{"id":3730,"date":"2020-06-08T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T11:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/?p=3730"},"modified":"2020-06-08T09:10:27","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T14:10:27","slug":"word-pictures-of-the-church-the-bride-of-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/word-pictures-of-the-church-the-bride-of-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Pictures of the Church – The Bride of Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"
We are continuing to look at various ways in which the Church is described in the scriptures.<\/span><\/div>\n
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One beautiful picture is of the Church as the bride of Christ.<\/span><\/div>\n
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As Jesus\u2019 ministry was increasing, John the Baptist\u2019s ministry was decreasing. Some question John. His response was to exalt Jesus by saying this\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
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John 3:29\u201330 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
29<\/sup><\/span> The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom\u2019s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. <\/span>30<\/sup><\/span> He must increase, but I must decrease.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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This is the first introduction of Jesus as the bridegroom and a vailed reference to the Church as the bride of Christ. <\/span><\/div>\n
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The people of God in the Old Testament were often referred to as God\u2019s bride.<\/span><\/div>\n
Jeremiah 2:2 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cGo and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, \u201cI remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Just as the people of God in the Old Testament were referred to as the bride, so now the Church transitions into this loving role of Christ\u2019s bride. The bride is all who have the bridegroom; that is all who have submitted their life in a relationship with Him.<\/span><\/div>\n
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John sees himself as a friend of the bridegroom whose function is to aid the groom in connecting to His bride.<\/span><\/div>\n
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In the Old Testament, an unfaithful bride is how the people of God are often pictured.<\/span><\/div>\n
Jeremiah 3:20 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
20<\/sup><\/span> Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel, declares the Lord.\u2019 \u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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That same concern is voiced by Paul for the church in Corinth.<\/span><\/div>\n
2 Corinthians 11:2\u20133 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
2<\/sup><\/span> For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. <\/span>3<\/sup><\/span> But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.<\/span><\/div>\n
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But, that\u2019s not the way it is supposed to be. While we may not always carry out our role as Christ\u2019s bride, He always lives as the bridegroom toward the Church as His beloved bride.  The most expressive way in which we see this is found in Ephesians 5:25-33.  Here we see Paul admonishing husbands to let Christ\u2019s example as the Bridegroom toward the Church be their example as to how they are to love their wives.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Rather than focus on our marriages, let\u2019s simply focus on Christ\u2019s love for the Church. <\/span><\/div>\n
1. Christ\u2019s love for His bride is a SACRIFICIAL LOVE.<\/span><\/div>\n
25<\/sup><\/span> Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, <\/span><\/div>\n
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Christ loved the Church, not that the Church might do things for Him, but that He might do things for the Church.<\/span><\/div>\n
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2. Christ\u2019s love for the Church is a PURIFYING LOVE.<\/span><\/div>\n
26<\/sup><\/span> that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, <\/span>27<\/sup><\/span> so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. <\/span><\/div>\n
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As the Groom, Christ\u2019s desire is to have a bride as pure as He is.<\/span><\/div>\n
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3. Christ\u2019s love for the Church is a CARING LOVE.<\/span><\/div>\n
28<\/sup><\/span> In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. <\/span>29<\/sup><\/span> For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, <\/span>30<\/sup><\/span> because we are members of his body. <\/span><\/div>\n
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What a picture of Jesus loving us as much as He loves Himself; a picture of Jesus nourishing and cherishing us as part of Himself.<\/span><\/div>\n
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4. Christ\u2019s love for the Church is an UNBREAKABLE LOVE.<\/span><\/div>\n
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31<\/sup><\/span> \u201cTherefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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We, the bride, have become one with Jesus. We are to leave everyone and everything else to bond our love only to the Groom.  A bond that is to never be broken.<\/span><\/div>\n
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5. This relationship is a profound mystery. <\/span><\/div>\n
32<\/sup><\/span> This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. <\/span><\/div>\n
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6. Just the groom is to initiate His love for His bride, so Christ has initiated His love for His bride, the Church. And all the bride needs to do is respond to that love by submission.<\/span><\/div>\n
Ephesians 5:24 (ESV)<\/div>\n
24<\/sup><\/span> Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are continuing to look at various ways in which the Church is described in the scriptures.   One beautiful picture is of the Church as the bride of Christ.   As Jesus\u2019 ministry was increasing, John the Baptist\u2019s ministry was decreasing. Some question John. His response was to exalt Jesus by saying this\u2026   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3730"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3732,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730\/revisions\/3732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}