An Extract.
I WOULD here remark, that it is never stated in Scripture that Jesus shall reign over the Church. The Church is the bride―the Lamb’s wife―His destined partner and companion in glory; and when He comes He will present her to Himself without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; then shall she share with Him His glory, and His crown. The Church is the body of Christ―bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh; it was of Christ and the Church the apostle spake, when he said, “they twain shall be one flesh,” which he calls “a great mystery.” (Ephesians 5:32.) This mystery was set forth at “sundry times” in types and shadows from the beginning. As an instance of this we may bring forward Adam, who, we are told, was a “figure of Him that was to come.” (Romans 5:14.) If we behold him as a lord of the creation, set over the works of God’s hands, with all things put in subjection under his feet, do we not also see Eve at his right hand, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, his partner and companion in all this glory? (Genesis 1:27, 28.) Now, here we have typically brought before us Christ, the last Adam―Lord of “the world to come”― “crowned with glory and honor,” with all things put in subjection under His feet, and His bride, the Church, His joint and fellow-heir set upon the throne with Him (Revelation 3:21), perfectly conformed to His image. (Philippians 3:21.) And I would press the subject the more, as it is too much lost sight of by many of the Lord’s people in the present day, who bring forward such passages as, “He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever,” and tell us the house of Jacob means the Church. If this be true, the Church are the subjects of the kingdom, not “joint-heirs” with the King. Observe, it is not said, the house of Jacob shall reign with Him, as it is of the Church (2 Tim. 2:12; Revelation 9:6), but He shall reign over the house of Jacob, that is, over the Jewish nation, then restored and converted.