For the Joy set Before us there’s the Need for the Building and Maturity of the Bride

The joy set before the Lord Jesus is the church as the bride and kingdom of God, and the joy set before us is the Lord Jesus, the Bridegroom, coming for His bride, who has made herself ready; there’s the need for the maturity of the bride and the building of the bride for us to be ready for the Lord’s return.

Praise the Lord, He came as God becoming man to court us, to woo us, and to love us so that we may fall in love with Him and be His bride, His counterpart! Amen!

The entire Bible is a divine romance, speaking of a universal couple – God and man – who fall in love and eventually get married.

How can this be? How can the almighty, omnipotent, omniscient God marry a human being or a corporate human person?

First, He created us in His image and according to His likeness, and He came to court us by becoming a man.

When the Lord Jesus became a man, He did not only accomplish the work of redemption; He came in love, being the expression of God’s love toward man.

God loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us (John 3:16).

The utmost expression of God’s love toward us is that Jesus Christ came to be a man and died for us.

Why did He have to die for us? Why didn’t He just come, court us, and after captivating us, He could marry us?

There is the problem of sin. There is sin in our conduct and there’s sin in our nature.

God cannot marry someone who does not match Him in every possible way.

He needs to come and become like us so that He may make us the same as He is.

In the divine romance, God is the Husband, and He comes to court His bride and take her through a process of regeneration, transformation, and glorification so that the bride may match the bridegroom in every possible way.

When the Lord Jesus came, He was willing to lay down His life – both His soulish life and His physical life – to obtain the church, the bride of Christ.

He did all things with the joy set before Him. He was so happy that He would obtain the church that He endured the cross, despising the shame. Wow.

Now in His resurrection He still comes to us to court us, to woo us, and to draw us to Himself with chords of a man and bands of love.

When we see His dying love, when we realize that the Lord Jesus died on the cross for us, even for me, we cannot resist Him: we simply respond in love to Him.

We call on His name. We repent. We confess our sins. We receive Him as our life.

And this starts a process in us, the process of our becoming His bride to match Him. Now we have a joy set before us, which is the Lord Jesus as the most lovely Bridegroom.

We want to match Him in every possible way, for we love Him; therefore, we grow in life unto maturity, we are being beautified by the washing of the water in the Word, we are living out Christ as our righteousness, and we’re being built up together.

The Maturity of the Bride: the Readiness of the Bride depends on the Maturity in Life of the Overcomers

As believers in Christ, we are lovers of the Lord Jesus; He has captivated us, we are enthralled by Him, and we follow Him.

We realize that the Lord Jesus came to the earth to gain the church as His bride, for this is the joy set before Him.

Now we have the joy set before us, which is the Lord Jesus, the most lovely Bridegroom, who is coming for His bride.

We as His believers and lovers are daily being prepared to be His bride until one day there’s a great cry, Let us rejoice and exult…for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready (Rev. 19:7). Amen!

The Lord Jesus as our ascended Head is our lovely Bridegroom, and He is working in us and around us to prepare us to be His bride.

And we are learning to cooperate with Him to be the bride of Christ. What an hour sweet it will be when the bride and the bridegroom meet!

For this, there’s the need for the maturity of the bride; we as the bride of Christ need to grow in life unto maturity to be the mature bride the Lord will marry (Rev. 19:7-9; Eph. 4:13-15).

The bride of Christ is composed not of all the believers in Christ but of the overcomers; those who overcome are the components of the bride.

This means that the bride of Christ is composed of all the overcomers, from Abel to the end of this age.

All the saints who overcome are part of the bride.

The bride of Christ, the wife of the Lamb, is the aggregate of all the Old Testament and New Testament overcomers.

The readiness of the bride depends on the maturity in life of the overcomers.

There’s the need for the maturity of the bride; Christ will not come to marry an immature lady, a person who is not mature.

We need to grow in life unto maturity day by day, cooperating with the Lord Jesus to allow Him to grow in us little by little, day by day until we are brought unto maturity (Rev. 19:7; Heb. 6:1; Phil. 3:12-15; Eph. 4:13).

On one hand, we need to be transformed; we need to be inwardly changed and remodelled by the divine life so that we may be conformed to His image.

On the other hand, we need to not only be inwardly changed but even more, be brought on to maturity, that is, be filled with the divine life that changes us.

Day by day the Lord is working in us and around us to transform us, to inwardly change our constitution with Himself and conform us to His image.

His life operates in us to remove the old elements, the self and the natural man, and to add what He is to our being until we’re reconstituted with Christ.

At the same time, His life is growing in us until we reach maturity, until this life overflows through us.

We need to not only be changed inwardly by the Lord’s life but be filled with His life to overflowing.

We need to be fully saturated with the Triune God so that He flows in us and out of us; then, we are mature in life, overflowing with the Triune God and blessing everyone around us with God Himself.

How much of the divine life has transformed us? How much of this divine life has saturated our mind, emotion, and will?

Are our thoughts and concepts saturated with God’s thoughts and concepts?

We need to be transformed by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2); the life that transforms us needs to also saturate every part of our being.

God’s feelings and sentiments need to be ours, and when He is angry, His anger needs to be expressed through us.

On one hand, the outer man needs to be broken; on the other hand, there needs to be the release of the spirit, the inner man, so that God would have a free way to flow in us and out of us.

We may still be wrestling with God in so many things in our daily life, but one day He will touch us, and we will simply allow Him to work Himself into us and deal with our inner being.

Outwardly, we will be limping, for the Lord has touched our natural man; however, there’s a rich flow of life from the depths of our being, for the breaking of our outer man has released the inner man.

May we care only for this, the enjoyment of Christ as life, eating Christ as the tree of life, until we flow Him out to others.

May we live not in ourselves but in Christ and by Christ, even live out Christ, so that He may be expressed through us.

How much there is the need for the maturity of the bride!

How much we all need to grow unto maturity until we become the mature bride that can marry our dear Bridegroom, the joy set before us!

Whether we’re at home with our family or in the church meetings with the saints, we need to live Christ; we can live Christ only when we allow Him to work Himself into us and to be lived out of us.

May the Lord gain this in us; may we be those who overcome by eating Jesus day by day until we are mature in life and He has a way to be lived out in us and to flow out from the depths of our being!

Lord Jesus, we love You! You are our lovely Bridegroom. You are the joy set before us. We want to gain more of You and become more like You until we become Your bride to match You and marry You! Oh Lord Jesus, we love You! We give ourselves to You to grow in life unto maturity so that we may be part of the mature bride that marries You. Oh Lord, how we yearn to arrive at maturity! Bring us on to maturity. Grow in us. Live in us. We want to not only be inwardly changed by the divine life but even more be filled with this life until we overflow with life to others. Fill us with Yourself today. Live in us today. Be expressed through us. We want to live Christ by enjoying Christ, being filled with Christ, and being saturated with Christ. Amen, Lord Jesus, we love You so much! We want to become the bride of Christ who satisfies His desire! Gain the maturity of the bride! Gain the mature bride You will return for!

The Building of the Bride – We need to be Built up into the Corporate Expression of the Triune God

On one hand, there is the need for the maturity of the bride; on the other hand, there’s the need for the building of the bride (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 4:15-16).

The bride of Christ is not any individual spiritual believer; Christ will not come to marry any individual believer but a body of believers, even a corporate person composed of the overcomers who are built up together.

In order for the Lord to gain His bride, there’s a need for the building of the bride.

God’s building is the desire of His heart and the goal of God’s salvation (1:5; Exo. 25:8; cf. 1:11; 40:2-3, 34-35).

What God desires, as seen from the beginning to the end of the Bible, is a universal, corporate expression of Himself in Christ through His people.

What He desires is a building, a corporate built-up Body for Christ that expresses Him and represents Him.

Each one of us as believers in Christ are individual persons, and we will be identifiable in the bride of Christ, but we are built up together into the built-up bride of Christ for His satisfaction.

As believers in Christ, we need to be built up together. In the church life, there’s the need for the building.

We may have been in the church life for many years, even for decades, but we may still be independent and isolated. Oh, Lord.

We need to allow the cross to operate in us and remove anything that causes us to be isolated from the Lord and from one another so that God would gain what is in His heart, the building of God.

The goal of the Lord’s recovery is to recover Christ as our life and our everything so that we may be built up (Eph. 3:8; 4:16).

In order for us to become the bride of Christ, there’s the need for the maturity of the bride and the building of the bride.

We have Christ as our lovely bridegroom, and we are yearning to be with Him; we want to be qualified to enter the wedding feast.

We want to be the guests invited to the wedding, those who are both the corporate bride of Christ and the co-kings of the Bridegroom.

For this, we need to be built up together. Our spirituality and growth in life are matters in the Body and for the Body.

God’s building, which He wants to gain to be His bride, is the corporate expression of the Triune God (see 1 Tim. 3:15-16; John 17:22; Eph. 3:19b, 21).

For Him to gain His building, the Lord has given us everything we need; He gave us His life, the Father’s name, His glory, and His word, so that we may be one and therefore be built up together.

In this oneness, in this building, the self is not expressed; there is only the corporate expression of the Triune God.

In the church as the Body of Christ, there’s no expression or manifestation of the self; there is only Christ who is being expressed.

So we need to take Christ as our life and person, and we need to allow Him to live in us.

In order for us to rule and reign with Him for one thousand years in the millennium, after the wedding feast, we need to allow Christ to rule and reign in us first today.

We are saved, but we need to become an overcomer in order to enter into the wedding feast.

We need to be built up together in spirit with the saints for the Lord to gain His bride.

In Christ all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; this is on the universal side, the whole building is growing in Christ.

On the practical side, we today are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.

May we give ourselves to the Lord to be built up together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.

May the Lord gain the maturity of the bride and the building of the bride so that He can come as our lovely Bridegroom to rapture us, His bride!

Lord Jesus, build us up together to be the bride of Christ who will bring You back! Amen, Lord, we want to be Your overcomers in this age so that we may be the prepared bride for Your return. Gain a corporate body of believers who are built up together in love to be the bride of Christ. May You gain the corporate bride composed of the overcoming believers. Oh Lord, we aspire to be Your overcomers today. We do not want to be separated or isolated believers…we simply want to be built up together to be Your bride! Amen, Lord, build us up together into a dwelling place of God in spirit. May we not only be mature in life but also built together as one bride. Grow in us unto maturity and be expressed through us. May there be the corporate expression of the Triune God among us. Amen, Lord, we take You as our life and everything so that we may be built up together! Gain the maturity of the bride and the building up of the bride!

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, The Conclusion of the New Testament (msgs. 213 and 424), 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:
  – Christ producing His bride in the new creation by growth and transformation, a portion from, Life-Study of Daniel, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee.
  – The word of righteousness: deified to be the bride of Christ, article via, Affirmation and Critique.
  – The Preparation of the Bride, Conference with Ron Kangas in Cambridge, MA (Sept 2016), via, Living to Him.
  – New Jerusalem, the Wife of the Lamb, article via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The church as the bride in Ephesians: the great mystery, article by David Yoon in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Preparing Christ’s Bride – The Living of His Overcomers, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The church being the bride of Christ, a portion from, Five Great Mysteries in the Bible, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee.
  – The Bride, the Wife, New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – From fullest growth and transformation / Comes a pearl of worth; / This simple, precious, all-inclusive / Gem will then come forth. / Conceived in death and formed in life / By that all-glorious One, / The church, His Bride, the fruit of all / The work that He has done. / The pearl is what He’s after, / the Bride to please His heart, / So single, pure and precious, / and His very counterpart. (Hymns #1242 stanza 6 and chorus)
  – Our Bridegroom soon is coming / To claim His holy Bride, / The ones whom He has wooed, won, / And wholly sanctified. / O Lord, we would be ready / And get our hearts in tune / For the wedding day that’s coming / Very soon. / Oh, the wedding day is coming, / Is coming very soon, / When the Bride shall be prepared / And shall marry her Bridegroom. / Oh, what love and consecration / Should all our hearts attune / For that wedding day that’s coming / Very soon. (Hymns #1316 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Now behold the greatest wonder—New Jerusalem descend! / She’s the building of the Triune God with man—a perfect blend! / She’s the Bride, prepared, adorned for Christ—of all God’s work, the end! / The victory is won! (Hymns #1101 stanza 11)