Who Is The

Bride of Christ?

By Bishop Frank Duprée

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In the Book of Revelation in chapter 21:9, 10 we see John the Apostle carried away “in the spirit” to a “great and high mountain” where he is shown The Bride, the Lamb’s Wife. If you are going to see The Bride you too must be carried away in the spirit to a great and high mountain today. You have to see things as you’ve possible never seen them before. You cannot look from the earthly plane. No, you must ascend up into the heights of “revelation knowledge” and look from God’s viewpoint. If you read this from the earthly plane you will, quite honestly, miss the truth of God’s Word and instead follow the traditions of men. Come with me. Say a prayer and enter the “spiritual realm” and I will show you The Bride, the Lamb’s Wife as the Scriptures portray her.

 

 If you go to just about any Church in the world and ask the question; “Who is the Bride?” you will, more than likely, be told that it is the Church; The Body of Christ. But that dear reader is not the answer that the Holy Scriptures gives us. To find the answer to that question we will first have to go and look at Joseph and Mary in the Gospel of Luke. Read chapter 1:26,27 with me; “And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,  To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.” And 2:4, 5; “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.”

 

Joseph and Mary were not yet “married” although they were living together after the Angel spoke to Joseph in a dream and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife. Read Matthew 1:24,25; Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.” You see, Joseph and Mary were “espoused”. That means that they were engaged.  

 

Before they were engaged Mary was visited by the Angel Gabriel and the Holy Spirit came upon her and she conceived Jesus in her womb. When Joseph found that Mary was pregnant he was going to end the engagement quietly. This meant that he was going to “divorce” her in a private manner so as not be bring attention to her. He had to go through a formal divorce because to be “espoused” to the Jewish people of the time meant that a “marriage contract” had been signed. Joseph was going to dissolve it. Then the Angel came to him in a dream and spoke to him.

 

After that he “took unto him his wife” but the important part is that he did not “know her until” after Jesus was born. They had a ceremony but never consummated the marriage until after Jesus was born. After that blessed event they had normal marital relations and had children; the brothers and sisters of Jesus that the Gospels tell us of.   

 

There were three distinct stages in their relationship:

1.     The “Espousal”:        This is the time of promise: they have a contract to wed

 

2.     The “Positional State”:       They were legally “married” but they did not consummated the marriage until after Jesus was born.

 

3.     The “Experiental Stage”:    After Jesus was born Joseph and Mary consummated their marriage and were fully man and wife.

 These three stages parallel our relationship to Jesus and typify the stages for a Christian to become The Bride, the Lamb’s Wife!

 

Read 2 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.” Do you see it? Paul the Apostle tells the Church that by bringing them the good news and their acceptance of it, being Born Again, they have been “espoused” to Christ as a “chaste virgin”. When we are Born Again we enter into a “marriage contract” and are promised to Christ. This is the first stage. The second stage is the “positional” stage.

 This is where we live in relationship with Him although we have not yet consummated the marriage. We are “pregnant” with Christ within us, the Hope of Glory. But now we have to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”. Why? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 9:27; “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” Interesting word, this word “castaway”. The New American Standard Bible translates it “disqualified”!

 

Here is a much richer meaning! I will show you why but you must come up into the great and high mountain in the spirit before you can see the revelation of the Holy Spirit. In order to become “the Bride of Christ” we have to be qualified! How? We must become “Overcomers”. It is the one that overcomes that will sit with Him in His Throne… all others will serve Him forever. Only the Bride will reign with Him.

Now you can understand the words of Paul in Philippians 3:7-14

“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 

 

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

 

Paul wants “to win Christ” and so he presses onward to the “high calling of God in Christ Jesus”.

 

Beloved, our High Calling is to press onward through all things and overcome so that we should not be castaways; disqualified ones but rather that we should leave all things behind and win Christ also!

 

This is where He wants us! This is what every trial and test brings us closer to. To move from Promise to Fulfillment!

 

I’m doing all I can to press on… are you?