Revelation 21:9 speaks of the bride and the wife. The bride is mainly for the wedding day, whereas the wife is for the entire life. The New Jerusalem will be the bride in the millennium for one thousand years as one day (2 Pet. 3:8) and the wife in the new heaven and new earth for eternity. The bride in the kingdom age will include the overcomers (Rev. 3:12; 19:7-9), but the wife in eternity will include all God’s redeemed ones (21:9).
The whole Bible speaks concerning the bride and the wife. The first wife in the whole universe was Eve. In Ezekiel 23 the children of Israel are referred to as the wife of Jehovah (vv. 1-4). In John 3 all the regenerated believers are the bride of Christ to be His increase, His enlargement (vv. 29-30). In Ephesians 5 the church is the wife of Christ, and in 2 Corinthians 11:2 the believers have been engaged, or betrothed, to Christ as their Husband. In Revelation 19:7-9 there is a universal wedding day, the marriage of the Lamb. Finally, in the last two chapters of the Bible there is the wife of the Lamb. Revelation 21:2 tells us that the New Jerusalem is prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and verse 9 refers to the New Jerusalem as the bride, the wife of the Lamb. The Lamb is the embodiment of the Triune God, and the wife is the consummation of all the saints.
The wife of the Lamb is one with her Redeemer, as Eve was taken out of Adam and attached back to him to be one flesh, two as one in one nature and one life (Gen. 2:21-24; Eph. 5:25-27, 29-32). Eve was originally a piece of bone, a rib, taken out of Adam. This bone was built into a woman, a wife for Adam, and attached back to Adam to be one flesh. These two, Adam and Eve, were as one in one nature and one life. A wife is one nature and one life with her husband. A physical, material city could never be one with Christ in one life and in one nature. The New Jerusalem is not only something with the divine element added to it and with the holy nature wrought into it, but it is also one with the Redeemer in one nature and in one life.
In Ezekiel 23:1-4 we see that the old Jerusalem symbolized the children of Israel as the wife of Jehovah. In these verses Ezekiel speaks concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. In this passage, Jerusalem does not denote a physical city but the people represented by the city, a living people who were a wife to Jehovah.
The divine romance is portrayed poetically in Song of Songs. In Song of Songs the seeker passes through a process to become the Shulammite, the duplication of Solomon and a figure of the New Jerusalem (6:13, 4). The lover’s name, Shulammite, which is the feminine form of Solomon, is first used in Song of Songs 6:13, indicating that at this point she has become Solomon’s duplication and counterpart, the same as Solomon in life, nature, and image, as Eve to Adam (Gen. 2:20-23). This signifies that the lover of Christ becomes the same as He is in life, nature, and image to match Him (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29) for their marriage. The lover of Solomon, having passed through various stages of transformation, has become Solomon’s duplication. The New Jerusalem will be a corporate Shulammite, including all of God’s chosen and redeemed people.
In the New Jerusalem the redeeming God (signified by Solomon) and all His redeemed (signified by the Shulammite) become one. The New Jerusalem is a mingling of divinity and humanity to express the processed and consummated Triune God in human virtues. Christ and His wife will be joined together to be the New Jerusalem for God’s expression; this is the consummated Shulammite. The New Jerusalem is the real and consummate Shulammite.
Ultimately, we will be conformed to be the wonderful Shulammite, who, as the duplication of Solomon, is the greatest and ultimate figure of the New Jerusalem as the counterpart of Christ. Just as King Solomon became a country man to court a country girl in order to make her his queen, his duplication, God in Christ became a man to court man in order to make man God in life, nature, expression, and function but not in the Godhead, to be Christ’s bride (Matt. 9:15; Rev. 19:7; cf. Psa. 45:1-3, 9, 13-14). The Bible reveals that God became a man to court us and that now He wants us to court Him by our becoming divine for His expression through our personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with Him (S. S. 1:1-8; 2 Cor. 2:10; Exo. 33:11; Rom. 8:4, 6; 1 Cor. 2:15). The Shulammite is a figure of us as the reproduction of Christ, who is the embodiment of God. Thus, the many lovers of Christ eventually will become duplications of God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. This is the fulfillment of God becoming a man that man might become God, which is the high peak of the divine revelation. The corporate overcomer, the Shulammite, who is the duplication of Solomon, is a figure of the New Jerusalem.
The Shulammite was a country girl. Now, as a counterpart of Solomon, she has become the same as Solomon in life, nature, expression, and function for the carrying out of God’s economy. We become the same as God and Christ in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead. To say that we are the same as God in His Godhead is a great blasphemy, but to say that we cannot be the same as God in life, nature, expression, and function is unbelief. The Bible tells us again and again that God wants to be one with us and to make us one with Him. This is God’s intention.
The phrases in Christ and in the Lord are used repeatedly in the New Testament. Paul tells us to rejoice always in the Lord (Phil. 4:4). In ourselves we cannot rejoice. We can only sigh. But in the Lord we are able to do all things (v. 13). Surely our God is able to make us the same as He is in His life, in His nature, in His expression, and in His function to carry out His economy. This signifies that in the maturity of Christ’s life, the overcomers, who were once sinners, have become the same as Christ in life, nature, expression, and function for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy.
The almighty King, the almighty “Solomon,” wants to be one with His people, signified by a country girl. He does this not by coercing but by the personal and affectionate way of courting. The Bible ends with a couple in a marriage life—the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21). We are involved in this divine romance, and we are participating in this wonderful conclusion of the entire Holy Scriptures.
John 3 reveals that all the regenerated believers constitute the bride of their Redeemer as His increase, His enlargement (vv. 3, 5-6, 14, 29-30). Many believed in the Lord Jesus by the time of John 3. They had been regenerated and had received the eternal life. As a result, the disciples of John the Baptist became jealous and told him that all were coming to Jesus (v. 26). John then told his disciples that He who has the bride is the Bridegroom, and he indicated that everyone who was regenerated should go to Him since He was the Bridegroom. This indicates that all the regenerated believers are composed together to be the bride to match the Bridegroom as His increase. Following this John said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (v. 30). The increase in John 3:30, however, is the bride in verse 29, who is a living composition of all the regenerated people. All the believers regenerated by the Triune God should be attached to Him as the Bridegroom. The believers should not have been detached from their Bridegroom to form a religion, taking John as the head. John had to be put into prison; otherwise, there would have been two bridegrooms—Jesus Christ and John the Baptist. Since John the Baptist had carried out his ministry to introduce Jesus Christ, it was necessary that he must decrease. All the regenerated ones should not have come to John to attach themselves to him. They all needed to go and attach themselves to Jesus, the Bridegroom.
In 2 Corinthians 11:2 Paul says, “I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” The you in this verse is corporate. Many saints have been betrothed to Christ as one corporate virgin. There is one church with many members, and Paul betrothed the believers in a corporate way as one corporate virgin to one Husband—Christ.
The New Jerusalem as the wife of the Lamb is also the consummation of the church as the wife in Ephesians 5:25-27 and 29-32. The church in Ephesians 5 is the wife in the stage of development, and the New Jerusalem will be the consummated bride. The bride in Revelation 21 can never be improved; she will live forever, but she will not grow. The wife in Ephesians 5, however, is still growing. The church in Ephesians 5 still has wrinkles and spots, but the bride in Revelation 21 has no wrinkles or spots. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of the wife in Ephesians 5. The Lord is still working in the church to cause her to grow.
The wife of the Lamb as symbolized by the universal and heavenly woman in Revelation 12:1-6 and 13-17 is composed of all the Old Testament and New Testament saints. According to Revelation 12:1, this woman is “clothed with the sun, and the moon underneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” This universal and heavenly woman is the total composition of God’s people on earth. The sun signifies God’s people in the New Testament age (Luke 1:78), the moon signifies God’s people in the Old Testament time, and the stars signify the patriarchs (Gen. 37:9). This universal and heavenly woman in Revelation 12 is the wife of the Lamb. This woman is a universal composition of all the saints, and this woman consummates in the New Jerusalem.
The millennium will be the wedding day in which the overcoming saints will participate (19:7-9). To the Lord a thousand years are as one day (2 Pet. 3:8); hence, the millennium will be the wedding day of the Lamb with the church as His bride. A wife is a bride for one day, but after the wedding day she is no longer the bride. The millennium of one thousand years will be one day for the Lamb to marry His bride. In the new heaven and new earth all the saints of both the Old Testament and the New Testament will be the New Jerusalem, enjoying the divine married life with the Triune God for eternity.