Revelation 21:9-10 says, “Come here; I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in spirit onto a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” A bride is mainly for the wedding day, while a wife is for the entire life. The New Jerusalem will be the bride in the millennium for one thousand years, which is like one day (2 Pet. 3:8), and will be the wife in the new heaven and new earth for eternity, to the ages of the ages without end. The bride in the millennium consists of the overcoming saints, whereas the bride in the new heaven and new earth is composed of all God’s redeemed and regenerated sons (Rev. 21:7).
Revelation 22:17 says, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come!” Together as a couple, the Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” This shows that at the end of the New Testament the One who has the bride is the Spirit. The Spirit is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God, and the bride is the ultimate expression of the transformed tripartite man. The processed Triune God as the Spirit and the transformed tripartite man as the bride will become one and will speak as one person.
The Bible begins and ends with a marriage. The final marriage is the marriage of the processed, consummated, and dispensing Triune God as the Husband with the church as His bride. For eternity this universal couple will be the full manifestation of the Triune God expressed in all His glory. Hence, the consummation of the church will match the processed Triune God to be His complete expression and satisfaction for eternity. This is the conclusion of the New Testament and also of the entire Bible.
God’s eternal plan is to obtain for Christ a counterpart—His church—through redemption and the divine life. Only the church, which has the same life and nature that Christ has, can become Christ’s counterpart for His satisfaction and rest in love. Christ and the church, which comes out of Christ, are one spirit as a husband and wife are one flesh. This is the great mystery. As Eve was the increase of Adam, so the church as the bride, the wife, is the increase of Christ as the Bridegroom, the Husband.
Ephesians 5 reveals that today Christ is sanctifying the church that He might present the church to Himself as His counterpart. This is the preparation of the bride. When Christ comes back, He will marry the overcomers, who represent all the saints in the church. Therefore, the readiness of the bride depends on the overcomers’ maturity in life. Christ and His counterpart, the bride, will be married at His coming; this is the marriage of the Lamb. After the Lamb’s marriage, the church will be Christ’s bride in the millennium.
The church as the bride will consummate in the New Jerusalem and will be the wife of Christ in eternity. This ultimate marriage is the marriage between the processed, consummated, and dispensing Triune God as the Husband and the church as His bride. This universal couple is the full manifestation of the Triune God expressed in all His glory for eternity.