THE COVERING BRIDE
CONT., page 6
CHRIST AND HIS BODY
There is a point here that should be briefly addressed. Frankly, it could be a writing all its own, but for now we will only lightly address it. An interesting dilemma arises, at least in the minds of some, with Yahweh's advent of the body of Christ. Since the body of Christ is not the same as the bride of Christ, this raises the question of to whom this bride is joined — to the body of Christ or to Christ Himself? When Christ's bride is taken up to be united with Him, for in truth she is the bride of Christ, then to whom is she joined — Christ or the body of Christ?
The problem with this seeming contradiction or conflict is that one is attempting to separate Christ and His body, "the fullness of Him" (Ephesians 1:23). The body of Christ is, quite simply, just that — Christ's body, the fullness of Him upon this earth. One cannot separate Christ and His body. The two are inseparably ONE.
When the bride of Christ is taken up to heaven to be united with Christ Himself, there is no compromise that the Rebekah will be taken into His mother's tent, Jerusalem above, and joined to the Son of promise — the Isaac. There will be a union of the two there that is not diminished or compromised in any regard. Christ will have His bride, and the two will become one flesh — resurrected, immortal, incorruptible, heavenly-born flesh. But, even as Christ and His bride become one, in truth Christ and His body are one. So, when the bride is joined to Christ, inescapably she is joined to the body of Christ.
If you attempt to be a concrete thinker here, you will be perplexed. There are some mysteries that are just that — mysteries. Concrete thought does not lend itself to two separate entities being one. But without a doubt, this oneness of the Father with the Son as well as with man, is the goal of God, expressed in Christ's prayer in the last verses of John 17 — "Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us." How can a man and a woman be one? They become one in marriage — two but one. How can Christ and His body be one? We know they are, both in experience and in hope. So, when the bride of Christ is joined to Christ in heaven, since Christ and His body are one, one cannot now distinguish Christ from His body so as to surmise that this bride is somehow joined to two husbands. She is not. To the great benefit of the body of Christ, when the bride is joined to Christ, she is in truth legally joined to Christ's body as well.
One of the problems of grasping these issues involving two being one, is that their fulfillment is at the much higher spiritual level and not the natural. On that higher level, the laws and ways of Yahweh still apply, but the constraints of these earthly dimensions no longer exist. Although the natural is important in that it reveals the spiritual (the natural preceding the spiritual — 1 Corinthians 15:46), the spiritual does not have the immense limitations of the natural. Thus, when a bride is united with Christ in heaven, in harmony with the will and purpose of God she is equally united to the body of Christ on earth, Christ and His body being one. And we have already seen the important and necessary benefits she affords the body. In the end, as is the will of God, ALL will become one — the Father, the Son, His body, the bride, as well as all the offspring from the union of the body of Christ and His bride. It is these offspring that we will consider in the next section.
Continue to page 7 of The Covering Bride for WHO ARE THESE GODLY OFFSPRING?