Is The Body Of Christ The Lamb's Wife?

[Ronald David Bruno]

So, a simile and a metaphor are the same?

Not a simile, a metaphor. Our relationship with Christ is described as a metaphor of marriage, with Christ as the bridegroom and the Church as the bride. It's a metaphorical, spiritual union rather than a literal union where 3-4 billion souls walk down the Church aisle and meet Christ at the pulpit, we all say our vows, pledge our eternal love and vows in unison, a priest declares us husband and wife and Christ puts rings on all our fingers.

 

[Big Boy Johnson]

So, a simile and a metaphor are the same?

Only when it's a euphemism for something

 

[ScottA]

We do NOT come out of Christ. We are IN Christ, His Body.

No (that is not what I meant). But rather that Christ came out of God, as did we also, as the descendants Eve.

Yet, by believing in Him, that He is the Son of God and our salvation, the promise of eternal life, is that He and the Father enter into us and we in Him becoming One as they are One (as foreshadowed in marriage). "Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming" (1 Corinthians 15:23).

 

[Marilyn C]

No (that is not what I meant). But rather that Christ came out of God, as did we also, as the descendants Eve.

Yet, by believing in Him, that He is the Son of God and our salvation, the promise of eternal life, is that He and the Father enter into us and we in Him becoming One as they are One (as foreshadowed in marriage). "Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming" (1 Corinthians 15:23).

So Scott,

What do these scriptures mean to you?

`...so as to create one New Man...` (Eph. 2: 15)

`...till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect Man...` (Eph. 4: 13)

`...and that you put on the New Man...` (Eph. 4: 24)

 

[ScottA]

So Scott,

What do these scriptures mean to you?

`...so as to create one New Man...` (Eph. 2: 15)

`...till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect Man...` (Eph. 4: 13)

`...and that you put on the New Man...` (Eph. 4: 24)

Much of scripture straddles the line (the divide) between heaven and earth. Meaning, for instance, "a man" may refer to role appointed to men of the specific image of God, or alternatively, simply to mankind or a man of flesh and blood born of a women. Such is the confusion placed upon all language, that must be rightly divided and spiritually discerned.

In the case of those scriptures you gave above, they speak specifically to the transition between the two. Meaning, its speaks of mankind apart from God becoming "new" as transformed to be as God, of God, in God.

 

[Scott Downey]

Much of scripture straddles the line (the divide) between heaven and earth. Meaning, for instance, "a man" may refer to role appointed to men of the specific image of God, or alternatively, simply to mankind or a man of flesh and blood born of a women. Such is the confusion placed upon all language, that must be rightly divided and spiritually discerned.

In the case of those scriptures you gave above, they speak specifically to the transition between the two. Meaning, its speaks of mankind apart from God becoming "new" as transformed to be as God, of God, in God.

For saved men, this can be finetuned to be made in the image of Christ, who is in the visible image of the invisible God.


Romans 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

1 Corinthians 15:49
And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Colossians 1:15
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Hebrews 1
God, who [a]at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the [b]worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had [c]by Himself [d]purged [e]our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

 

[Scott Downey]

This joining as one as in a marriage speaks of an intense intimacy of Christ and His church, of God and His people, of an indivisible relationship of love, that the two become like one.

1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.


Ephesians 5
30 For we are members of His body, [h]of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Psalm 139

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
3 You [a]comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.

5 You have [b]hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in [c]hell, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall [d]fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
12 Indeed, the darkness [e]shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

13 For You formed my inward parts;
You [f]covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for [g]I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15 My [h]frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.

19 Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
Depart from me, therefore, you [i]bloodthirsty men.
20 For they speak against You wickedly;
[j]Your enemies take Your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
22 I hate them with [k]perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

 

[Scott Downey]

Our bodies are made of the dust of the earth.
Our new glorified bodies will bear the image of the heavenly man.
We are given an eternal enduring life of the same nature of God.
That is what it means to be spiritually born again of God, that you may be partakers of the divine nature.

2 Peter 1:4
by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Psalm 139
15 My [h]frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Genesis 3:19
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

 

[Davy]

New Jerusalem is the actual Bride of Christ, as Revelation 21 does reveal.

Just because there exists New Testament language that 'uses' the concept of marriage, betrothal, etc., still does not supplant the Church as being that Bride of Rev.21.

Per Matthew 9, we, Christ's Church, represent the "children of the bridechamber", not the bride.

The parable of the ten virgins is about the virgins who attend the wedding feast, but they are not the bride.

When Apostle Paul in 2 Cor.11 referred to Christ's faithful Church needs to remain as a "chaste virgin" waiting on Christ, that is indeed symbolic of betrothal in marriage. Yet the reason Paul gave that, which was from Isaiah 54, is to show the difference between those who become spiritual harlots not waiting for Jesus, but instead fall away to worship another in His place, and thus not remaining chaste virgins. That still does not mean the Church is the bride.

In Ezekiel 16, God showed about Jerusalem when it was originally owned by pagan Jebusites. Then God took Jerusalem and married her. But then Jerusalem fell to idol worship and became a spiritual harlot He said. And in Isaiah 54 where Paul quoted from about God being our true Husband, Jerusalem is included in that there.

Thus the Church is treated LIKE a bride in some Biblical analogies, but the real Bride is the New Jerusalem.

One of the dangers that some really take this too far with, is with pushing men's doctrines of a pre-trib rapture, trying to apply the Jewish wedding feast, yet they apply it wrongly. Remember per Matt.9, we Christ's Church represents the "children of the bridechamber", the virgins, and NOT the bride.