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An Overview of the Bridal Paradigm

The Bridal Paradigm, the picture of the church as the bride of Christ, is key to understanding our relationship with God. Throughout the scriptures, from Genesis to revelation, the bridal metaphor is one of God's primary pictures of how he relates to his people, yet for most of the church it is unfamiliar. In this sermon outline I will prove that the bridegroom/bride metaphor is key to our understanding of our relationship with Christ and explore the implications of the bridal paradigm.

Outline

  1. The Bridegroom – bride metaphor is key to our understanding of our relation ship to God.
    1. There are two essential relational metaphors that God uses to describe his relationship with his people.
      1. The first and primary metaphor is God as Father and us as children.
      2. We are discussing God (and Jesus the Messiah) as Bridegroom and the assembly / church as his bride.
    2. This “Bridal Paradigm” is a central feature of the entire body of scriptures.
      1. In the beginning God created man in his image, and he created us with the capacity to marry and to be given in marriage.
        1. God created marriage because it is part of his heart. He doesn’t just describe our relationship with him as a bridegroom because he saw us marrying each other and said, “Oh, that’s a good idea, I think I’ll do that.” or “Oh, I can use that as a sermon illustration.”
        2. We were created with the ability in us to become one with another person, and from that union goodness and dominion flow.
      2. The assembly of Israel is frequently spoken of as God’s bride.
        It will no longer be said to you, "Forsaken," Nor to your land will it any longer be said, "Desolate"; But you will be called, "My delight is in her," And your land, "Married"; For the LORD delights in you, And to Him your land will be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, So your sons will marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So your God will rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:4-5)
        "Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD, "I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, The love of your betrothals, Your following after Me in the wilderness, Through a land not sown." (Jeremiah 2:2)
        "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. "And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.' (Hosea 2:14-16)
      3. Jesus describes himself as the bridegroom.
        And Jesus said to them, "The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. "(Matthew 9:15 cf. Mark 2:19-20, Luke 5:34-35)
        Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son." (Matthew 22:1)
      4. Paul describes the church as the bride.
        For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:2-3)
        ...For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ... ...Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. ...no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:22-32)
      5. Jesus return is described as the marriage of the Lamb.
        "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he *said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" And he *said to me, "These are true words of God." (Revelation 19:7-9)
        These are just a small sample of the scriptures that describe our relationship to God as that of a bride to her husband.
  2. The Bridegroom – bride metaphor is key to understanding our relationship with Christ. How does Jesus love you and I? He loves us like a man loves his wife.
    1. Romantic love has the ability to bring profound, intense pleasure.
      1. The smallest affirmations, gifts, glances, gestures, touches between lovers cause emotions to race.
        "You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride; You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes, With a single strand of your necklace. How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, And the fragrance of your oils Than all kinds of spices!" (Song of Solomon 4:9-10)
      2. Yet love expressed always leaves us hungry for more and deeper expressions for love.
    2. Lovers give themselves to the diligent study of one another. Love is not blind but filled with knowledge.
    3. Husbands and wives both sacrifice their desires, their will to one another. In any successful marriage, both parties will sacrifice things for the sake of the relationship. Jesus gave his all for us and we put aside our agendas to serve His purposes.
    4. The wife is submissive to the husband as we are to be submissive to Christ. In a biblical marriage the husband has a lordship over the wife, and the wife submits to the husband.
      1. Jesus is not our a boyfriend who buys us candy and flowers continually. We have to obey him. His love language is obedience.
        "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." (John 14:15)
      2. We do not have a biblical understanding of what “lordship” is either. Men continually use their position of authority for their own gain, but Jesus uses authority for the good of those he governs.
        And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who have authority over them are called 'Benefactors.' But it is not this way with you, but the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant. For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves. " (Luke 22:25-27)
      3. Jesus leadership over us is not only loving, but also capable. It is a joy to submit to competent leadership. I’m very glad that Jesus has lordship over us forever, I really have no clue how to properly run the universe. The reason why many wifes find it very difficult to submit to their husbands, is that fallen sinful husbands are mostly incompetent.
    5. The husband and wife relationship is the only human relationship which is exclusive.
      1. Our relationship with God is clearly intended to be exclusive. So to we are commanded not to commit adultery.
        "You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God..." (Exodus 20:3-5)
      2. Our idolatry is adultery towards God. It causes deep pain in the heart of God. Just as there is no deeper pain than a lover betraying the one they love, there is no deeper pain for God than to see his people worship other gods.
        "But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by who might be willing. "You took some of your clothes, made for yourself high places of various colors and played the harlot on them, which should never come about nor happen. "You also took your beautiful jewels made of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images that you might play the harlot with them. "Then you took your embroidered cloth and covered them, and offered My oil and My incense before them. "Also My bread which I gave you, fine flour, oil and honey with which I fed you, you would offer before them for a soothing aroma; so it happened," declares the Lord GOD. "Moreover, you took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to Me and sacrificed them to idols to be devoured. Were your harlotries so small a matter? "You slaughtered My children and offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire. (Ezekiel 16:15-21)
        "You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband! "Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from every direction for your harlotries. "Thus you are different from those women in your harlotries, in that no one plays the harlot as you do, because you give money and no money is given you; thus you are different." (Ezekiel 16:32-34)
        Also see: Leviticus 20:4-6, Deuteronomy 31:16, Judges 2:17, 1 Chronicles 5:25, Psalms 106:35-39, Jeremiah 2:23-25, 3:1-3, Ezekiel 23:37, Hosea 1:2, 4:12, Malachi 2:11
      3. We severely under estimate the impact we have on God’s heart. God doesn’t feel less because he is God, he feels far more. We are the only thing that the king lacks. All things really are his, yet we withhold ourselves, and even more than that, offer ourselves to other gods. He wants a pure and spotless bride, who loves Him and Him alone.
      4. Yet though we have defiled ourselves with our many idols (self worship, aka humanism being the foremost, with materialism close behind), he still want us. He longs to show us his love at all times, he is just waiting for us to turn toward him and acknowledge our sin.
  3. The Bridegroom – bride metaphor is key to understanding the redemptive plan of God.
    1. Basic structure of a Jewish wedding
      1. Engagement is a binding legal agreement in near-eastern cultures. When you are engaged, you are married, just not yet living in the same house.
      2. The engagement contract is put into effect through a dowry. According to the value of the bride the bridegroom pays a certain amount of money.
      3. A predefined time would pass in which feast preparations would be made at the groom’s father’s house.
      4. Typically the wedding occurred as the friends of the bridegroom came to the bride’s house and escorted her to the bridegroom’s father’s house. From that point the bride and their relatives would wait for some hours until they heard the cry of the bridegroom’s friends.
      5. At that point the bridegroom and his friends would enter the house, and the festivities (often lasting days!) would begin.
    2. Likewise God has:
      1. Laid out the terms of the marriage on Mt. Sinai.
      2. Paid our dowry on the cross.We should never struggle with feeling rejected by God. God already has demonstrated the lengths he will go to to have us. He can’t pay any higher cost to purchase us than he already did!
      3. And he is coming to bring us into his father’s house.No one likes a long engagement. Let’s say for a moment that I’m engaged to a beautiful woman, and that she’s living in Chicago. I’m on my way to get married, I’m driving through Indiana, though Illinois and I stop and get some gas. Now while I’m in the gas station I walk by the beef jerky section... So I spend the next 10 years of my life in the BP station tasting all 21 flavors of beef jerky. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s not too far from what we do with Jesus. We so easily lose touch with the eternal riches of Christ and so fall in love with unworthy objects of our attention.
    3. Let us commit ourselves to the Lord. We must be a people who love him only. He is longing for us... We repent for our idolatry...

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