The Bride of Christ

Some Bible concepts require a sincere seeker to step outside himself to get a full understanding. What I mean is that it is necessary to put oneself in another’s shoes to see what the Scripture is teaching. Jesus regularly used parables to allow His audience to glimpse the truth He intended to reveal. One can feel the remorse of the prodigal son or the joy of his father by imagining being in their place. With this and many other parables, it is easy to live the story vicariously and learn the lesson. Walk a mile in another’s shoes, and you will better understand him.

Some other shoes are harder to slip into. One of the most difficult biblical concepts for me to get my head around is our identity as the bride of Christ. I think I am more “in touch with my feminine side” than many men. Perhaps that is due to growing up with a mostly absent father in a house of five females. It was like what Jeff Foxworthy described as living in an estrogen ocean. I’m not bragging that I understand women. Uh-uh. But I think maybe I live somewhere between Venus and Mars, so I catch a glimpse of what it is to be a woman. But I can’t say I fully appreciate what it means to be a bride.

It helps me to get closer to what it means to be Jesus’ bride when I study the marriage traditions of first century Judaism. Typically, young women were married soon after reaching puberty. Many marriages were arranged when the girl was quite young or even before she was born. This parallels our being chosen to belong to Christ before the foundation of the earth. It is our destiny.

There is another aspect to Jewish marriage traditions that is quite interesting. At some point after the marriage was arranged, the couple was betrothed to one another. This is not the same as our modern practice of engagements. The modern engagement is mostly a statement of intention. The lives of the couple go on pretty much as they did before, assuming we’re not talking about the too common practice of pre-marital cohabitation. First century Jews were considered married, essentially, after the betrothal. The husband prepared a home for them. Inheritance rights attached, and they began sharing life together on a limited basis – without conjugal relations. This often lasted for a year or more; after that, the wedding took place, and the woman moved into the home her husband had prepared.

I think a believer is “betrothed” to Christ at baptism. We are His and He is ours, but we are not yet fully cohabiting – that waits for His return for us. Paul says specifically that we have inheritance rights already. We also know that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us, much as the betrothed Jewish husband would do for his bride. He would often build a home specifically for them or at least add rooms to his family home. Jesus said He was leaving His disciples so He could prepare a place for them. “In my Father’s house are many rooms,” Jesus told His disciples. Then He promised to return to take them to the home He had prepared for them.

During the Jewish betrothal period, the couple would send invitations for the wedding feast to friends and family. Given travel and communication conditions of the first century, it was necessary to give plenty of notice so that everything could be arranged. One of the necessary preparations was to obtain the proper wedding attire. Sometimes, the groom would provide his guests with what they would wear, but commonly, they had to make or buy their festival robes. When the wedding date was near, a second invitation was sent detailing the exact time and place of the wedding. (For more see “Many Called; Few Chosen”)

The Scripture says that we have been clothed with Christ’s righteousness, so our wedding attire is provided. Paul told the Ephesians that God had predestined believers to be joined to His family. Keeping with the metaphor, we are in the family of God by marriage. Our betrothal at our baptism is also our invitation to the wedding.  It is our responsibility now to be ready for the final invitation to the feast. The analogy breaks down somewhat since we are both guests at the wedding and the bride to be wed. It helps me to see the church corporately as the bride, while individually, we are guests as if we are close – very close – relatives of the bride.

Now I am going to mix two metaphors. Normally, it is not sensible to do that, but in this case it works. The church is often referred to as Christ’s body. As the bride of Christ, the church will one day be joined with Christ and become one with Him. In a human marriage, the husband and wife become one flesh. That is a picture of what will happen when the bride-church and the Groom-Christ are united. Paul hints at this mystery when he says that the relationship between husband and wife mirrors Christ and His church.

“For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as also Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. (This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.)”

So, you can see that Paul is the one mixing the two metaphors. We can also say that as our baptism unites us with Christ in His death, our baptism also betroths us to Him as His bride. This pair of metaphors underscores the truth that we are bound to become one with Christ. Paul told the Romans, “If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.” And we will live with Him as Husband and wife.

That brings me back to that awkwardness of me as a man being a wife. I note that it won’t be until after our resurrection that we become fully one with Christ. At that point, I don’t think maleness and femaleness will have the same distinctions as they do now. When the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus with a question about marriage relationships after the resurrection, He told them, “In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.” While it is true that throughout Scripture, angels are portrayed as male, I strongly suspect that is a concession to our limited human understanding of all things spiritual. I don’t believe the spiritual bodies we get after the resurrection have biological gender traits – like the angels.

There you have it. If you can follow all my mixed metaphors and attempts to explain things I don’t fully understand, you can see that I have forced myself to become comfortable with the idea that I am a bride. The feminine side of me (that I am supposedly in touch with) can get very excited about the coming wedding. I know the ladies understand. What about you, men? We should all be excited about what’s in store for us as the Bride of Christ.

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