Five Insights The ‘bride Of Christ’ Analogy Gives

- Beautiful but opaque analogy of the church as the bride of Christ. What does that mean?

- That nature and frequency of analogies in the Bible.

- The Bible often uses similar analogies as word pictures of who we are. A few examples:

a. The branch.

- In John 15 Jesus refers to Himself as the vine and us as the branch. Of course, we are not literally a branch, but it’s a picture of the fact that all of our sustenance and power to bear fruit must flow through Jesus.

b. A stone.

- In Ephesians 2 Paul speaks of the church as a composed of many individual stones, with each of us representing a stone.

c. The body.

- In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul speaks of the church as a body, with each Christian making up the parts of that body.

- Now, obviously, you and I are not a branch, a stone, or a body part, but each analogy helps us to understand who we are in Christ and what God is doing in the world.

- So let’s consider the image of the “bride of Christ” and what we can learn from it. There is more here than one sermon can ably handle, but I will limit myself to six of the more substantive ideas from the Bible from this analogy.

- Even within the key “bride of Christ” passage in Ephesians 5, within the passage itself Paul switches from the “bride/groom” analogy to the body” analogy in vv. 29-30.

FIVE INSIGHTS THE "BRIDE OF CHRIST" ANALOGY GIVES:

1. As a husband and wife are one physically, we are being made into beings who are one with Christ spiritually.

- 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:22-32.

- In the Ephesians 5 passage, it quotes in v. 31 the passage from Genesis about the husband and wife leaving their parents and the two becoming one flesh. Paul then goes on to say that this is a profound mystery, but that he is referring to Christ and the church (v. 32).

- What is he getting at there? The most obvious answer is that marriage now is (among many other things) a metaphor for the relationship that Christ and the church will have in the world to come. Just as a husband and wife are one physically, so we will one spiritually with Christ.

- How could this happen? We are horribly sinful beings. It requires an understanding of the extent of the salvation that Christ has brought to us. He does not merely intend to forgive us of our sin but leave us hobbled by our condition. No, He not only forgives us but He begins the extraordinary process of transforming us. We will become beings who are able to perfectly and joyfully obey Christ in all things. This is the power of His redemption and transformation.

- And, so, in the world to come, we will be able to live fully in tune with Christ’s vision, desires, and heart. Or, to put it another way, we will be one with Him spiritually.

- The physical unity within marriage is this world’s most beautiful picture of two becoming one. It is an analogy of what Christ intends to do spiritually with us.

2. Our home will be with Him.

- Revelation 21:2, 9.

- One of the more perplexing things about the bride of Christ analogy is that in most places the church is referred to as the bride of Christ, but in Revelation 21 we see the New Jerusalem referred to as the bride of Christ.

- I have not read an explanation of this that fully satisfies me, but the best thought I have on this is that it speaks to the close relationship between the redeemed saints and the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21 makes it clear that the New Jerusalem will be home for the saints and that Christ will dwell there as well.

- Again, to return to the “bride of Christ” analogy, when we think of a married couple beginning their new life together, it almost always includes “setting up house.” They get an apartment or a home and create a home together.

- Here too we see an analogy to what Christ and His “bride” will do. After Final Judgment in Revelation 20, we see the culmination of redemption in the final two chapters of the Bible in the creation of a new heaven, new earth, and New Jerusalem. This is, to put it the language we are using, a new “home.”

3. We need to grasp that we are Christ’s beloved.

- John 3:29; Ephesians 5:22-32.

- It is easy to think of Christ as putting up with us. We needed rescued and so He did that for us out of a sense of obligation. He was the only One who could pull it off, so He showed up and bailed us out.