We need to pay attention to the phrase His wife has made herself ready. Matthew 25:1-13 speaks of the parable of the ten virgins. In this parable the prudent virgins who took oil in their vessels—who had the Spirit of God filling and saturating their souls—were those who “were ready” and thus went in with the bridegroom “to the wedding feast,” into the enjoyment of the marriage dinner of the Lamb at His coming back (v. 10). This indicates that God’s work throughout the generations is to build Himself into man. He is the God of heaven, who possesses not only the nature of God but also the element of heaven. When He builds Himself into us, He constitutes the nature of God and the element of heaven into us. The more we allow Him to work Himself into us, the more we will have the element of God and the element of heaven in us. We all have had this experience. When we submit to the Holy Spirit, allowing God to work Himself into us, we have the presence of God and the taste of heaven within us. We can grow as God builds Himself into us. God’s building and our growth are for the preparation of the bride. For the bride to have made herself ready means that the church has been built up. The bride signifies the church in its ultimate state. The bride having made herself ready means that the church has been completely built up and has grown to maturity.
According to Matthew 25, when the Lord comes back, those who are ready will sit with Him at the wedding feast. To be ready here means that the bride has made herself ready, that God has completed His building work in man, and that we have grown and matured in the Lord’s life. These three matters—God’s building in us, our growth in the Lord’s life, and our getting ready before the Lord—are all linked together. God’s building work in us is our growth in the Lord’s life and is also our getting ready before the Lord. These three matters are actually one matter.
The church today is a miniature of the glorious New Jerusalem in the future, and it will continually grow until the day that it is fully grown. We grow through God’s continuous building work in us. The more God builds Himself into us, the more we grow. Without God’s building work we cannot grow. Our growing is actually God’s building (Eph. 4:12-13).
There is no doubt that Revelation 19 will be completely fulfilled. Furthermore, we believe that the process of fulfillment is taking place today. The bride, however, cannot be prepared quickly. This preparation is a gradual work that takes place over a period of time. Certainly the Lord must be doing a work on earth to prepare His bride. This preparation involves the work of a corporate building. Those who make up the bride must not only be mature in life; they must also be built together as the one bride. The primary work of the Lord in His recovery is to prepare His bride. In His recovery He is calling out a remnant of those who love Him and who are faithful to Him. He is sending out the call to overcome the degradation of Christianity so that a number of those who seek Him may be prepared as His bride.
The bride, the wife, of Christ will be prepared in full by Him for His wedding as His pleasure and satisfaction. The preparation of the bride is by Christ’s redemption, organic salvation, and the intensified work of His organic salvation. Revelation 19 says that the bride is prepared fully by being properly adorned. Christ is now adorning us to make us His bride. Christ’s pleasure and satisfaction are His bride, prepared, adorned, in full. The coming of the marriage dinner of the Lamb in Revelation 19:7 refers to Christ’s marrying the New Jerusalem as His bride in the millennium.
God in the beginning was merely God. He was alone. But it is not good for God to be alone (Gen. 2:18). He desires a counterpart. Jesus came not merely to be the Redeemer but to be the Bridegroom, and as such He needs a bride (John 3:29). Paul says that he had betrothed the Corinthian believers as a pure virgin to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). Ephesians 5 reveals that the church is the wife of Christ, and Christ is the Husband. Then in the book of Revelation we are told that the wife has made herself ready and that the marriage of the Lamb has come (19:7). This will be a universal marriage in which the overcomers will marry Christ, our God. From that time God will never be alone. Our God will be a married God. He will marry the holy city, the New Jerusalem, as His bride. At the beginning of the Bible, God is looking for a counterpart. At the end of the Bible, He is no longer alone; He is with His bride. This is a picture showing us God being mingled with corporate humanity. This is God’s eternal purpose.