‘Let Us (plural) make
man in Our (plural) image…’ we view this as
a reference to the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit. Then God proceeded to create man in His own image as male and female –
not a solitary individual, but two types united. While the woman type came
forth out of man, the two are nevertheless ‘one’ (Genesis 2:24).
What we distinguish in this typology is God as the Trinity of ‘one’, and the Bride as a community of a
family of people, His Church.
God created
everything from Himself, yet (wo)man
was, ‘…in Our image.’ So in the natural (physical), man and woman
replenish the earth after their kind; their children having both the mother’s
and father’s genes within. In the supernatural (spirit), the terms Bridegroom
and Bride then do not reflect the sexual need for replenishing the earth but a spiritual typology of birthing souls through the Church. We ‘…will greatly rejoice in the Lord, our soul
shall be joyful in our God; for He hath clothed us with the garments of
salvation, He hath covered us with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.’
(Isaiah 61:10)
With her
spiritual senses the Bride hears the
voice of her Bridegroom and sees His
tangible presence within a deeper understanding of her purity, and in her power
of His authority at work within the church, ‘…
as deep calls unto deep.’ (Psalm 42:7) But the Bride
has waited so long for His return that her wedding dress has begun to spot and
be blemished from the wait. The passion of first love’s desire for her
Bridegroom has become weak with all the activities of the wait. She needs
something more than “church as usual” to keep her, ‘…
looking for the One [she] loves.’ (Song of
Solomon 3:2) She must nurture her heart and spirit through the washing of His
Word to allow love to grow deeper. Otherwise she remains lukewarm and self
righteous, tolerating, and even cherishing, the world’s values first in her
heart and then in her lifestyle. To love her Bridegroom is to believe and trust
Him through all the difficulties of the wait. If His Bride does not seek daily
the understanding of hidden spiritual truths which keep her watching for her
Bridegroom, she will become as a widow, dull and devoid of her First Love
(Jesus). “So,
Beloved, since you are expecting these things, be eager to be found by Him at
His coming without spot or blemish and at peace in serene confidence, free from
fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts.” (2 Peter 3:14)
The Bride, (the
Church) must be strong within her relationships, bringing restoration life in
the Spirit to congregations, communities, and nations of this lost world. Yes,
it is the Bride that births revival. Revival begins within each heart that
longs and, ‘… seeks for the One [they] love.’ (Song of Solomon 3:2) Gathering
together in corporate worship, we seek His face (presence). As His presence
descends in power and provision to meet all our needs here on earth, as we wait
for His promised return, we will one day see as John did in Revelation 21:2, ‘…the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.’
The Spirit alone
does not issue the invitation of Revelation 22:17. The Church also speaks: “…and the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!” And
let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires
let him take the water of life freely.” Moving and working together, we should be the
Church that is waiting in patience and perseverance as we anticipate His return
for His Bride. We have the excellent example of the faithful church of
Philadelphia in Revelation 3:7-13 as Jesus said, “… I know your
works … for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied
My name … because you have kept My command to persevere … he who overcomes, I
will make him a pillar in the temple of My God … he who has an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Having our spiritual eyes and ears open as
we build the Kingdom of God, He moves in the Church through revival. Watching
and alive in the Spirit, we listen and then speak forth, for our flesh cannot
comprehend spiritual matters alone. Joining together in unity, we speak the
truth of the Bridegroom in the excellence of the gospel of Christ Jesus before
His second coming.
We seek the face
of our First Love through our worship unto Him, just as Jesus stated in John 4:23-24: ‘A time will come, however, indeed it is
already here, when the true (genuine) worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and in truth (reality); for the Father is seeking just such people as
these as His worshipers. God is a Spirit (a spiritual Being) and those who
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality).”
Let us think
about this portion of the High Priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus: ‘…neither for these alone do I pray… it is not
for their sake only that I make this request, but also for all those who will
ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word and
teaching, that they all may be one, just as You, Father, are in Me and I in
You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be
convinced that You have sent Me.’ (John
17:20-21) Let us remember His cross, His body to which we have been called,
and His blood that has redeemed us through repentance and the washing of His
word.
The day of our
catching away is near and our Bridegroom will come in a cloud with great
overwhelming power and glory clothed in majesty and splendor. We His Bride,
adorned all in white without spot or wrinkle, will ascend to meet our
Bridegroom in the clouds, bringing an end to the long wait. It will be the
consummation of our eternal commitment of faithfulness to the love of our life,
as the Bridegroom and His Bride take
up residence on One Golden Street –
Heaven.
