(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better…and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see why)
Focus Question:
What is the “bride of Christ?”
Intro:
Have you ever been to a wedding where the father gave his daughter away (so to speak)? It’s nothing new…they did that in ancient Near Eastern culture, too.
New Testament segment:
You might remember that, relative to today’s focus question — what is the ‘bride of Christ’ — that said bride is the Church. But today in our NT reading we’ll hear a description that we don’t often remember, and in today’s Bottom Line segment I’ll wrap up with a couple other details that I hope will make your heart sing.
Passage: Revelation 21
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 67
Words: ~615
Did you catch that? The New Jerusalem is a gift to the Lamb, and if I’m reading this correctly, the people and the place are synonymous…
Old Testament segment:
Yesterday we read of God’s promise to deliver a permanent covenant of peace. But
Before the covenant of peace (34:25–31; 37:26–28) can become a reality and God’s permanent sanctuary can be rebuilt (chs. 40–48), God must destroy his enemies who live outside the promised land: Gog of Magog and all his hoards (38:2). Chs. 38–39 describe a major attack by Gog and his allies (38:4–6) on God’s restored people. The battle brings great peril to God’s people and upheavals in the natural world. Ezekiel predicts this army’s downfall at the Lord’s command (38:1–3, 7–13) with three prophecies (38:1–13, 14–23; 39:1–16).(1)
Passage: Ezekiel 38
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 23
Words: ~672
Wisdom segment:
Passage: Proverbs 29
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 27
Words: ~443
The bottom line:
What is the “bride of Christ?” In short, a metaphor for the church, which is all true believers in all of history…Jesus is husband, and we are his bride.
We see references in the OT, of course, repeatedly hearing of both God’s heart for his people and his angst at her cheating on him.
There are also a number of NT references to this…Paul in 2 Co talks about preparing her for the bridegroom (and is particularly concerned about her purity…the opposite of which is believing what he calls “another gospel”).
But a favorite of mine is in Ep 5 when
…the relationship between Christ and his church is compared to the relationship between a husband and wife. The image is taken from the common understanding of the husband-wife relationship in that part of the world. The church’s submission to Christ is compared with the wife’s submission to the husband, but the stress of the passage is on the role of the husband: he is to love her “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (v 25). Christ relates to the whole church on the basis of self-sacrificial love. Just as a husband is joined to his wife, with a mutual interdependence so intimate that they become one, so Christ and his church become one body (vv 28–33). As the man’s love for his wife intends her wholeness, so Christ’s love of the church intends her completeness (vv 25–27).(2)
And finally, then, as we heard today, she’s given the ultimate bling…washed and made purty by God’s own work, prepared to be in the most intimate of relationships, to know and be known face to face with her husband, once and for all time.
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(1) D. A. Carson, ed., NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 1470.
(2) Manfred T. Brauch, “Bride of Christ,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 381–382.