In 2 Cor. 11:2 Paul tells the members of the ecclesia at Corinth that he has espoused them to one husband, that he might at last present them as a chaste virgin to Christ. An espousal, or a betrothal, is the same as an engagement. The literal truth expressed by Paul’s statement is the hope that he and his brethren may be acceptable to Christ at the judgment, and that they may be clothed with immortality to reign over the nations with Christ.
We are the prospective bride of Christ. We were drawn to Christ by the great love which he demonstrated —the love of the Father, shown for us in giving as a sacrifice His only-begotten Son. We decided to accept Christ’s teachings when we saw that nothing else the world has to offer can compare with the promises he has given us. We became formally engaged to Christ when we publicly announced our belief in the gospel he preached and put on his name by baptism. We are now the property of Christ, to do with as he chooses. We have ceased to be the “servants of sin”, and we have become instead the “servants of righteousness”, joyfully bearing the “yoke of Christ”.
It is quite instructive to consider why God chose marriage as a symbol for the final union of Christ and the true ecclesia. Why did God not simply use, as a symbol, a business agreement or a contract? The reason is simple: our hope of union with Christ far transcends such a figure. We cannot look upon our service to the Truth as a business. True, when we put on Christ we sincerely hope to gain something substantial from it. But our primary motivating factor must be love: “We love him because he first loved us.”
Too many marriages today are begun with each party hoping to gain something for himself or herself. A marriage should have as its basis a love for the partner, and a deep desire to take care of one another, to please one’s mate rather than oneself. This is the reason the institution of marriage has been chosen to illustrate our association with Christ. As the wife should be subject to the husband, so we should be completely submissive to Christ. And as the husband should love and cherish his wife, so Christ loves us with the greatest love imaginable.
At our baptism, we acknowledged our espousal to Christ. Let us consider this Eastern custom of betrothal—as it was in Bible times, because their custom was quite different from most engagements of today: Betrothal with the ancient Jews was of a more formal and far more binding nature than the “engagement” is with us. Its central feature was the dowry, paid to the parents. This dowry often took the form of service by the groom. (Jacob served Laban 14 years for his two daughters.) Finally, the formal ceremony of betrothal occurred: it was the acceptance before witnesses of the terms of the marriage. Often, after this, the actual marriage ceremony would not take place for a considerable time. The betrothed parties were, in one sense, legally man and wife: that is, unfaithfulness by the woman to her promised husband was accounted “adultery” and was punishable by death (Deut. 22:23).
Each of these special customs has a parallel with our baptism into Christ and our life afterward. We fail to see much of this significance unless we understand these practices and laws of the east:
Our “engagement” to Christ is binding also. No whim on our part, no changing fancy, can annul the promise once it is made. Christ has paid the price or dowry due to our former parents. By his life of service in love, culminating in his death upon the cross, Christ has redeemed us from our first parents (Adam and Eve). We must no longer be obedient to them—to the old man with his deeds; but we must now be obedient to our new master Christ.
We became officially “betrothed” to Christ when we stood before witnesses and professed our faith in him. We accepted the terms of the marriage proposal, and we pledged to keep ourselves pure and unspotted from the world—realizing the terrible consequences if we are unfaithful to our vows, in committing “adultery” against our “husband.”
Having become espoused to Christ, the “bride”, along with her attendants, must prepare her apparel, her bridal garments. There is the mistaken idea that the wedding garment which we each put on is baptism solely. It is truly said that in baptism we “put on” Christ. But this is merely the beginning: we must work without ceasing to keep our garments clean and white. A close examination of Rev. 19:8—the Lamb’s wife—will explain this further:
“And to her it hath been granted that she may have been clothed with fine linen—for the pure linen is the lighteoas actions of the saints” (Bro. Thomas’s translation).
Two points here are very important: (1) The bride had first put on the pure linen before she ever came to the judgment:, consequently, the garment cannot be immortality; and (2) The linen represented not merely justification or forgiveness (obtained either at baptism or afterward). but rather the righteous actions of the bride, a day-to-day obedience.
The garments with which the bride has been clothing herself were “for glory and for beauty”, just as the ceremonial robes of Aaron the high priest (Exod. 28:2). They symbolized a way of life, pure and white and radiant, reflecting perfectly the pure light of God’s glory. The “glory and beauty” seen in the bride s gowns must be an inward beauty, a beauty of character and mind. We see God s beauty and glory only through the Words He has spoken, and the deeds He has done. And this is the kind of beauty and glory which God desires to see in us, as God told Samuel in 1 Sam. 16:7:
“Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him (I.e. Jesse’s oldest son) : for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
And thus Samuel came to anoint Jesse’s youngest and meekest son, David, to be king over Israel, for he was a man after God’s own heart.
We must be clothed in this way—with the garments of righteous deeds:
“Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness” (Psa. 132:9).
We are a “royal priesthood”: 1 Pet. 2:9:)
‘I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgment was as a robe and diadem” (Job. 29:14).
”Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:24).
‘Be clothed with humility” (1 Pet. 5:5).
Our works especially are represented in Aaron’s garments, in the pomegranates. For the pomegranate was a fruit, and Jesus tells us of men, that “by their fruits (or their works) ye shall know them.” And Paul enumerates for us the “fruits of the Spirit”: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Gal. 5:22, 23).
By eastern tradition the bride wore “raiment of needlework”, wrought with gold (Psa. 45:13,14). The gold points to faith; and the needlework, to tireless and painstaking labor.
Also, the bride would commonly wear a girdle (Isa. 49:18). This girdle was more precisely a waist cloth or sash, to be bound over the other garments. This would serve much the same purpose as would a belt; it held up or “girded up” the long flowing robes, thus allowing freedom of movement and haste. This symbolizes what should be our attitude to this life: We must be practical and wise in “co counting the coast,” and then striving to pay it. Our main goal is the putting aside of all hindrances, to run the race for life unhampered, not stumbling over the “cares of this world.”
“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait…” (Luke 12:35,36).
‘Gird up therefore the loins of your mind” (1 Pet. 1:13).
Finally, in Isa 61:10 we read that a bride adorneth herself with her jewels” Can a maid forgeter ornaments?” Jeremiah asks (Ch 2:32) The significance of this is explained briefly but well in Prov 20:15
“The lips of knowledge are a precious jewel
And in Job 28 18, 19
The price of wisdom is above rubies The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it
In the last chapter of Proverbs (Ch 31) there is a detailed description of a virtuous woman – and exhortations for both natural wives and for the prospective bride of Christ
V. 10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies
V. 12 She will do her husband good and not evil all the days of her life
V. 17 She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms
V. 25 Strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come
V. 26 She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness
V. 29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excel-lest them all
V. 31 Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates
And again, in 1 Pet 3 3,4, natural wives are the subject of attention, but the lesson is clearly obvious for spiritual brides as well
Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, But let it be the hidden one of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price
We may easily see the importance of marriage, in the teachings of Christ First of all, we remember how emphatic he was in placing before his listeners the divine standard of marriage, the true ideal before it was relaxed for the Jews hardness of heart and completely corrupted by an adulterous world
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he hich made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh ? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder ( Matt 19:4-6)
And secondly, we may note the numerous symbolic references to marriage and its ceremonies and customs in his parables, three of which we shall briefly examine
(1) In the New Testament, John the Baptist was the first to use the figure of the bridegroom His disciples seemed to be slightly jealous, for they told John of Jesus, that all men come to him On this occasion John spoke with great humility, explaining that he was only the friend of the bridegroom
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegrooms voice, This my joy therefore is fulfilled (John 3:29)
(The friend by tradition was the man who sought the hand of the bride, and arranged the marriage for the bridegroom We see an early example of this in the story of Abraham s servant Reliever, the friend of the bridegroom who secured Isaac s marriage with Rebekah) John had come before Christ, and by his preaching he had prepared the way for many to follow his cousin Of Jesus he said, He must increase, but I must decrease However, when his task
was finished, he could stand back and rejoice in the joy of the bridegroom, which he had been instrumental in accomplishing
Later Jesus, in speaking to some of John s disciples, explained that there should be no fasting while he was in their presence But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away and then shall they fast in those days (Luke 5 33, 34) The joy of Christ s first coming was brief indeed, but there remains a greater joy, when the groom shall return
(2) The second of Christ s marriage parables concerns this return of the bridegroom In the parable of Matt 25 the bride is attended by ten virgins, and the eleven altogether represent the whole company of the saints They are waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom and the beginning of the wedding ceremony Their wait is at night just as we are waiting in the night for the dawning of that new day of the kingdom (and just as so many believers who came be fore us are waiting in the darkness of the grave) When the cry came at mid night Behold the bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him (Matt 25 6), it was too late for the ones who had not prepared themselves to put oil in their lamps
When Christ returns for the judgment our period of probation and preparation will come to an abrupt end there will then be no more opportunity to replenish our lamps with truth or to do the other works that we may have left undone And the celebration will begin without us
Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh (Matt 25:13)
(3) The third parable is similar to the second, for it again speaks of a class of people who were unprepared to celebrate the marriage feast This parable is found in Matt 22
A certain king made a marriage for his son (V 2) And some who were invited refused to come, a gross insult by Jewish standards It was the nation of Israel who first rejected God s invitation to the marriage of His Son And thus He turned to others, as Paul and Barnabas told the Jews in Acts 13:46
It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles
Ultimately, the king sent forth his armies and destroyed those who refused his invitation, and he burned up their city (V 7), Jerusalem, in the year 70 A D After this the invitation was ex tended by Paul and others to as many as the king s servants could find, regardless of race or previous character And many of the hearers of the invitation accepted it and entered the Truth both good and bad
Lastly the parable informs us that, When the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment, and he ordered him cast out The guest was rejected because he was not suitably attired The wedding garment is the righteous character of the saints finding expression in their words and deeds
All who present themselves for admission to the glorious occasion will not be accepted The parable would be incomplete without giving a place to this feature In fact, the rejected class would seem to be a large one, because the Lord concludes this parable with the interpretative remark Many are called, but few are chosen (Matt 22 14)
We will conclude by mentioning a couple more customs of marriage as recorded in Scripture customs which will find their expression in the very near future with Christ s return
- The ceremony begins when the bridegroom sets out from his home to go to the home of the bride He is invariably accompanied by his friends (This will be fulfilled in the return of Christ from his temporary home in heaven He will return to the earth with his friends the angels, and indirectly through them he will come to the homes of each of his saints.)
- Having received the bride, he conducts the whole company to his (At the judgment seat Christ will select those who compose his true bride. Then they will begin their journey to his new home—Jerusalem, the city of the great king.)
- It is customary for some friends to join the procession along the way. (This is the class of Rev. 18:4 and other passages, who will heed the command, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” A mixed group of Jews and some Gentiles will separate themselves from the world of corruption and join Christ and the saints. Then “Babylon”, the corrupt woman, will be completely overthrown.)
- Finally, after the bridegroom and his bride arrive at their home, additional friends come to the banquet. (Christ’s kingdom will have its beginning at Jerusalem and the land of Israel but will expand until at last “all kingdoms under the whole heavens. . .. shall be given to the people of the saints—Dan. 7:27. Then “everyone that is left of all the nations . . . shall go up from year to year to worship the King . . . and to keep the feast . . . “— Zech. 14:16.)
So we have brought the marriage of the Lamb to its full realization, as promised in the Scriptures. We see in the Apocalypse the harlot of Babylon utterly annihilated, along with all the corrupt worship which she symbolized. She who professed to be Christ’s bride has been exposed as a collosal fraud. Babylon is fallen, and
“The voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee” (Rev. 18:23).
But the voices of Christ and his immortal bride will be heard for all eternity, praising and glorifying their Father in Heaven. Let us strive to become a part of that glorious company, to enjoy intimate and everlasting communion with our Lord Jesus Christ at his appearing:
“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘come’ Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One