One of the many ways the New Testament describes the church is as the bride of Christ. But what exactly does this mean?

The bride of Christ is  best understood as the universal, capital C church, which is made up of all believers from all people groups across all time. As Christ’s bride, the church faithfully waits for the day when Christ will return and heaven and earth will be one.

The picture of the church as a bride speaks to the permanence of Christ’s relationship with the church. 

From the beginning, marriage was intended by God to be a lasting covenant between a man and a woman (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:5). But it was also always intended as a small picture, a living parable, of Christ’s relationship with His church. 

Jesus, the perfect bridegroom, is always faithful in His love for His bride. He will never leave or forsake her. He is unrelenting in His pursuit of her good, and He sacrifices everything so that she will be presented pure and blameless. 

And He will continue to seek her good until the day that all things are made new, when all of creation will celebrate the marriage of the Lamb and His bride.