According to Song of Songs, the king is the bridegroom and the maiden who adores and pursues him is his bride (1:13-16). This is a type of Christ and the church as the universal couple. The Bible reveals that God in Christ is the Bridegroom of His elect as His bride. Ephesians 5:22-33 shows that the husband and the wife are a type of Christ and the church as the great mystery. Hence, 2 Corinthians 11:2 shows that the church, constituted with all the believers, is the wife betrothed to Christ.
The church as the bride of Christ is produced by Christ in His resurrection. Christ regenerated all the believers in His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3) so that the believers were begotten with Him of the same Father and have the same life and nature to constitute the church as His counterpart to match Him (John 20:17; Heb. 2:11-12).
Song of Songs 5:10-16 portrays Christ in resurrection as the lovely Bridegroom. In His resurrection He is full of life and full of power; He is the One whom we look to and follow and who is leading us in a triumphal procession (John 12:32; 2 Cor. 2:14). Furthermore, He has God’s nature and glory, and He is our Head. He is rich in power and never fading, and He is intimately affectionate toward us.
All that He has is firm and unshakable because it is based upon God’s nature and because of His righteousness. He is transcendent and heavenly, and He is the resurrected and glorified One. He transfuses into us all that He has received and tasted of God. With such a Christ in resurrection, we cannot but be burning in our heart and cry out, “He is altogether desirable!” This One is “my Beloved!”
John 3:29 says, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom.” Christ, who is the Bridegroom, has the divine life and nature. Through His resurrection He produced the church that the church may have His divine life and nature and be qualified to match Him, that is, to become His bride to match Him, the Bridegroom. Now we need to live with Christ and live to Christ (2 Cor. 5:15), taking Him as our person that we may grow and become His satisfaction. Then at the end of this age, Christ will come to marry His bride and enjoy a married life together with His bride for eternity (Rev. 19:7; 21:9).
In the typology of the Old Testament, five items—the bronze serpent, the one hanging on a tree, the hind of the dawn, and the bridegroom and the bride—are seemingly different from one another. However, in the spiritual significance of the New Testament they are connected—Christ died and resurrected as the Bridegroom to obtain the church as His bride.
The bronze serpent had the form of the fiery serpent but was without the fiery serpent’s poison. When the children of Israel were bitten by the fiery serpents, they became serpents in the eyes of God and deserved God’s judgment unto death. However, according to God’s saving way, when the bronze serpent, which had only the form but not the poison of a serpent, was lifted up on the pole, it became their replacement to suffer the judgment of God. They lived by looking at the bronze serpent. This is a type of Christ being made sin on our behalf to be the same as a sinful man but having only the form of the flesh of sin and not the poison of sin. Through Christ’s crucifixion in the flesh, God condemned sin in the flesh, judged sin for us, and dealt with the sin in our nature and the sinful nature to which it belongs. Furthermore, He annulled Satan in us that we may have eternal life by believing in Christ.
The one hanging on a tree is a type of Christ, who was hanged on the tree as the replacement for us, who have sinned and deserve death. He bore up our sins on the cross that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. Moreover, He suffered the curse of death for us sinners, who deserve death, and thus redeemed us out of the curse of the law that we may receive the Spirit promised by God.
The hind of the dawn typifies the resurrected Christ. The life of Christ in resurrection is fresh, active, lively, and powerful, and He is able to walk steadily in high places. There is nothing that can hinder Him. Christ is likened also to a young hart, indicating that Christ is fresh and vigorous, yet He is neither dreadful nor fearsome but endearing and desirable for having fellowship with us and also for coming back to meet with us and to receive us into the kingdom of God to enjoy His presence.
The bridegroom and the bride are a type of Christ and the church as the universal couple. The Bible reveals that God in Christ is the Bridegroom of His elect as His bride. Ephesians 5:22-33 shows that the husband and the wife are a type of Christ and the church as the great mystery. The church as the bride of Christ is produced by Christ in His resurrection. Christ regenerated all the believers in His resurrection so that the believers were begotten with Him of the same Father and have the same life and nature to constitute the church as His counterpart to match Him.