Becoming the Lord’s Beautiful Bride by the Washing in the Word to Express Christ

The Lord Jesus as our dear Bridegroom is the joy set before us; for us to meet Him as His beautiful bride, there is the need for the beauty of the bride – we need to have Christ wrought into us to be expressed through us, for our beauty is the shining out of Christ from within us. Amen!

Today we are in the process of being transformed and conformed to the image of Christ so that we may match Him for our marriage with Him.

As believers in Christ, our hope and future is not here on earth – it is in the heavens, with the Lord, our lovely Bridegroom.

We have been captured by the Lord and we have seen His preciousness.

He is the most lovely One, the most precious One, and we love Him. Our love for Him is beyond our love for anything or anyone else.

We love Him whom we have not seen, and we exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory because we enjoy Him as the unseen One.

Day by day, as we spend time with the Lord in His word, we enjoy Him, we have His appearing, and we love Him more.

He truly is the most lovely One, and we are drawn to Him day by day.

And in love with the Lord, we are willing to cooperate with HIm to be prepared as His bride.

Our loving relationship with the Lord is seen in type in the book of Song of Songs; we start as a wild person, seeking the Lord only for our satisfaction, and we go through a process of becoming the Shulammite, the same as our beloved Solomon.

Day by day we are in the process of becoming the bride of Christ.

We are learning to cooperate with the Lord to weave our wedding garment until one day we have it ready and we will enter into the wedding feast.

Our wedding garment is different from the best robe that the Father put on us to qualify us to enjoy Christ.

When we believed into the Lord, the Father God clothed us with Christ, our objective righteousness, for us to be qualified for our salvation and for our enjoyment of Christ.

And day by day, as we come to the Lord and He shines on our sins and trespasses, we can confess our sins and be cleansed by the precious, prevailing blood of Christ so that we may go on with the Lord and partake of His riches.

Besides this best robe, which nothing else can give us nor can we work on but we receive it for free, we need the second garment, the wedding garment.

This is by living Christ day by day. Christ needs to be lived out of us as our subjective righteousness.

There needs to be the many righteousnesses of the saints.

Our daily living matters in this respect. In our daily living, we are learning to live Christ; we are learning to live by the divine life so that Christ may be lived out of us as our subjective righteousness. Amen!

The Beauty of the Bride: Christ being Wrought into us to be Expressed through us as our Real Beauty

In Eph. 5:25-27 we see the beauty of the church as the bride of Christ; for our marriage with Christ, there needs to be the beauty of the bride.

How can we become beautiful in the eyes of the Lord?

Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her so that He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word, that He might present the church to Himself glorious. Amen!

The Lord Jesus not only loved us and died for us; He gave Himself up for us to shed His blood for our redemption and to release His life for our regeneration and for our washing to make us His bride. Amen!

As the bride, the church needs beauty; the beauty in Eph. 5 is for the presentation of the bride.

One day will come when the Lord will present the church to Himself glorious, beautiful, without any spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

On the wedding day, what is most appreciated is the beauty of the bride; it is not the skills of the bride nor is it her living but her beauty that impresses everyone.

We are today in the process of being prepared to be the bride of Christ, the beautiful bride of Christ.

We are living in a day in which the Lord is preparing His bride.

Day by day we’re undergoing a process of preparation, and one day, we will be presented to Him as His bride for our wedding day. Amen!

In Rev. 19:7-9 we see that one day the bride will be ready for the wedding day, fully prepared, and there is the beauty of the bride; until that day, we’re in the process of being prepared and beautified to be the bride of Christ.

The key to the preparation of the bride is seen in Eph. 5:25-27, the washing of the water in the word and Christ being wrought into the church to be lived out of her as her beauty.

The beauty of the bride of Christ comes from the Christ who is wrought into the church and who is then expressed through the church (Eph. 3:17).

Our only beauty is the shining out of Christ from within us.

It is not us trying to express God or please Him in our own efforts, nor is it our striving to do what the Bible says that is the beauty of the bride.

Beauty is something of the Lord being wrought into us and lived out of us to shine through us, the expression of Christ in us.

The beauty of the bride has nothing to do with what we are in our natural man; our natural kindness, gentleness, and meekness are not something that is pleasing to God.

God loves Christ, enjoys Christ, and delights in Christ; only the Christ who is wrought into us and then lived out through us is our beauty.

For this to happen, we need to remain under the washing of the water in the word.

Day by day we need to come to the Lord in His word and open to His washing.

There is pure water in the word.

We may think that we don’t remember much after reading the Bible and praying over it; however, we are washed by the water in the word for the removal of the spots and wrinkles.

We do not know what is on our face; we don’t know the spots and wrinkles that we have in our natural man.

When we live in our natural man and express the self, we are full of spots and wrinkles; this is not a pleasant sight before the Lord.

So we need to come to the Lord in His word and enjoy Him, partake of Him, and allow Him to work Himself into us.

Then, He within us will reconstitute us with Himself and will make us lovely before God.

As He works Himself into us through our fellowship with Him in His word and with the saints, He has a way to be lived out through us.

We are not conscious of it, but Christ lives in us when we enjoy Him and are washed by the water in the word.

May we remain in this process of being beautified to have the beauty of the bride and be one day presented before Christ as His glorious bride!

Lord Jesus, thank You for bringing us through the process of being prepared as the bride of Christ. We love You, Lord, and we want to be Your beautiful bride for our wedding day. We want to be prepared today and be made beautiful in Your sight for Your satisfaction. We open to You. We come to You in Your word; cleanse us by the washing of the water in the word. Sanctify us, Lord, as we come to Your word to enjoy You. Remove any spots and wrinkles and any such thing. Make us holy and without blemish. Oh Lord, we just open to You. Work Yourself into us and have a way to live in us. We do not want to try harder to please You; we simply open to You for You to work Yourself into us and live in us. We want to be part of Your beautiful bride who expresses Christ in her daily living. May there be the shining out of Christ from within us. Amen, Lord, we have the full assurance that we’re presently undergoing the process of being prepared as the bride of Christ! Hallelujah!

Partake of Christ, Digest Christ, and Assimilate Christ to be Beautified and be the Beautiful Bride Presented to Christ

In Eph. 4 we are told of the church as the one new man, where the emphasis is on the function; as the new man, the church has particular functions and does specific things.

In Eph. 5 the church is seen as the bride of Christ, and the main emphasis is on the beauty of the bride.

When we go to a wedding, everyone wants to see the bride and admire her beauty.

The first thing that stands out concerning a bride is not how skilful she is, how lovely she can sing or speak, or how many things she can do; it is her beauty that is appreciated and expected.

The church as the bride of Christ must be beautiful.

And the way we are beautified to be the bride of Christ is not by doing more things for the Lord or by reading the Bible more but by coming to the Lord in His word to eat Him and be washed by the water in the word.

Our living in this world causes us to have spots and wrinkles and many such things.

Our living in the natural man makes us old, full of spots and wrinkles.

We need to partake of Christ in His word, digest the Christ we have enjoyed, and assimilate Christ into our being so that we may be beautified and be the beautiful bride presented to Christ for our wedding day (2 Cor. 11:2; Col. 1:22; cf. Gen. 2:22).

Just as a woman prepares very much for that special day, the wedding day, and on that day she is the most lovely and beautiful person in that room, so the church as the bride of Christ is in the process of being beautified to be presented to Christ.

As believers in Christ, we need to remain in the process of being made the beautiful bride of Christ.

Our living needs to be Christ Himself. How can we live Christ? Only by eating Christ and partaking of His riches in His word.

Day by day, in our personal and intimate time with the Lord, we need to love the Lord, be affectionate with Him, and exercise our spirit to enjoy His riches.

We need to let Him wash us by the water in the Word and add His element to our being.

As we open to Him and allow the word to speak to us and shine on us, many spots and wrinkles will be exposed; we need to agree with the light and allow the Lord to remove any spots and wrinkles.

Our living in our old man is a spot, and our holding to doctrines, ordinances, and philosophies causes us to have many wrinkles.

We may be quite active in the church, serving the Lord and doing many things for Him, and we may have some constitution of the truth so that we speak according to the economy of God, but we are not beautiful.

When others look at our face, spiritually speaking, there are spots and wrinkles.

There are signs of oldness and there are defects, not because we don’t read the Bible or we don’t serve the Lord but because we’re not beautified.

It is crucial that we come to the Lord to be nourished with Him, cherished by Him, sanctified by Him, and purified by our enjoyment of the riches of Christ so that all our oldness and defects may be removed.

The Lord wants to gain a beautiful bride, a bride that He is enthralled by and fully captivated by.

As the bride, the church needs beauty; there is the need for the beauty of the bride.

Yes, we need to function in the church meetings, and yes, we need to be constituted with the truth, but we also need to be made beautiful before the Lord to be His beautiful bride.

The more we partake of Christ, digest Christ, and assimilate Christ, the more He removes our spots and wrinkles and adds His element to our being.

His riches with His divine attributes will become our beauty; then, we will be prepared to be presented to Christ as His lovely bride.

Lord Jesus, we want to eat Christ, partake of Christ, digest Christ, and assimilate Christ so that we may be beautified as the bride of Christ! Amen, Lord, work Yourself into us a little more today! Fill us with Yourself. We want to experience and enjoy the indwelling Christ so that He may replace our spots and wrinkles with His element! We want to enjoy the riches of Christ so that the divine attributes would become our human virtues and we become the beautiful bride of Christ. Amen, Lord, gain the beautiful bride that You desire! Prepare us as Your bride. Remove any spots and wrinkles and add more of Yourself to us. Oh Lord, we desire to match You in every possible way! We aspire to be presented to You as Your lovely bride for Your satisfaction in love! Lord Jesus, we love You! Make us Your beautiful bride to match You for our wedding day!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 95, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Enjoyment of Christ and our Growth in Life unto Maturity (2023 Thanksgiving Blending Conference), week 6, entitled, The Joy Set before Christ and the Joy Set before Us.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The bride – a matter of love, a portion from, Seven Aspects of the Church, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – The divine romance – a diagram, via, Conversant Faith.
  – What is the bride of Christ? Read more via, The Hearing of Faith newsletter.
  – New song on, Lovers of Christ, via, Hymnal.net.
  – The Betrothing Ministry, via, Shepherding Words.
  – 7 Wonderful Aspects of the Church in Ephesians, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Preparing Christ’s Bride – The Living of His Overcomers, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – New Jerusalem is the Bride of Christ, Adorned with Christ, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The church as the bride in Ephesians: the great mystery, article by David Yoon in, Affirmation and Critique.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The Lord is longing for His Bride, / All glorious within. / His heart will then be satisfied / When she is fit for Him. / Tis by the Word the church is made / Holy and pure as He; / All spots and wrinkles it removes / That she His Bride may be. (Hymns #1310 stanzas 1-2)
  – He will sanctify thee wholly; / Body, spirit, soul shall be / Blameless till thy Savior’s coming / In His glorious majesty! / He hath perfected forever / Those whom He hath sanctified; / Spotless, glorious, and holy, / Is the Church, His chosen Bride. (Hymns #825 stanza 4)
  – A glorious Bride He is preparing for His wedding day; / She’ll be so bright and pure, fine linen covering her. / O Lord, work in Thy righteousness, this is the only way; / And blessed we will be to join that feast with Thee. (Hymns #1311 stanza 3)