Church as the Bride of Christ will become a Glorious Church with Christ as Her Beauty

The church as the bride of Christ will eventually become a glorious church, a God-expressing church, with no spots or wrinkles but beautified in every way, washed by the water in the living word of God and having the wedding garment, which is the righteousnesses of the saints, the lived-out Christ in the saints. Amen, Lord, keep us in the process of being sanctified and washed until we become the glorious and beautiful bride of Christ!

What can we say when we see that the Lord wants to gain His bride? What is our reaction when we realise that the main work of God in His recovery today is to gain the bride of Christ?

We need to simply give ourselves to the Lord, open to Him without any reservation, and be those who cooperate with Him for His building work, His perfecting work, and His beautifying work! Amen!

We may be a brother in Christ, and we may want to be strong in the Lord; however, in the Lord’s eyes, we are all His wife, His bride, and we need to desire to be beautified by Him.

We do not beautify ourselves to become beautiful in our own eyes or in the eyes of others; rather, as Ephesians 5:25-27 tells us, we come to the Lord in His word to be washed by the water in the word and be made into a glorious church!

Oh, we do not know how many impurities, spots, wrinkles, and old things we have in us until we come to the Lord’s word to prayerfully consider it!

If we just allow the Lord to speak to us in His word, if we just open to Him and exercise our spirit to have His present speaking in His word and in the meetings of the church, we not only have the Lord’s presence but even more, we are washed, cleansed, and sanctified!

There’s an inward, metabolic process going on in our being as we read and pray over the word of God; the old element is removed, and the Lord’s new element is added to us.

On the one hand, thank the Lord that we have His precious blood for us to apply whenever we sin and the Lord exposes our sin; we apply the blood and He is faithful and righteous to cleanse us and wash us.

On the other hand, we have the Lord’s living word, His rhema word, which cleanses us from any impurity, spots, wrinkles, or any such things, so that we may be beautified to be the Lord’s glorious church.

May we treasure the Lord’s speaking and may we open to Him so that He may speak to us again and again.

May we have His instant and present speaking in us in the morning and in the evening, and even throughout the day, so that we may be under His constant washing, cleansing, and sanctifying!

The Church as the Bride of Christ will become a Glorious Church having Christ as Her Beauty, a God-expressing Church

Ephesians 5:27 reveals to us that the church as the bride of Christ will eventually become a glorious church, for Christ as the Bridegroom, will present the church to Himself glorious, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

The church is becoming a God-expressing church, having Christ as her beauty for her to be desired by the Lord and presented to Him as His bride. Hallelujah!

May we not think that we know this, we agree with this, and we have heard this before; may we take the word of God into us by means of all prayer and petition so that we may have the Lord’s present speaking, be washed and cleansed, and be sanctified by His word.

If we remain in our old knowledge of the Lord, if we think we know, we understand, we have heard this, and we got this, we will not be freshly beautified by the Lord.

The only beauty we have as the bride of Christ is the shining of Christ from within us.

Actually, what Christ appreciates within us is the expression of Himself (Psa. 50:2; 2 Cor. 3:15-18; cf. Exo. 28:2). God delights in His Son, Jesus Christ, and He gives us Christ to be our everything; when Christ is wrought into our being and lived out of us, we become beautiful in His eyes! Amen!

Isaiah 33:17a says, Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; Psalm 45:11a continues by saying, The King will desire your beauty.

When we behold the Lord Jesus, when we behold His beauty by exercising our spirit and turning our heart to Him as we come to Him in His word, we are infused with what He is, and we become beautiful in His eyes.

Christ appreciates in us only what is of Him that is wrought into our being. He wants to gain a duplication of Himself, a reproduction of Himself, something that is of Him in us to be expressed through us.

We as the church, the bride of Christ, are becoming a glorious church, having Christ as our beauty to be a God-expressing church.

May we daily spend time with the Lord in His word, seeking to be unveiled by turning our heart to Him, so that we may behold Him and reflect Him like a mirror.

This will cause us to be transformed into His image, and we will have Christ as our beauty for us to be the bride of Christ. Song of Songs 6:4 says, You are as beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, / As lovely as Jerusalem, / As terrible as an army with banners.

To the Lord, we are becoming beautiful and lovely, for His beauty and loveliness are wrought into us as we spend time with Him and turn our heart to Him. To the enemy, however, we become terrible, for we terrify him, being like an army with banners.

When we love the Lord, open to Him, enjoy Him, and are beautified by Him, His beauty is expressed through us, and we also become like an army with banners, declaring the Lord’s victory over the enemy! Hallelujah!

On the day of His wedding, the Lord as the Bridegroom, cares much more for the beauty of His bride than for her ability. Every bridegroom wants to have a beautiful bride, and the bride is the most beautiful she will ever be on the day of her wedding.

It is not her skills or abilities that matter the most on the wedding day; it is the beauty of the bride that stands out.

The Lord Jesus, our God, cares primarily for the beauty of the bride, which is He Himself being expressed through her humanity.

What matters to the Lord is that we are clothed in fine linen, bright and clean, having the righteousnesses of the saints (Rev. 19:8). The fine linen is the beauty of the bride.

Our daily living needs to be Christ living in us, Christ being expressed through us.

We need to be beautified by the Lord day by day so that we can be prepared to be presented to Him as His lovely bride.

On the one hand, we need to love the Lord and spend time with Him in His word, allowing Him to infuse us with Himself as our beauty. On the other hand, we need to have the righteousnesses of the saints, which are the righteous deeds, Christ lived out in us.

Our beauty as the bride of Christ is Christ shining out through us. May we focus more on having Christ wrought into us and lived out of us than on doing things for the Lord.

In the beginning of the church life we may want to function, do things, and be perfected in what we do for the Lord; then, as we grow in life and advance in our romantic relationship with the Lord, we will realise that it matters more what we are than what we do.

The Lord cares not mainly for our ability or what we do for Him; He cares more for the beauty of Himself expressed through our humanity.

He wants to gain a glorious church, a church that is glorious and beautiful, having no spot, wrinkle, or any such thing.

He wants not only to energise us to do things for Him but even more, to work Himself into us and beautify us so that we may express Christ and become His glorious bride, the glorious church.

Lord Jesus, we love You and we open to You for You to work Yourself into us and be expressed through us. Amen, Lord Jesus, prepare us as Your bride. May You be wrought into our being so that You may live in us and be expressed through us. May we realise that the beauty of the bride of Christ comes from the very Christ who is wrought into the church and then expressed through the church. Amen, Lord, may our living be the expression of Christ. May our behaviour be a reflection of Christ, even the shining out of Christ from within us. Express Yourself through us. Live in us. We exercise our spirit to take You in as our life and we also take You as our person. We want to be found in You, not having our own righteousness but having Christ lived out in us as our righteousness. Amen, Lord, may we be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean, having the righteousnesses of the saints, so that we may be called to the wedding dinner of the Lamb! Live in us today! Be expressed through us today!

Take Time to Behold the Beauty of the Lord in His Word for Him to Become our Beauty as the Bride of Christ

We can never overemphasise the importance of our time with the Lord in His word.

All the Lord’s loving seekers, both in the Old and in the New Testament, spent time with the Lord in His word, taking time to behold the beauty of the Lord so that He would infuse them with Himself.

The psalmists loved the Lord, loved His word, and prayerfully mused over the word of God, considering His precepts, loving His words, and spending much time loving the Lord in His word.

In the New Testament also we are told that we need to be unveiled and behold the Lord face to face to reflect Him and be transformed into His image (2 Cor. 3:18).

Whenever we take time to behold the beauty of the Lord in His word by pray-reading and musing upon His word (Eph. 6:17-18; Psa. 119:15), He becomes our beauty.

We are beautified by the Lord by spending time with Him in His word to behold His beauty, and we become the house of His beauty so that He also may be beautified (27:4; 2 Cor. 3:18; Isa. 60:7b, 9b, 13b, 19b, 21b).

What God appreciates in His people is not how much they can do for Him, what great works they can do in His name, or what miracles they perform for God; what He appreciates is how much of Christ is wrought into them so that they express Christ.

He wants us to spend time with Him, behold Him, and be infused with Him; outwardly, we may not do much for the Lord, but inwardly, we are quiet in His presence for Him to infuse Himself into us.

We need to experience the indwelling Christ by beholding the beauty of the Lord in His word, and all spots, wrinkles, and expressions of the natural man will be removed. We need to not only read the Bible but also converse with the Lord with the words of the Bible.

Like the Psalmist in Psalm 103, we need to tell our soul, Bless the Lord, O my soul! And all that is within me, bless HIs holy name! Don’t forget all His benefits – and thank Him for all He has done for me!

We read the Bible, we use the words of the Bible to pray to the Lord, we converse with ourselves and with the Lord with His word, and we make His word our prayer, our meditation, our musing, and our consideration.

In this way, the word of God washes us, cleanses us, and deposits the element of God into our being.

The washing of the water in the word (Eph. 5:26) deals mainly with spots and wrinkles. Spots refer to something of the natural life, and wrinkles are related to oldness.

Simply by living our daily life in the natural man and in ourselves, we have spots, wrinkles, and many such things; these are not pleasant to the Lord. It is only the water of life in the word of God that can metabolically wash away such defects by the transformation of life.

In order for us to become the bride in Revelation 19, we need to experience Ephesians 5; for us to be called at the marriage dinner of the Lamb, we need to first experience the washing of the water in the word so that we may be sanctified and beautified, having Christ wrought into us and lived out of us as our wedding garment.

Thank the Lord for the water of life in the word of God, which can wash away our defects, spots, and wrinkles to transform us in life and work Christ with His beauty into us.

To be holy is to be saturated with Christ and transformed by Christ, and to be without blemish is to be spotless and without wrinkle.

This means that we have nothing of the natural life of the old man, but we live in newness of life, having Christ expressed through us as our subjective righteousness.

This happens by our taking time to behold the beauty of the Lord in His word so that He becomes our beauty as He is lived out of us.

The Lord hates oldness; He wants us to serve in newness of spirit (Rom. 7:6) and walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4).

If we feel we are getting old, if we sense oldness, we should simply take time to behold the Lord’s beauty in His word.

Praise the Lord, the church will become the glorious bride, having no “such things” – the church will not have this or that kind of defect, for the Lord will bring the church to the place where nothing can be said against her in any respect!

Amen, may we have the Lord wrought into us as our subjective righteousness for Him to be lived out of us in our daily life as our beauty, the beauty of the bride of Christ!

Lord Jesus, we take time to behold the beauty of the Lord in His word by pray-reading and musing upon His word. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to read the word, pray over the word, and prayerfully consider the word so that we may behold Your beauty! We love You, Lord, and we love to behold You with an unveiled face. We turn our heart to You so that we may see You face to face. May we spend much time throughout the day beholding You so that we may also reflect You! Oh, we love to behold Your beauty so that we may be infused with You and become the house of Your beauty! Praise the Lord, we are being beautified by the Lord to become the house of His beauty so that He also may be beautified! Amen, Lord, we want to be washed by the living water in the word so that any spots and wrinkles may be removed from us. Remove any expression of the natural life and any oldness. Metabolically wash away any defects by the transformation of life. Saturate us, transform us, and be lived out of us to make us the glorious church, Your spotless and beautiful bride!

Read this article in the Romanian language – citiți acest articol în limba română la următorul link, Biserica, mireasa lui Cristos, va deveni o biserică glorioasă, cu Cristos ca frumusețea ei.

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 the brother Ed Marks in this conference, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 95 and 58, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Maturity of the Bride (2025 Memorial Day Blending Conference), week 4, The Beauty of the Bride – day 5.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Oh, Christ became the Spirit to speak inside of me, / And as the speaking Spirit He speaks unceasingly. / His speaking is the water that washes me within, / Discharging all my oldness, imparting Him. / O Lord, O Lord, speak all You want to me. / Your speaking is Your presence—I must have it constantly. / O Lord, O Lord, speak-wash my every part / And by this metabolic change, make home in all my heart. (Hymns #1177 stanza 2)
  – Who will now be washed by water in the Word? / “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!” / Spots and wrinkles cleanse before the shout is heard, / “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!” (Hymns #1309 stanza 3)
  – Jesus Lord, I’m captured by Thy beauty, / All my heart to Thee I open wide; / Now set free from all religious duty, / Only let me in Thyself abide. / As I’m gazing here upon Thy glory, / Fill my heart with radiancy divine; / Saturate me, Lord, I now implore Thee, / Mingle now Thy Spirit, Lord, with mine. (Hymns #1159 stanza 1)