Devotional - The Bride and the House from Heaven (1)
(Reflection - November 2003)

The two subjects of the bride and the house from heaven are so closely linked it appears appropriate to study them together.  In deciding which should come first, there are good reasons, as we shall note, for starting with the bride.

A city, a bride
In a truly wonderful vision, John sees “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2 RV). We first take note of the occurrence here of the expression “out of heaven” (ek tou ouranou) which engaged our attention when we were considering the Lord’s words in John 6 (see Tidings, 1/2003).

In Revelation 21, after a passage concerned with the tabernacle of God, we read again of the bride. John is transported in the spirit “to a mountain great and high” (v. 10). The previous verse informs us the subject of the vision is “the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” The lady is presented as a city, and in keeping with this concept, we read about its walls and gates. However, our present concern will not be with what we may term the physical details but with this key thought: the redeemed are portrayed as a bride who comes down from heaven.

The Baptist knew the concept
John the Baptist was evidently familiar with the concept. After earlier making it clear he was not the Messiah, but merely his predecessor, and twice hailing Jesus as the Lamb of God (John 1:19-23,29,36; 3:28). He later testified: “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled” (John 3:29). For him, the Lord Jesus was the bridegroom, a thought which implied that the Lord’s followers would constitute the bride. When he hears the Lord’s voice, he declares his joy is “fulfilled” (“now full” RSV).

There  is a fascinating and unexpected link here with what is recorded in Luke 1:41-44.  When Mary visited her cousin Elisabeth, the unborn John leaped in Elisabeth’s womb for joy.  Here was a remarkable anticipation of the joy John was to know as the Lord’s predecessor.  When that came his way, he declared the Lord to be the bridegroom.  This, in itself, is a striking witness to John’s inspired insight, for in the process he invokes, and perpetuates, one of the great figures of the Old Testament.

The bride in the Old Testament
In a number of places the relationship between God and His people is portrayed as that of husband and wife.  Jeremiah, who has so many rebukes for his contemporaries, revives the memory of happier days: “Thus saith the LORD, I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals; how thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown” (Jer. 2:2).  In a later appeal through the prophet, Yahweh says to His people: “Return, ye backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am a husband unto you” (3:14, see also Isa. 54:5).

Hosea, who experienced Gomer’s infidelities, prophesied of an enduring relationship between God and Israel: “And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies” (Hos. 2:19).

The Lord Jesus as husband
This great work was continued by the Lord Jesus who, in this respect as in others, takes over his Father’s role, hereby becoming the husband of God’s people, embracing the Jews, and later, the Gentiles.  It is this intimate relationship which the Baptist foresees in John 3:29, and thus demonstrates he is a true successor of the prophets of Israel.  His use of this figure is endorsed by the Lord himself when, in an early anticipation of his death, he said of himself, “The days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them [his followers], and then will they fast” (Matt. 9:15; Mk. 2:20; Lk. 5:35).

It is no surprise that Paul who did so much for the extension of the church uses the same figure of which we have taken note: “For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (II Cor. 11:2).  In a celebrated passage in Ephesians 5, the apostle portrays the love the Lord shows for his church as a model for husbands (Eph. 5:25-33).

Prepared in heaven
Yet what of John’s vision in Revelation 21 where he sees, “the bride, the wife of the lamb” (v. 9), as a city coming down out of heaven from God.  There can be only one conclusion: in some sense the bride is being prepared in heaven.  But why as a city?  It is apparent we are not to think of walls and gates, but of the men and women who are the citizens.

Here, as so often, the Apostle Paul proves helpful.  In writing to the Philippians, he states: “For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (3:20).  The declaration would be very meaningful to the Philippians.  They lived in a Roman colony.  In BC 42, a celebrated victory had been won in the neighborhood of Philippi by Antony and Octavian (the later Emperor Augustus) over the republicans Brutus and Cassius.  To celebrate the event, Antony arranged for the establishment of a Roman colony at Philippi.^[i]   What then Paul is saying to his Philippian readers is this: precious as may be Roman citizenship in the city where you live, what really is important for you is that your citizenship is a heavenly one.  “Your way of life, with its obligations and privileges, is being determined, not by the imperial government at Rome, but by the Lord Jesus in heaven.”  This is a reflection of the greatest importance for us today, as followers of the Lord Jesus.

A heavenly calling
We acquire, as an act of divine grace, a new and elevated status in our Lord.  The Apostle indicates as much in his Ephesian letter: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3).  Then again, in the same epistle, we read God has raised us up with the Lord, “and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus” (2:6).  It is doubtless difficult for us to grasp the full significance of this language.  The spiritual reality, and this is the only reality which finally matters, is that we are with our Lord, at God’s right hand in Christ Jesus.

What is implied by the vital truths which Paul sets before us is spelt out by him in his letter to the Colossians: “If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.  Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth” (3:1-2).

We are by nature earthbound creatures and we need truly to be reborn and accept, throughout life, a process of re-education.  Inevitably, we must be concerned with the needs of our creature life, but these should always be a means, and not an end in themselves.  To achieve this, we need to heed Paul’s words: “Set your minds on the things that are above.”  There is no aspect of our human activity which we need more constantly to examine than what goes on in our minds.  How often do we think about our Father in heaven?  How often do we think about the Lord Jesus, his teaching and his example?  Yet that is essential if we are to develop the mind of Christ.

It is no coincidence, surely, that Paul, who tells the Philippians their citizenship is in heaven, earlier exhorts them to develop that mind “which was also in Christ Jesus” (2:5).  The Apostle indicated to the Corinthians what is the ideal: “Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor. 10:5).   Here is a programme for life.  When we reflect upon the multitude of thoughts that have occupied, and so easily continue to occupy, our minds, we may blush and feel a sense of shame.  Perhaps what finally distinguishes a believer from his fellows in the world is this consciousness of the need to think, and act, like our Lord.

Paul’s citizenship was in heaven
Paul himself is a wonderful example of one whose life was centred in, and bound up with, the Lord Jesus.  Socially he had grounds for boasting: to the Roman officer who rescued him in the temple precincts, he could declare he was a citizen of Tarsus, no mean city (Acts 21:39).  When later he was in grave danger of being lynched and was rescued by a centurion, he claimed to the utter astonishment of the chief officer he was a freeborn Roman citizen (Acts 22:28).  On various occasions he exercised the legitimate privileges of citizenship (as at Philippi, where he declared that he and Silas were Roman citizens, Acts 16:37).  He had other grounds for self-congratulation: his prowess in the Jewish faith was impressive (Gal. 1:14), and his record as a servant of Jesus Christ was unmatched (see notably II Cor. 11:16-28).

Yet the last thing the Apostle would have contemplated would have been to make his curriculum vitae the ground of self-advertisement or self-promotion.  Indeed, he counted all things but refuse (RSV) that he might win Christ (Phil. 3:8).  He had found “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 2:8).  When he made that discovery, all his great energies, all his varied talents, were directed to making these riches his own, and helping his fellows to do the same.  May we, in a much more modest way, emulate his great example.

Tom Barling

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