John 3:28-30 says, “You yourselves testify of me that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine therefore is made full. He must increase, but I must decrease.” In these three verses there are two noteworthy words—bride and increase. John the Baptist told people not only that Christ is the Bridegroom who has the bride but that Christ must increase. What does it mean for Christ to increase? Christ must have an increase, and He must have His bride. If we read these verses carefully, we will realize that the bride is the increase of Christ. Simply by having a bride, Christ is increased.
Later on in the same Gospel, the apostle John tells us how Christ can have an increase. In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” This word was spoken by the Lord Himself. The Lord Himself is the one grain of wheat who fell into the ground and died and grew up in resurrection to bear much fruit. The Chinese Union Version of the Holy Scriptures is a great help for understanding this portion. In some places in the Scriptures the Chinese translation is much better than many English versions. In the verse quoted above, the Chinese rendering is very accurate, saying, “bears many grains.” When one grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it springs up and bears many grains. I like the term many grains. Originally there was only one grain. However, after this grain is sown into the ground, it brings forth many grains. The many grains are the increase of that one grain. This is a picture of the increase of Christ.
As we have already seen in chapter 3, the Son of God must have the bride. This is a difficult thought to grasp. As Christians, we may have been reading the Scriptures for quite a long time, yet we still may not have a deep impression that the Son of God needs a bride. Since a bride is a wife, this indicates that the Son of God should have a wife, not in a natural sense but in a very holy and divine sense. What then does a wife signify in the Scriptures? There is a principle in the Scriptures that in order to properly understand a matter, we must look at the first mention of it. Therefore, to know the scriptural meaning of a wife and marriage, we need to go to the record of the first wife.
The first wife recorded in the Scriptures is Eve, the wife of Adam (Gen. 2:23-24). The wife of Adam is the increase of Adam. When God created man, He did not create two persons; He created only one man, by the name of Adam. Adam was a bachelor. However, God said that it was not good for man to be a bachelor, to be single (v. 18). God arranged for Adam to have an increase. Eve did not come into being separate from Adam or originate outside of Adam. Eve was made from a part of Adam to be the increase of Adam. According to the record in Genesis 2, God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, opened up his side, and took out a rib (v. 21). God then made this rib into a wife for Adam. God used a little rib from Adam to produce a wife for Adam and then brought Eve back to Adam. In this way, Eve became a counterpart of Adam, Adam’s increase.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 that the account of Adam and Eve is a type of Christ and the church (vv. 31-32). For the purpose of illustration we may say that before He died, Christ was “single.” One day God put Christ to sleep on the cross. According to the Scriptures to sleep simply means to die (John 11:13; Matt. 27:52). When God caused Christ to die on the cross, one of the soldiers pierced His side, and blood and water flowed out (John 19:34). Whereas the blood is for redemption, the water symbolizes the life of Christ that became the life of all the believers who compose the bride of Christ, the church. The church, then, as the counterpart of Christ comes out of Christ. The church is the increase of Christ just as Eve was the increase of Adam.
For Christ to remain a “bachelor” is not according to the Scriptures. Without a wife we are single, but with a wife we are increased. In the same way, without the church Christ is “single”; He is only one grain. He needs an increase. The increase of Christ is the church. Christ as the one grain became many grains, yet the many grains are not individual grains. The many grains need to become one loaf, one bread (1 Cor. 10:17). The many grains are the members of this one Body, this one bread. In John 3 we are told that Christ must increase. The way that Christ can have an increase is in John 12, where Christ is the unique grain of wheat who died and rose to produce many grains to be His increase.