According to the divine thought in all the Scriptures, God always sees His redeemed ones as His wife and He Himself as the Husband. Hosea 2:16 says, “And in that day, declares Jehovah, / You will call Me My Husband / And will no longer call Me Baali [meaning, my Master].” God wanted His people, the children of Israel, to call Him Husband and to no longer call Him Master. In verse 19 He goes on to say, “And I will betroth you to Myself forever; / Indeed I will betroth you to Myself / In righteousness and justice / And in lovingkindness and compassions.” Hence, it is clear that in the thought of God, the people of Israel were a wife to Him. The same divine thought is also revealed in Isaiah. God told the children of Israel that He as their Maker was their Husband and they were a wife to Him, and that for a small moment He had forsaken them, yet He would gather them and receive them back (Isa. 54:5-7). Not only so, in the book of Jeremiah God likens His people to a wife (3:1). We also very much appreciate the Old Testament book of Song of Songs. This book likens the Lord’s seeking one to a bride who is beautiful in His eyes, and it likens the Lord Himself to the Bridegroom.
Then, in the New Testament, John the Baptist testified that the Lord is the Lamb of God (John 1:29), and he also testified that the Lord is the Bridegroom who has the bride (3:29). We need to ask who this bride is. The answer is found in the last book written by the same author, the apostle John. In the book of Revelation, John tells us clearly who and what the bride of Christ is; the bride is the New Jerusalem (21:9). In this record we are told clearly that the One who marries this bride is called the Lamb. He is the Lamb as well as the Bridegroom. All the students of the Scriptures admit that the bride mentioned in John chapter three is a corporate bride composed of living persons, not a physical entity. Therefore, how can the bride in the last book written by the same author be a physical place? We have to admit that this city, the New Jerusalem, is the very bride whom the apostle John mentions in his Gospel, in John 3:29. Not only so, the apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 11:2 that he betrothed us, the believers, as pure virgins to one Husband, Christ.
On the one hand, as to the relationship between us and the Father, we are all males. Even the sisters are brothers. Second Corinthians 6:18 is the only instance in which the New Testament indicates that God has daughters. For the most part it tells us that the believers are sons of God. Christ does not have sisters but brothers; He is the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29), not among many brothers and sisters. On the other hand, as to the relationship between us and Christ, we all are females. Even the brothers are females. We all are virgins betrothed to Christ. We are the bride of Christ and the wife of the Lamb. This thought is seen throughout the Scriptures. Eventually, when we come to the end of the Scriptures, we have a full picture of this divine thought. All the redeemed people of God throughout all the ages are composed together as a living city to be indwelt by God, that is, to be filled with God. All the redeemed people are the bride of the Lamb and the habitation of God. This is the proper meaning of the New Jerusalem.
Throughout the Scriptures there is the divine thought that the redeemed people of God are composed together to be a bride for Christ and a habitation for God. This is the ultimate conclusion of all the Scriptures and the ultimate expression of the thought of the Scriptures. The divine thought is that God desires to have a group of living persons composed together as a corporate Body to contain Him and to express Him in Christ through the Holy Spirit. This is the central thought of God and this is the very pattern of the church. In these days, we speak a great deal concerning the building up of the church and concerning the practice of the church life. We have to realize that the New Jerusalem is the unique pattern in the holy Scriptures concerning the church, the building up of the church, and the church life. If we want to know what the church life is and what the right way is for the building up of the church, we have to know the New Jerusalem. This is the very vision by which we are able to know what is the right way for the building up of the church and what is the real condition, the real situation, of the real church life.
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