Chapter 3 - The Bride of Christ

Eve was taken OUT of the body of Adam. Notice that it was not the whole body of Adam which made the bride. So, too, out of the Body of Christ can come His Bride. This also is brought about by a separation—He calls the overcoming group His Bride. The whole group, or body, is not the Bride. The highest expression in God’s thought, He calls the Bride.

God is using the world to hammer out a Bride. They Crucified Jesus. Do you think we are going to have any more glorious ending? Don’t worry; we will have to know something of the fellowship of the sufferings and defeat of the Bridegroom. He went home in shame and disgrace, without the applause and satisfaction of the world—He went out in darkness. Do you think the Bride is going home on a bandwagon? A lot of people are trying to get that bandwagon painted up now, so it will play real good.

Where will the Bride—the overcomers—be in this picture? She will be identified with a slain Bridegroom, and the Bride will know something of being slain. The Bride of Christ will know the slain life, and she will go home as a slain Bride in union with the Bridegroom. She comes from the desert, leaning. As long as there is an ounce of flesh, she will stand in her own strength. God has to reduce and deplete her, and bring her to complete exhaustion of self-effort. In Song of Solomon we read: “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” In Hosea 2:14 it says, “. . . I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.”—He charms her and allures her into the wilderness so that He can speak love words to her. It is a love scene; a trysting, so that He might speak love words to her; to have her whole attention; to have her whole heart. Leaning means dependence. We see John at the Last Supper leaning on Jesus’ bosom; there is a language between them. Jesus waits for somebody to come near enough to hear His heartbeat—breaking.

In the Song of Solomon, toward the end, the Bride becomes so intense with longing for her Bridegroom, that she dares to speak. I suppose as we, too, go on with God, we become so bold in our resistance to the world that we become almost offensive to people. They will say: “Where are your interests? Don’t you have any touch for the world? Can’t you be absorbed in it?” We just say, “We can’t. We have none.” Our interests are not here. They are over there with Him: The Bride, right in the presence of that King Solomon (the world) declares it, as he turns and describes her beautifully as she really is. He describes her, and the world knows there is something peculiar, because she won’t come under the philosophy of this world, but under the philosophy of the Spirit. “Forget thy people;” (human contacts) who have served us. The time comes when God won’t let us have a crutch to stand on. HE wants to be the satisfying portion. “Forget thy people”—it doesn’t mean we don’t like them any more—but we don’t let them have an influence in our life. We become independent of them; released. We keep them in their proper place. “Forget thy people and thy father’s house”—a separation as was the case with Rebekah. (Genesis 24) “My father’s house” is our natural concept of life; the natural flesh concept.

If we dare to lean, we will hear! He is wooing us again to a mystical union with the eternal heart of God.

The Church is holding us back from the coming of the Lord. “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.” (Revelation 19:7)