The Bride

The Bride

Jesus did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Before He sojourned on this earth, He always rejoiced before God’s face, having His delight in the sons of men. There were, without a doubt, myriads of an­gels and much that was beautiful on the other side, in eternity, which we cannot imagine; but nothing of all that could satisfy Jesus’ heart. His desire was toward the sons of men.

After God had created all things and saw that it was very good, He created the first man, Adam, whom He put into the garden in Eden to take care of it. We would think that Adam would have been content with his state, but this was not the case. God understood this better than Adam, therefore the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Gen. 2:18. “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and . . . He made [it] into a woman, and He brought her to the man.” Vs. 21-22. Then Adam said, “This is now [finally] bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh . . . .”

Adam had long felt this lack, therefore he said, “This is finally bone of my bones,” etc.

This is also true of the second Adam, who is Christ. He has a long­ing for His dearly purchased bride. This bride must be taken out from among the sons of men. He forsook His heavenly glory in order to win her; He went down to where His be­loved dwelled. Meanwhile, it was not enough for Him to come down; He still had to take flesh and blood upon Himself and be like us in all things in order to consecrate the way through the veil, that is, His flesh. On this way His bride was to walk in order to come to Him out of the corruptible into that which is incorruptible and eternal. Christ manifested faithful­ness when He sojourned on earth, and now His desire is that His bride will be just as faithful in the days of her flesh. In this way we become one flesh with Christ. This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Eph. 5:32. The man is to leave father and mother and be joined to his wife, and these two shall be one flesh. We shall not just receive of the Spirit of Christ, we must also be led by the Spirit to the extent that our body becomes a living and ac­ceptable sacrifice to God. The result is one flesh.

We are born from above of incor­ruptible seed by the Word of God which lives and abides forever; we are nourished and we grow by this same Word. At first we are children; after that we grow up to be a pure virgin for Christ. This pure virgin is to Christ what Eve was to Adam. This relation­ship, however, is heavenly, whereas our first parents were earthly. There are virgins without number—mean­ing, that there are those who have not grown to a mature age; Christ cannot woo any of them. The bride of Christ is that mature woman whose nature exudes godly love. She is lovesick. She cries out, “Sustain me with cakes of raisins, refresh me with apples.” Song of Sol. 2:5.

The bride does not think of pres­ents or of the abundance of rich meals during her time of espousal. Her thoughts and her care for herself have disappeared. The Bridegroom is her one desire. “My own vineyard I have not kept. Tell me, O you whom I love, where you feed your flock, where you make it rest at noon.” She does not open herself to just anyone. She is a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. She would rather suffer in the flesh than reveal her secrets to anyone but her Bridegroom. She is what she is: the ideal of everything a son of man, who, by the grace of God, has become a partaker of divine nature, can attain.