What is the church? The Bride of Christ.
We’re in our fourth week of the “What is the church?” series, with this week looking at the church as the “bride of Christ.” The idea of the church being the bride of Christ follows along with the Old Testament idea that the Israelites were the people of God, and often referred to using marriage language, even calling them adulterous when they were not faithful to Yahweh and His laws.
Jesus drew on this idea in His parables, such as Matthew 25:1-13, saying the Kingdom of Heaven is like people in a wedding party waiting for a groom to come for his wife. In Ephesians 5:25-32, Paul uses that idea when telling husbands how to treat their wives, pointing to the Gospel imagery of Christ loving the church, His bride.
Ephesians 5:25-30
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.”
Seeing the Gospel message through a holy, loving marriage union is a beautiful picture, consistently used throughout scripture referring to how God loves and saves His people, and not just to rescue us, but to cleanse and reconcile us to Himself. That is what Jesus the Messiah accomplished on the cross, dying to pay the price for our sin, washing away our impurities by His own blood, preparing us as the church to be presented to Himself upon His return (think back to that parable in Matt. 25:1-13). John continues this into the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation.
'Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” '
*From Full of Eyes - Exegetical Art
The good news of the Gospel is that all who have repented and turned to Christ in faith are the Church, the Bride of Christ. The Bottom Line from Nick’s sermon this last week was “As the Bride of Christ we are being made into the radiant, perfect bride that Jesus says we are.” This is a fact the Church is reminded of and celebrates regularly in Communion, or the Lord’s Supper. As we celebrate that together, as the Church has done for thousands of generations around the world, we’re reminded, by the bread and the cup, of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sin, redeeming us and washing us clean by His own body and blood. As the holy and redeemed Bride of Christ, let us grow in unity, godliness, and purity as we await the return of the Lord Jesus.