QUESTION: Is the bride the body of Christ? Some say Israel is the bride, and believers now are the body.
ANSWER: Israel is earthly, called to an earthly inheritance. The Church is heavenly, called to share with Christ in heavenly glory. The purposes of God for Israel and the nations are from the beginning of the world; the purposes of God for the Church are before the foundation of the world. It is the mystery of Christ and the Church which was hid in God, kept secret since the world began, till it was given to Paul to communicate, and was revealed then to His holy apostles and prophets. (Rom. 16:25, 26; Eph. 3:2-10; Col. 1:24-27.)
Israel rejected and crucified their King. God raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, then the Holy Spirit came down to dwell in the Church, and every believer became in this way a member of the body of Christ. (1 Cor. 12:12, 13.)
In Eph. 5:22-33, the wife pictures the Church, and the husband pictures Christ. This mystic union is seen here in both ways, as His body and His bride.
In 2 Cor. 11:2, 3, the saints, or members of His body, are espoused to Christ as a chaste virgin, and warned not to be like Eve, who hearkened to Satan's wiles.
Following out Rom. 16:26, we go back to the prophetic scriptures (Gen. 1:26). There in figure is Christ and the Church reigning. (Rom. 8:17; 1 Cor. 6:2, 3; 2 Tim. 2:12.)
In Gen. 2 we have Adam, the figure of Him that was to come (Rom. 5:14), set over all things, but no companion is found for him, and it is not good for him to be alone. The Lord God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, and from his side took one of his ribs and made a woman out of it. When Adam saw her he said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." He recognized her as part of himself, and this was needed to make the complete man (Gen. 5:2). What a picture this is of Christ and the Church. It could not be Israel, for Christ must die before He could have His heavenly bride. She is taken out of His side, made for Him and made from Him, and she is His fullness or complement. (Eph. 1:19-23.)
In Gen. 22 the figurative death and resurrection of Isaac pictures the Father and Son in the work of atonement. Then in chapter 24 the Father sends His Servant to call a bride for His Son, and He meets her at the well. He, the Servant, adorns her, and fits her to be the bride of Christ with jewels of silver (redemption), jewels of gold, and raiment suited for her heavenly calling. Then the journey follows, led by the Holy Spirit (the Servant) who takes care of her all the way till she meets her Bridegroom. The Holy Spirit is leading home to the Lamb His bride.
We might speak of Joseph as type of the risen Christ and His bride, and of Moses and his bride. Joseph's bride answers to Eph. 1:3, and Moses' bride answers to Phil. 1:29, for Moses was at that time a type of the rejected Christ (Ex. 2).
Then John in Revelation tells us of the marriage of the Lamb, and His wife who has made herself ready.
But that is in heaven, and Israel could not be there. Then in chapter 21:1-8, we get eternity, and there we see the Church, the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, that is, in all her fresh virgin beauty (Eph. 3:21). Think of it, transformed out of such sinners as you and I had been. Wonderful grace! And she is the dwelling place of God at the same time.
From Rev. 21:9 to 22:5, we see her as the bride, the Lamb's wife, displaying His glory to the world in the millennium. (John 17:23; Eph. 1:12; 2:7 'Thess. 1:10.) There Israel is at her gates, and angels also are under her, because she is the bride, the Lamb's wife.
Israel is compared to a divorced woman now, who shall be restored, but always earthly. The Song of Solomon is about this earthly One. Jerusalem is the spouse, and the cities of Judah her companions, spoken of in this way as the object of her King's affections. We must remember it when we use that language in speaking of the Church.
John the Baptist in John 3:29, spoke of the Bridegroom. Israel's King was there, and he, a friend of the Bridegroom, rejoiced that He had come. But He, the King, was rejected, and John was beheaded, that God's great purpose concerning Christ and the Church should be fulfilled.