The Great Mystery: The Church Is The Bride Of Christ Series

The Great Mystery: the Church is the Bride of Christ (Eph. 5:25-32)

Human sexuality with all its extraordinary complexity, romantic mystery, and reproductive miracles is totally unexplainable by any of the theories of evolution. So why does this scientifically inexplicable marvel of human sexuality exist? Because Human sexuality, male and female differences, & marriage are part of an extraordinary eternal plan of God. Our omniscient God prepared for & performed the first wedding in the Garden of Eden with an infinitely greater purpose in mind (Gen. 2:21-25). He designed every detail to be a Prophetic Type of our redemption from sin by Jesus Christ. Sexuality & marriage illustrates God’s love & purpose for His Church. Redemption History is a progressive revelation of the greatest love story ever! Throughout the Bible the pieces of this profound love affair slowly fall into place until the puzzle is complete & the glorious picture fully revealed in the climax of history in the Book of Revelation 19:6-9. The wedding of King Jesus is found in Psalm 45.

Ephesians 5:25-33 is the first full revelation of this great mystery:

“For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. (31) 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. (32) This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Eph 5:30-32)

The union between Christ & his people is sometimes explained of a mere feeling of love, or a simple spiritual union as opposed to a real living vital union. But a mere union of feeling & love is far beneath the truth revealed by these divinely designed Prophetic Types. There is a real, intimate, vital union between Christ & his people that no one else can ever experience. Christ is said to be “in them,” and they are “in him.” (John 14:20; 15:4). It is even likened to the sacred union between God the Father & the Son (John 17:20-23)! This vital union between Christ & His people is formed by the omnipresent Holy Spirit’s union with Christ & every member of His mystical body (1Cor. 6:17; 12:13).

This is not a simple metaphor but an amazing Prophetic Type. A metaphor is “a figure of speech, based on some resemblance of a literal to an implied subject. "That man is a fox," is a metaphor. It means a man is as crafty as a fox. A Type is “a shadow, cast by Divine design, of good things to come” & not the very image of the things (Heb. 10:1). In other words the Type is just a temporary shadow compared to the eternal “body” (or substance) it reveals (Col. 2:16-17). The hundreds of types found throughout the OT and fulfilled in the NT are an infallible proof of the Divine Design of all Scripture. There is absolutely no natural explanation for these supernatural phenomena which is unique to God’s Word, the Bible! The Bible is supernaturally inspired by Almighty God!

God invented romance & pursuit & the promise of undying love between a man & a woman so that throughout our lives we could catch a faint glimmer of the intense love Christ has for those He died to save. What passion Jesus has for His Church. You have heard and seen faint echoes [shadows] of Christ’s amazing love for us in every great love story you have ever witnessed. Every faithful & loving marriage has pointed to it. Each is an imperfect echo of the perfect love song of heaven (Josh Harris)

THE GREAT MYSTERY: THE ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC LOVE

This mystery opens up many beautiful prophetic types in the O. T. that prefigure our Lord Jesus & His mainly Gentile Bride. This Romance of the ages originated in the heart of God in eternity (Eph. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9) and thus is hidden in many of the great love stories of the O. T.

Adam (the head of the human race) – his bride is a part of himself, formed from a rib of His pierced side (Gen. 2:18, 21-24). Jesus is the “Last Adam” (I Cor. 15:45) and the Church, His Bride comes out of the wounded side of Christ on the cross, after being put into a supernatural deep sleep. Just as the Church is both the Body and Bride of Christ, so Eve was the body of Adam before she was his Bride.

Isaac (was a child of promise who passed through a death and resurrection). His bride is Rebekah. Rebekah falls in love with the Son, whom she has never seen, through the testimony of the unnamed servant (Gen. 24:34-38, 50-51, 58). [The unnamed servant is a type of the Holy Spirit]. Isaac’s Father sent the servant to get the Bride. The church falls in love with Jesus before she actually sees Him, through the testimony of the unnamed Servant (I Pet. 1:8; Eph. 1:17; John 16:13-15). Rebekah is the "called out" Gentile virgin bride who must choose of her own free to be the wife of “The Son of Promise” (Gen. 24:15-17, 58. 61).