Exactly Who Is The Bride of Christ?

Gary :

You’re listening to a special edition of Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call.   Still ahead, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in-depth study of the doctrine of salvation.   Please stay with us.   We return now to our program series from 2000 and:

CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH

In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call .   Here’s this week’s question:   “I started a study on the Bride of Christ and am very bothered as to why Christians use the term.   Since the primary example of the Church is the body of Christ, how can the Lord’s very own body be feminine when He is masculine?   To be fair, how could a person not steeped in religious tradition ever get the idea that we are Christ’s Bride?

            Tom:

Well, you get it from the Scriptures, don’t you, Dave?

            Dave:

Well, that’s where I get it.   Tom, why don’t you tell us?

            Tom:

Okay.   Well, if the Church is not the Bride and thus the wife of Christ, then who is?   I mean, to whom, if not to the Church, do the verses, you know, the following verses really refer?   “For the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready.”   That’s Rev:19:7Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.,

            Dave:

Who would that be?   That’s not the church.

            Tom:

Right.   And the Spirit and the Bride say come; surely I come quickly.

            Dave:

To say that, you know, that because we are also called the body of Christ and that therefore we couldn’t be the Bride because that would mean Christ would have a feminine body.   We’re called the body of Christ and he’s the head and we’re the body.   On the other hand, we’re not all feminine, are we?   So, this is an analogy that is being used.

            Tom:

Or a metaphor.

            Dave:

Christ loved the church.   Husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.   So, you can’t put it in strict terms.   Definitely, we have this love relationship.   He bought us with his blood and we are his Bride.   This is what it says.

            Tom:

Right.   You know, John the Baptist said of Christ:   He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom, John:3:29He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled..   Who else could this be talking about?

            Dave:

I don’t know who it could be, Tom.   It’s not Israel , although in a sense, Israel was spoken of in the Old Testament as the Bride of God.   I have espoused you unto me as a chaste virgin, the Lord said.   And you have rebelled and you have been unfaithful and so forth so we have that metaphor—

            Tom:

What about John 14?

            Dave:

In my Father’s house are many mansions?

            Tom:

Yes.   In other words, I mean, isn’t this an analogy?

            Dave:

Yes, right.   Because the groom used to bring the bride, you know, in the old days in the Jewish religion, Jewish custom would bring his bride to the father’s house.   He would build something there.   We’re going to be with Him in heaven, that where I will come again and receive to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.   We are going to be with Him; we will be like Him.   I don’t know why this particular person had an objection to the Church being called the Bride of Christ.   I guess it shows how we can get kind of hung up on certain prejudices but this is what the Bible teaches.

            Tom:

Right.   I mean, we have Rom:12:5So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another., 1 Cor:12:27Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular., Eph:4:12For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:, Col:1:15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:.   Dave, I want to go over Eph:5:23-25 [23] For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
[24] Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
[25] Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
.   Right there:   “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church:   and he is the savior of the body.   Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.   Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.”   Isn’t this really a reference to the Bride?

            Dave:

It sounds like what a husband should be to his wife, the example is given to us in Christ and his relationship to the church.   So here again, although it doesn’t use the word, it doesn’t use the term that the church is the Bride of Christ, the analogy is certainly there.   I don’t understand, again, as I said, I don’t understand the objection but sometimes people like to split hairs and they have a pet peeve or a pet doctrine or pet idea and are not even willing to be corrected from the Scriptures.   But I do not see how you could come to any other conclusion from reading the Scriptures and others that we didn’t read than this, that the church is the Bride of Christ.