The Bride and the Body of Christ

The distinction between the Jewish church and the body of Christ during the Administration of the Secret is clearly seen in the terms the Word of God uses for each. The Jewish Christian church is called “the bride of the Lambkin,” while the present-day church is called “the body of Christ” of which Christ is head.

The two terms, “bride” and “body,” are not interchangeable. A bride marries a bridegroom; there are two separate bodies before the marriage. The body of Christ has Christ as its Head, so there is only one body. The fact that the Bride of the Lambkin is not yet married to Christ shows the distance between them. The members of the body of Christ, being joined to Christ already shows their close intimacy with Christ. The body of Christ, with Christ the Head, is part of the bridegroom, not the bride!

But who is “the Lambkin”?

John 1:29 – The next day John (the Baptist) seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, “Behold the Lamb [Lambkin] of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
John 1:36 – And looking upon Jesus as He walked, he (John the Baptizer) saith, Behold the Lamb [Lambkin] of God!”

According to this Jesus, YAHWASUA, is “the Lambkin”, and He has a “bride” which is ISRAEL that eventually becomes His “wife.”

“The Bride of Christ” Not Found in Scripture

The phrase, “bride of Christ” never appears in the Word of God. It’s always called the “bride of the Lamb,” or more accurately with the proper translation, the “bride of the Lambkin” (a “Lambkin” is a tender, innocent baby Lamb). This title alone makes it Israeli-centered, for it corresponds to the ultimate sacrifice God promised to Israel.

When we describe things the Word of God teaches, we should restrict our vocabulary to the words God uses. Using different words introduces different concepts that often contradict the Word of God. There is safety in using the words and phrases that God uses.

The name “Jesus” refers to the humiliated one who died for the sins of the world.
The name and title “Jesus (the) Christ” refers to the humiliated one who died for the sins of the world and is now glorified.
The title and name “Christ Jesus” emphasizes the exaltation of the suffering servant Jesus.
The title “Christ” refers to the anointed One whom God has glorified and set over all His creation, not to the suffering Messiah.

The differences between these names and titles are subtle, and show how accurate God’s Word is. God emphasizes exactly what the context demands by using these different names and titles of His only begotten Son.

Let’s investigate this topic in the Word of God so we can be sure of the truth.

The Wife of Jehovah

The covenant of the Law was a contract between God and Israel. God made provisional promises based on Israel’s performance of their accountability to the contract. In Deuteronomy, this contract is presented as a marriage contract.

Deuteronomy 6:13-15 – You shall fear Jehovah your God; and him shall you serve, and shall swear by his name.
You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples that are round about you; for Jehovah your God in the midst of you is a jealous God;
Lest the anger of Jehovah your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

The prophet Ezekiel also presents Israel as the wife of Jehovah.

Ezekiel 16:8 – Now when I passed by you, and looked upon you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness: yea, I swore unto you, and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord Jehovah, and you became mine.

Because of Israel’s unfaithfulness, “whoring after other gods,” the Lord Jehovah threatened to divorce her.

Jeremiah 3:1-5 – They say, If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, may he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, says the Lord.
Lift up your eyes unto the high places, and see where you have not been lain with. In the ways have you sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your harlotries and with your wickedness.
Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; and you had a harlot’s forehead, you refused to be ashamed.
Will you not from this time cry unto me, My father, you are the guide of my youth?
Will he reserve his anger forever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done all the evil things that you could.

Jeremiah 3:20 – Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says the Lord.
Hosea 2:2-5 – Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her harlotry out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
Lest I strip her naked, and make her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and make her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they are the children of harlotry.
For their mother has played the harlot: she that conceived them has done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

A period of separation normally precedes a divorce. God separated Himself from Israel because she continued in idolatry.

Isaiah 50:1 – Thus says the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

The bill of divorcement was not yet written, but there was a separation. Israel still did not repent. So, 100 years later, Jehovah divorced his wife, Israel, for spiritual adultery.

Jeremiah 3:6-15 – The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she has gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.
And I said after she had done all these things, Turn you unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
And I saw, when for all the causes for which backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
And it came to pass through the lightness of her harlotry, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with trees.
And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned unto me with her whole heart, but in pretense, says the Lord.
And the Lord said unto me, The backsliding Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah.
Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, says the Lord; and I will not cause my anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, says the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever.
Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God, and have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord.
Turn, O backsliding children, says the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
With the divorce came punishment. The curse of the Law brought this on.

Ezekiel 16:35-43 – Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord:
Thus says the Lord God; Because your filthiness was poured out, and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers, and with all the idols of your abominations, and by the blood of your children, which you did give unto them;
Behold, therefore I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all them that you have loved, with all them that you have hated; I will even gather them round about against you, and will uncover your nakedness unto them, that they may see all your nakedness.
And I will judge you, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy.
And I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrine, and shall break down your high places: they shall strip you also of your clothes, and shall take your beautiful jewels, and leave you naked and bare.
They shall also bring up a company against you, and they shall stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords.
And they shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women: and I will cause you to cease from playing the harlot, and you also shall give no hire any more.
So will I make my fury toward you to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from you, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.
Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have enraged me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense your way upon your head, says the Lord God: and you shall not commit this lewdness in addition to all your abominations.

Hosea also talks about Israel’s plight.

Hosea 2:6-13 – Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and make a wall, so that she shall not find her paths.
And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
For she did not know that I gave her grain, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
Therefore will I return, and take away my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and will take back my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.
And now will I uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand.
I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she has said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
And I will punish her for the days of Baalim, when she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me, says the Lord.

God used the prophet Hosea’s personal life as an object lesson to instruct idolatrous Israel. To present His case, God told Hosea to marry an idolatrous woman, to represent Israel’s faithlessness in serving other gods. Hosea had three children by his wife, Gomer. Their names depicted God’s judgment of the nation. The first child, a son, was named Jezreel (God scatters). God judged (scattered) the northern Kingdom with the Assyrian invasion (722 B.C.). The second child was a daughter named Lo-ruhama (not pitied) and the third child, a son, was named Lo-ammi (not my people).

But God’s disfavor would be temporary. He promised that the nation would repent of its unfaithfulness and return to Him.

Hosea 2:14-20 – Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her.
Then I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
It will come about in that day, declares the Lord, That you will call Me Ishi and will no longer call Me Baali.
For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, so that they will be mentioned by their names no more.
In that day I will also make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the sky and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land, and will make them lie down in safety.
I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in lovingkindness and in compassion,
And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the Lord.

It was against the Law for a man to remarry the wife he divorced, but through God’s mercy and grace He said He would take Israel back. This would be through the “New Covenant.”

Jeremiah 31:31-34 – Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; my covenant which they broke, although I was a husband unto them, says the Lord:
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

The restoration of Israel as Jehovah’s Wife is also described in Isaiah 54:1-8, and the remarriage is further described in Isaiah 62:4-5. Hosea, who had much to say about the adulteries of Israel, also spoke of Israel’s reunion with her husband. Hosea 2:14‑23 describes the courtship and the wooing in the wilderness and shows the four results of this reunion.

The Bride and the Bridegroom

John the baptizer tells us who the bride and bridegroom are. Those of Israel who believe are the bride, and Jesus is the bridegroom.

John 3:27-29 – John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.
You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.
He that has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.

The marriage of the bride and bridegroom occurs after Jesus returns to the earth for Israel. This wedding and wedding feast are anticipated in Revelation 19.

Revelation 19:6-9 – And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigns.
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb [Lambkin] has come, and his wife has made herself ready.
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of saints.
And he said unto me, Write, Blessed are they who are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb [Lambkin]. And he said unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See you do it not: I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

These verses immediately precede the return of the Lord to the earth for Israel. The marriage does not take place until Jesus inaugurates his Kingdom, after the Resurrection of the Just (the first, or “former resurrection”). The wedding feast of the Lambkin lasts through the entire Millennial Kingdom of Christ.

There is one more reference to the bride of the Lambkin, and that’s when New Jerusalem descends from heaven to earth.

Revelation 21:9-14 – And there came unto me one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s [Lambkin’s] wife.
And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
Having the glory of God: and its radiance was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
And having a wall great and high, and having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb [Lambkin].
The city itself is not the bride of the Lambkin, but the inhabitants are. These are those who came through the great tribulation, who were saved along with those who came out of the first resurrection. They shall inhabit the New Jerusalem.

The New Jerusalem is “the holy city”, and is called “that great city”, “the holy Jerusalem”, which the apostle John sees, by vision, “coming down from God out of heaven”, and “descending out of heaven from God.”

What else is said about this “city”? Notice in Revelation 21:11-27, that it “had twelve gates, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.” This “bride” carries the “names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.” The 12 foundations of the city have the names of the 12 apostles of the Lambkin! The racial nation Israel is the “bride” of the Lambkin.

The body of Christ is not the bride of Christ. We are the body of Christ. These are two completely different groups of people.

Scriptures of Contention

There are two sections of Scripture in the Pauline epistles that have been construed to teach the body of Christ is the bride of the Lambkin. We’ll look at each of these to clear up the confusion.

II Corinthians 11:2 – For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ

Paul was encouraging the Corinthians to remain faithful to Christ and his gospel (I Corinthians 15.1-4). Paul’s choice of words to the Corinthians, “that I may present you as a pure virgin” was to illustrate his desire for holy living for these believers, not to teach that the Church is the bride of Christ. Paul also said that he was the Corinthian believers’ mother (Galatians 4.19) and father (1 Corinthians 4.15), but neither description was literal. Familial intimacy is what is being described.

Ephesians 5:25-27 – Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

In these verses, Paul argued that as a husband is the head of a wife even as Christ is the head of the church. Therefore, the husband and wife are “one body.” This fits with Paul’s teaching that the church is the body of Christ with Christ Himself is the Head (Ephesians 1.22; Colossians 1:18). Paul noted that husbands should love their wives as their own bodies because they are “one flesh,” and no one ever hated his own flesh. A man nourishes and cherishes his own body. Paul made an analogy between Christ and the church to emphasize the care a husband should have for his wife as his own body.

Jesus says when the man takes the woman “they twain shall be one flesh” in Matthew 19:5-6 and Mark 10:8. This is based upon Genesis 2:24 and the apostle Paul refers to it here in Ephesians 5:31. In every verse it says they “shall be one flesh.” Not one Scripture ever says that they “shall be one body,”, yet this does not stop Christendom from promoting its error that the “bride”, or the “wife” is the “body” of Christ.

The church is Christ’s body, not his bride. Paul quoted Genesis 2.24 to emphasize the care that Christ has for his own body, the church. Paul declared this was a “secret” regarding Christ and His church.

The apostle Paul is the only apostle to use the term, “the body of Christ.” He never uses “the bride of Christ” or “the bride of the Lambkin.”

Conclusion

Wife and bride are titles that belong to Israel, not the Church. Our title is “the body of Christ.” We are his body. Since the church is the body of Christ and Christ is the bridegroom, then we are part of the bridegroom, not the bride. The body of Christ is not waiting to be joined to the Lord in marriage as one for we have already been MADE one with Him. We can get no closer for we are one with Christ.

Let’s keep these two congregations, or churches, separate and distinct as God does in His Word. Let’s not confuse what’s written concerning Israel with that which is written to the body of Christ.

The Bride and the Body of Christ

Who is the Bride?