Ecclesiology Through Imagery
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
This week we continue considering images about the Church, or “Ecclesiology Through Imagery.” In a more common expression these sessions might be thought of as “Insights Through Images.” This variety of common images serves to help us understand more about the formation, function and future of the Church.
We began last week with the image of the Church as a body, specifically as the “body of Christ.” This week the image is that of a bride, specifically the “bride of Christ.”
Those who have come to saving faith in Christ are betrothed to Him and from henceforth are awaiting the heavenly marriage supper. This is the image with which the Bible draws to its grand conclusion in the final four chapters of the Book of Revelation.
In Revelation 19 we read this exhortation: “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready” (v. 7). This is followed by the benediction, “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb” (v. 9).
Then in the climactic vision of the New Jerusalem, an angel issues an invitation, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife” (21:9). In the Bible’s concluding chapter we read of God’s final invitation saying “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’” (22:17).
Beloved by Christ
These references to the Church as Christ’s bride are foreshadowed by the extended analogy of Christ and the Church in terms of a husband and wife (Eph. 5:22–33). Not only are we betrothed to Christ, this earthly illustration of human marriage yields several other spiritual truths about the Church as a bride.
For example, the Church is beloved by Christ, as suggested by the instruction, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her” (v. 25). Without doubt or controversy, Christ loves those who comprise the Church. We are loved by His self-sacrificing, all-forgiving, life-restoring love displayed through His death on the cross.
Not only is the Church betrothed to and beloved by Christ, we also are protected by Him. In an ideal earthly marriage a husband is the protector of his wife and his family.
Christ’s protection of those who are His beloved and betrothed is forcefully set forth in His well-known declaration in John 10:27–28, “My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”
A good earthly husband also is the provider for his family, given the mental and physical capability of doing so as well as having an opportunity to work.
This imagery is a reminder that Christ seeks to be the Provider for His bride, the Church. He provides spiritual food for our nourishment and growth. If we allow Him the opportunity, Christ will nourish us on sound doctrine just as a husband provides physical and emotional nourishment for his wife: “So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the Church” (Eph. 5:28–29).
So, the Church ideally devotes herself to the study and digesting of Holy Scripture in order to be nourished and built up by sound teaching.
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