“Come here, I shall show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” (Revelation 21:9-14, NASB)

You all probably heard the popular wedding march. However, do you know the lyrics that accompany that song? The song begins with, “Here comes the bride, all dressed in white…” Over time, people have created different additional lyrics, so there are many versions of the rest of the song. As I read today’s passage, I can hear that wedding march, at least the melody of it. It speaks of the introduction of the “bride, the wife of the Lamb.” It says,

“And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me, saying, ‘Come here, I shall show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are those of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”

One of the angels who had the seven bowls of judgment showed John a vision of the “bride” coming down from heaven. He identified it as “the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” So, who or what is the bride of the Lamb? First of all, Lamb here represents Jesus Christ, so the bridegroom is the same person. As to the identity of the bride, many pastors and Bible teachers teach that the church is the bride of Christ. They cite Paul’s writing, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph.5:25). However, according to today’s passage, the bride of Christ is a city called “the holy city, Jerusalem.” So, which is it, the people or the city? I believe that it is not either-or, but both-and. The bride of Christ is both people and the city where they will live. For example, when the prodigal son returned home, he said to his father, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight” (Lk.15:21). He was using the word “heaven” to refer to both God and His dwelling place. Obviously, he was not saying that he literally “sinned against heaven,” but confessing that he had sinned against God. Similarly, the bride of Christ refers to both the people of God and the city of God in synonymous terms. The bride of Christ is both the people of God and the new Jerusalem, their eternal home.

I especially like the way the angel said, “I shall show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb,” rather than saying “the wife of Christ,” showing that the bride is the people of God for all time, not just Christians. Although Christ and the Lamb are speaking of the same person, the image of the Lamb of God dates back to the Garden of Eden, indicating that the bride is more than the church. Revelation 21:27 says that “only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” are able to enter into this new Jerusalem. In other words, the Lamb of God wrote the names of the saints since the beginning of time. Therefore, the bride is the people of God from the beginning of time to the end of time. The Genesis account says that God clothed Adam and Eve with “garments of skin,” but does not specify what kind of animal He slayed. (I personally believe that it was a lamb.) The idea of an animal being sacrificed on behalf of people appears in the stories of Abraham (Gen.22:13-14), Moses (Ex.12:1-20), the sacrificial system of Israel (Lev.1:1-2), and Jesus himself as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn.1:29). The prophetic gospel about the lamb who will take away the sins of the world had been preached in the Old Testament. In other words, the bride consists of people of God from Adam all the way to the very last person who will believe.

Another proof that the bride of Christ is more than the church is seen in the following vision of the city’s walls. Verses 12-13 says that John saw that the city had “a great and high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are those of the twelve tribe of the sons of Israel…  and the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” Notice that the wall of the city had inscriptions of the names of the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of Christ. Therefore, it is logical to say that the holy city will be home to believers from both the Old and New Testaments. Who is the bride of the Lamb? It is anyone who believes that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

• What do you think? Is the bride, the wife of the Lamb, a city or believers?
• How do you think Jesus’ promise to prepare a place for you, and will come again for us relate to today’s reading? (Jn.14:3)
• How does it make you feel knowing that you have a place in the new Jerusalem?