PH 5:32{Marriage was instituted in the garden of Eden; and it vividly displays the nearness and dearness of relationship into which believers are brought, as the church and bride of Christ, to HIMSELF. Moreover, the familiarity of our minds with this relationship, makes us understand better the place to which we are brought in the gracious affections of Christ.
Eve was to Adam the companion of his home and the depositary of his affections. So " Christ loved the Church, and gave HIMSELF for it; " and the fact that she becomes the depositary and witness of His affections, is a thought more deeply touching than all the glory which will be her endowment as allied to Christ.
The purpose of Christ's ministry towards His Church is " that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word," and the end of that ministry is, "that He might present it to HIMSELF a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." Just as Eve was for Adam himself, so is the Church to be for Christ HIMSELF.
And yet if any one thought they knew how to measure Eve's blessedness and position, and only measured it by her relationship to Adam as an individual, the help meet for him, they would give short measure; far shorter than the measure given by another whose line and cord took in both the whereabouts of Adam's position in a garden of delights, fashioned for him by God, etc., and the who and the what Adam was as connected with the Maker of Adam and of those scenes. Just so: sweet and precious as it is to the heart and mind to feel, I am part of the " one body," the Church, which is to be the companion of Christ—which has His heart's love poured out upon it, and who looks for a return to it—I need to remember the where this Blessed One is to be displayed, and the who and what He is, if I would at all enter into the blessedness of being a member of this body, the Church. He is the channel, and center, and end of every display which God has made for Himself by His various attributes—the Son and Revealer of the Father—the Opener of His blessed house.
And such is this Son, that when none, of men, clave to Him as Son of man here on earth, the Father glorified Him with the glory which He had with Him before the world was; and in the Church will be found God's paradise or garden of delights, all that will meet His mind and Christ's—the very expression of His own thought.
For the Bride—chosen companion of the Lord, is the one, whose hope is the Bridegroom's self—and Him alone. 0 for more understanding of the wondrous grace in Him, who now condescends to open His heart and mind to the chaste virgin that is espoused to Him. We are for Himself, and He is for us—as those wonderful words " Bridegroom " and " Bride " teach. What grace has our God, to have such a title and such a glad honor for His Son, and for us. Both titles tell of joy—His speaks of power; hers, of beauty. But they answer the one to the other, as none other of our correlative titles do; and the savor of either one is more peculiarly for the other; and the other, more immediately only. Be the company in whose presence they shall be seen divine, as the Father's whose house is theirs; or below them both, as of angels; or of the world, seeing His love making the display that she is loved even as He is loved—still they have a joy in one another's love. Each needs the other; and both are perfected alone, when together. What means that title, " Bridegroom " without a Bride? or who is the Bride apart from the Bride groom? What joy such as of the Bridegroom and the Bride? What glory, brighter witness, either of the worthiness of the Lamb, whose wife she is—or of the rich, divine grace of the Father's heart? May we remember whose we are, and serve HIM with a whole heart.
The Lord Himself, e'en JESUS,
Amid the ransom'd throng,
Its glory, joy, and beauty,
Its never-ending song.
O day of wonderous promise,
The Bridegroom and the bride
Are seen in glory ever:
O God! now satisfied.