What does it mean that the church is the bride of Christ?

As the Bride of the Lamb, the Church is viewed as wholly for Christ the object of His love, and care, and delight. It is this aspect of the Church that we desire briefly to consider. It is an aspect of the Church that, in a special way, brings into display the love of Christ, and for this reason appeals very directly to our hearts.

There is no more intimate relationship than that of a bridegroom and a bride. Hence the perfect suitability of these figures to set forth the love of Christ for His Church. Briefly we may say that the Spirit of God has used this most intimate of all relationships to set forth, First, the Church as the object of Christ's love, care, and delight. Second, that in the Church there will be an object suited for Christ to love. Third, that in the Church there will be found a companion suited to share with Christ the coming glories of His reign. All that the Bridegroom inherits the Bride will inherit. The sharer of His sufferings in the day of His rejection, she will be the sharer of His throne in the day of His glory. When Christ reigns over the wide earth she will reign with Him.

Husbands are not exhorted to rule, that not being a point where they are so likely to fail*, but to love. The wives are not addressed in this way: love with them is not so likely to be weak as submission. And what is set before the husband? "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it." This, when understood, lifts us above merely natural ground: divine love is our heavenly pattern. It is profitable to notice the different ways in which divine love is spoken of in the scriptures. In John's Gospel (John 3) we get God's love to the world, in John's epistle (1 John 3) the Father's love to the family. Here it is neither, but Christ's love to the church. It was that on which He set His heart when in the depths as the costly pearl: He would have her for His own, to share His throne and glory, to be the object of His affection for ever. To acquire her, He must give Himself (for the question of sin was there): could even divine love do more? He held not back even from the cross, for the joy that was set before Him; a part, at least, of which was to have the church as His own — His body and His bride.

The subject is expanded in dealing with the other side. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it might be holy and without blemish." (vv. 25‑27.) Here, though natural affection is owned, a far higher order of love is brought in, so that the earthly relationship is re‑cast, as it were, in a heavenly mould. The past, present, and future love of Christ to the Church are all made to bear on the duty of the husband to his wife. And how beautiful the unfolding of this love is! Christ loved the Church — not only saints, but the Church — and gave Himself for it. It was the "pearl of great price" for which He sold all that He had. Now He watches over it, cleansing it from defilement by the application of His word. Soon He will present it to Himself in His own beauty, "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband," the object of His own eternal delight.

164 The first thing of all is His own unmotived love. "He loved the church," perfectly, divinely, infinitely; we here find the utterness of His love. "He gave himself." He did not only do something for it: "He gave himself!" And this is constantly repeated in the word; it is even said that "He gave himself for our sins," our sins being that which was in the way between us and God. As I look at Christ's love, I see that it had no motive but in itself, and it gives itself: nothing is held back. He is wholly and altogether mine; He has given Himself, and all is lumped up in that. The self-sacrifice of Christ was absolute: it was Himself, all He is, and all He was in His perfection. The whole motive of His nature was engaged in it: "He gave himself." And this is a wonderful thought, if our hearts could only get hold of it. It is not that He gave His blood, and gave His life, though that is true, and we may speak of it distinctively, for Scripture does; but the point here is the character of His love; so it says, "He gave himself." The motive was self-giving.

Let us remember that He did not first make the church worthy to be loved, then love it and give Himself for it. He loved it as it was, then gave Himself for it, and now works to make it suitable to Himself. God acted very blessedly on the same principle in regard to Israel. Jehovah could say to Israel, “I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood … thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness … and entered into a covenant with thee … I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck … and a beautiful crown upon thine head … thou wast exceeding beautiful … thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee” (Ezek. 16:6-14). Israel's time of need was God's time of love. So Christ loved the church in all its deep need, and gave Himself for it; then, having possessed it, He cleanses it and makes it suitable to Himself. We are not satisfied if someone we love is not to our liking, and Christ will never be satisfied until the church is perfectly suited to Him.

The Spirit of God uses the relationship of husband and wife in Ephesians 5 to illustrate the relationship of Christ to His church. Nay further, it is not that the relationship of husband and wife is a convenient illustration, but it is clear from Ephesians 5 that that marriage relationship was modelled on what God had in His mind, the relationship of Christ and the church. That is to say the relationship of Christ and His church was in the Divine mind in the counsels of eternity, and in time the relationship of husband and wife was instituted. So we find Ephesians 5:30 re-echoing the words of Genesis 2:23, which we just quoted, putting them in an infinitely higher and eternal connection, “For we are members of His [Christ’s] body, of His flesh, and of His bones … This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Eph. 5:30, 32).

And here the order of creation is brought in, and made to blend, as it were, with that love of Christ of which it furnishes so beautiful a type. "So ought men to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth Himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church: for we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh." (v. 28-31.) The peculiar mode of Eve's creation out of Adam both gives marriage a special sanctity, so that the wife is to be cherished as a part of the husband's own being, and furnishes an exquisite type of Christ's relationship with the Church. As Adam was not complete without Eve, so Christ, though Head over all, is not complete without the Church, "the fulness [completion] of Him that filleth all in all." As Adam fell into a deep sleep, so Christ went into death. As Eve was formed out of Adam, so the Church is quickened with Christ, and has His own life. As Adam acknowledged Eve to be bone of His bone and flesh of his flesh, so does Christ acknowledge the Church. As Adam was bound to care for and cleave to the woman thus formed out of himself, so Christ delights in nourishing and cherishing the Church which is His own body. How wonderfully all that belongs to this divinely-instituted relationship is raised by being thus linked up with the tender, watchful love of Christ over the Church!

Verse 31. "For this cause shall a man leave," etc. This view of the mystery of Christ is now completed by a reference to the primal institution of the marriage state, which is here presented by the Spirit as a type of the spiritual blessedness of the second Adam and His ransomed bride. The connexion in which the Apostle's quotation stands with his previous doctrine is quite clear. It was when Adam had accepted Eve as God's crowning gift, recognizing in her not only her Creator's fairest handiwork, but also his own flesh, that the Divine sanction of the marriage bond was formally pronounced: "For this cause," etc. The original mystery of creative power should thus be had in a perpetual remembrance by the institution of a relation in which divided being became, in name and interest, and close affection, one. Marriage begins a new estate. Father and mother are to be loved and honoured still, but relied on no longer as protectors. The man departs from his state of filial dependence to become himself the head of a new house. Now the espousals of the first man, Adam, was the type of the joy of Him who was to come. The woman whom the Lord God built up out of the man's substance, to be a help meet for him, was a shadow of her whom Christ now owns and cherishes as Himself. A little meditation on the end and order of this paradisaical marriage will bring out into still richer and clearer distinctness the marvellous blessedness of this calling of the Church.

Verse 32. "This mystery is great," etc. The emphasis of the Apostle's language is very remarkable. Although the mysteries of God are the subject of His stewardship, the only other instance in which he speaks of a great mystery is when, under the comprehensive title of the "mystery of godliness," he describes the incarnation of the Living One and its effects, as the truth of which the Church of God is the pillar and the ground. All that relates to the mystery of godliness is great; for in contemplating it, we look upon God manifest in the flesh. He who can be found out by no search reveals thus to His people the treasures of His grace and truth. And only less great than that first wonder of the personal assumption of our flesh by the Son of God is this mystery which declares the Church to be the acceptable spouse of Christ. Less wonderful, though full of glory, was the eternal purpose that He should become, in the effectual power of redemption, the Dispenser of manifold blessings to a reconciled creation. But that, by the power of the Holy Ghost, there should be prepared a Church, while Christ, the second Adam, still hides Himself in Heaven, and is, as it were, the dormant Holder of the title to universal lordship, which Church is owned by Him in spirit as the Bride of His election and the destined sharer of His throne, when He shall awake as a strong man out of sleep, and shall come forth to assume in power irresistible the dominion which He has received, is a mystery which we may well call great.

Verse 33. It is concerning Christ and the Church that the Apostle speaks, when he magnifies the mystery of wedded union. But of this great mystery the married life of saints should be, in some sort a reflection. While the spiritual consummation is but a hope, the believing acknowledgment that such a relationship subsists is to regulate the feelings with which the Christian man or wife is to regard the merely natural connexion. To love from principle, and in the power of faith, is something different from obeying a natural instinct. Passion may lead to the forming of a contract, which spiritual devoteduess must afterwards maintain. Hence reverence and love, which are the necessary pillars of true matrimonial peace, are here enjoined as duties, rather than relied on as things natural and inherent in the relationship described. Doubtless, a marriage without genuine affection would be no true reflex of the love of Jesus to His spouse. What is taught us here, however, is that, among Christians, Christ is to be the one governing and regulating principle of every relationship which a member of His mystic body may be called upon to fill.

But once again the scene changes from earth to heaven, and in chapter nineteen we are permitted to see fresh glories of the Lamb. On earth that vile system which had so long borne the name of the Lamb, and so long denied the character of the Lamb, has at last been judged, and heaven rejoices over its destruction. But the destruction of the false professing church on earth makes way for the presentation to Christ in glory of the true church. The judgment of the great whore leads to the marriage of the Lamb. In this great scene there passes before us the bride, the Lamb's wife (Rev. 19:7 and Rev. 21:9), the marriage of the Lamb (7), and the supper of the Lamb (9). The bride presents the church as the object of Christ's intimate love. As such He loved it and gave Himself for it. As such He has in tender love nourished it and cherished it all the days of the wilderness journey. Weak, failing, persecuted, scattered and broken as the church may be, yet never has it ceased to be the object of His love and affection. Through flood and flame and persecution Christ has brought His bride, ever having in view the great day of the marriage of the Lamb; for espousals, however sweet to the affections, will not satisfy the heart. The intimacy of love between the bride and the Lamb is precious, but love is not content without the possession of its loved object. And while the bride speaks indeed of love, the marriage speaks of the possession of the object of love. Says the Apostle, "I have espoused you to one husband ": but with what end in view?" That I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2). The espousals have in view the presentation — the day of the marriage of the Lamb. The love that has borne with the church in its wilderness journey, that has sanctified and cleansed it, has held on its way in view of the marriage of the Lamb. Having loved His own which were in the world He loved them to the end, and that end, "that He might present it to Himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." And when the marriage takes place the supper will begin. If the bride speaks of the intimacy of love, and the marriage of the possession of the object of love, the supper of the Lamb proclaims the delight and joy with which heaven will celebrate the marriage of the Lamb.