“And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son.”   ~Matthew 22:1-2

Who is the bride of Christ? A church in Bible prophecy is referred to as a woman. Therefore God’s faithful church is His bride— we the saints who love Him are His bride—those who choose to accept His sacrifice on the cross are the bride of Christ.

If we are the bride then Jesus is the groom, and He wants to put His white robe over us—cover our sins with His pure righteousness. This is why a bride traditionally wears a long white gown, it is a symbol of purity. Jesus wants to make us all pure again by covering our sins.

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.”   ~Isaiah 61:10

To get the most out of this post, please read Matthew 22:1-14 or Luke 14:7-35. These are both an accounting of Jesus telling this wonderful parable about His undying love for every single one of us. This is quite possibly one of the most beautiful stories in the Bible. Just the fact that Jesus considers us to be His beautiful bride is absolutely amazing to me. I don’t know about you but I’ve never felt beautiful enough to be the bride of the Most-High King of the universe!

Jesus tells the story of a wedding feast in which a king prepares a banquet for his son and daughter-in-law. Unfortunately, these invited guests are not willing to come. The king then sends his servants out again to tell those who are invited that he’s prepared a special feast for them. Once again the guests decline the invitation.

Then the king says to his servants, the wedding is ready, but those who were invited did not want to come. Therefore go out again and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.

Jesus showed that the first ones called all turned away from the invitation. He goes on to show that everyone is invited to the marriage banquet but not all will want to come. Jesus calls all of us to come to a wedding banquet that has been prepared for those who love Him.

“…Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!…”   ~Revelation 19:9

What excuses do we make for not accepting this invitation? Unless we have put on Christ’s robe of righteousness (the wedding garment), we will be cast out! God wants all to come to this great supper.

"For many are called, but few are chosen."   ~Matthew 22:14

The original guests that were invited were referencing the Jewish people. The Jews believed that because they were God’s chosen people nothing else was required of them to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. They didn’t believe they needed to be invited to the wedding feast, they just assumed they were automatically going because of who they were.

And then, the Jews who ignored the servants is a reference to those who ignored all of the prophets that came to deliver the message of God, as well as all of those who simply refused to believe in Jesus.

The guests who were invited afterward are the gentiles (the Godless). This parable shows that the Kingdom of God is open to everyone, not just the Jews.

Then at the end of the parable, we see an interaction between the king and a man who was not dressed appropriately. The king ordered the servants to bind this man and throw him into the darkness where he will cry and gnash his teeth. This inappropriately dressed man represents those who are not prepared for a complete commitment to Jesus—they want to go to heaven, but on their own terms. These are the people that are unfaithful and unwilling to surrender to Christ’s authority—unwilling to keep God’s Laws and Commandments.

Jesus desires that none should perish, that all should come to His great wedding feast. He is patiently waiting for us to accept His invitation that was written in His own blood…but He knows that not everyone will choose to attend.

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”   ~2 Peter 3:9

This parable is the actual true story of all of humanity. God had chosen the people of Israel to be His faithful bride, they refused His invitation repeatedly by being unfaithful to His word—then they completely severed themselves from Him when they refuse to accept that He, Jesus, had come in the flesh. Just like the rest of humanity that have done the same by refusing His gospel.

We are all unfaithful, we all fall away, we all sin! But if we accept His sacrifice as payment for our sins we are forgiven.

Who is the Bride in the Bible?

The Bride is the pure faithful church, and the Groom is Jesus. We must become willing to die to self, in order to live in Christ! We must die to sin to be born again!

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”   ~Isaiah 61:10

If we truly want to consider ourselves as the bride of Christ, we must dress appropriately, we must take off our old self, and put on our wedding garment. We must acknowledge the invitation, get to know our groom intimately by reading His word and spending time with Him. Then and only then will we be ready to spread the word of this incredible event to all who will listen.

This process is also known as dying to self/sin. It’s when we make a conscious decision to stop sinning and then ask for help. With the help of the Holy Spirit, which He gives liberally, we can all overcome. It is a process—an inch by inch, day by day process.

“For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   ~Romans 6:9-11

Marriage supper of the Lamb

This future imagery of a great wedding is taken from both the Old and New Testaments. The above parable is repeated throughout the Bible, and then again at the end in the book of Revelation. The marriage supper of the Lamb is a symbolic representation of the joyful, intimate, and eternal relationship between Jesus (the Lamb of God) and His bride (the faithful church).

“And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! 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. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb! And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God.”   ~Revelation 19:6-9

Understanding that we are the bride is at the very core of these verses. We are the bride, Jesus is the groom, and the wedding garment is His perfect life that covers our sins—the robe of righteousness. Without this garment we will be forced to stand on our own sinful merits—we will be clothed in our own filthy dirty rags (sins)!

“But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”   ~Isaiah 64:6

God tells us, in no uncertain terms, that on our own we will be found guilty! Every stinking one of our sins will be on our own heads. Our futile efforts to cover our iniquities are as useless as Adam and Eve trying to cover their nakedness with leaves. These leaves shriveled up and faded, leaving them exposed once again!

The nakedness of our original parents reveals to us that their sins were exposed, and on their own, they could do nothing to hide this condition from their all-seeing Creator God. We too are in this same exact situation. We can do nothing to cover our sinfulness but surrender to our all-loving Creator and allow Him to cover us with His perfect robe of righteousness.

“He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And to him He said, See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”   ~Zechariah 3:4

Put on the wedding garment—

the Robe of Righteousness!

God wants all of us the be clothed in Christ’s perfection—His robe of righteousness—His garment of salvation. This is the only thing that can cover our sins. We all have the exact same opportunity to take hold of this garment that He is offering to each and every one of us. It is simply a choice.

We can’t just take hold of it, accept that Jesus is the Saviour, open our Bibles and read a little bit but never become willing to make this eternal commitment. We can’t just take this garment but never put it on. We have to be all in! We have to be 100% committed to being married forever to our wonderful Creator. We have to want more than anything to spend every day for all of eternity with Jesus. Then and only then will we be clothed in His robe—ready to make the change—take off the old and put on the new.

“If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”   ~Ephesians 4:21-24

To read this most beautiful parable in its entirety go to Luke 14:7-35 and Matthew 22:1-14.

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