The entire New Testament is a record of the Triune God working together to gain a part of the human race to be the bride, the counterpart, of the Son (John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25-32; Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2, 9-10). In eternity past God the Father had an eternal purpose and made an eternal plan to gain the church as a bride for His Son out of the human race (Eph. 3:8-11). Then, in time, God the Father commissioned God the Spirit to carry out His plan by going to contact the chosen bride and bring her to God the Son to be His counterpart, His wife. (Gen. 24:2, footnote 2)
God’s eternal purpose and His eternal plan is to gain the church as a bride for His Son. In Genesis 24 we see the account of four persons working together to get Isaac and Rebekah married – this story is a type of the Triune God working in and on man to prepare man to marry Christ.
Abraham typifies God the Father, Isaac typifies God the Son, the servant typifies God the Spirit, and Rebekah typifies us, the church, God’s chosen people. The entire New Testament speaks of the fact that the Triune God is working together to get a wife for Christ, and in Revelation 21-22 we see the marriage of Christ and the church in and as the New Jerusalem.
All the believers in Christ are part of the church, God’s chosen people, the ones on whom the Spirit (typified by the servant in Gen. 24) is working to draw and bring to Christ (typified by Isaac) to marry Him.
In the church life in the Lord’s recovery today we have the privilege to be under the New Testament ministry which betrothed us to Christ (1 Cor. 11:2).
It is so wonderful to wake up in the morning, call on the name of the Lord, pray-read His life-giving word, and tell the Lord again and again, Lord Jesus, I love You! Then, as we get into the ministry, we are being brought to love the Lord more. Hallelujah!
God the Father is the One who plans everything; He sends God the Spirit to seek us out and bring us to Christ, God the Son, to love Him, marry Him, and live a marriage life with Him for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Our human marriage life is a type of the divine-human marriage life we will have with Christ for eternity.
God Himself became a man, joining our race, becoming the same as we are; now through regeneration, transformation, and glorification we become God in life and nature (but not in the Godhead) to match Christ in every possible way for our marriage! Hallelujah! And this all is seen in type in Genesis 24.
The Triune God is Working Together to get the Church as a a Bride for Christ
Gen. 24:2-4 And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his house, who ruled over all that he had, Put your hand under my thigh; And I will make you swear by Jehovah, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am dwelling. But you shall go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac. [photo credit: Christian Pictures blog]
Abraham typifies God the Father who plans everything and who has a purpose in His heart concerning His son to get married with the proper person. Isaac typifies Christ, God the Son, who simply enjoys and receives what the Father has planned and prepared for Him.
The servant typifies God the Spirit who is sent by the Father “on an errand” to accomplish His purpose of gaining a bride for Christ. Rebekah typifies the church, the chosen ones of God, the ones that are selected from the human race to marry Christ and become His counterpart.
The entire New Testament is a record of the Triune God working together to gain a part of the human race to be the bride for Christ the Son (see John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25-32; Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2, 9-10).
God the Father made a plan in eternity past to gain a bride for Christ out of the human race (Eph. 3:8-11). When the Lord Jesus came He was not only the Savior but also the Bridegroom – and John the Baptist realized this (John 3:29). The Spirit has been commissioned by God the Father to carry out His plan by going to contact the chosen people of God to bring them to Christ to be His counterpart, His wife (see Gen. 24:2 and footnote 2 in the Holy Bible Recovery Version).
In the Gospels we see Christ as the Bridegroom coming and being an immense magnet, drawing all the people to Himself as the most lovely, wonderful, and attractive Person. In the Epistles we see the Spirit working according to the Father’s plan to obtain the church as a pure and spotless wife for Christ.
In the book of Revelation, especially at the end, we see the bride, the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7; 21:2, 9-10). The New Jerusalem is the city-lady, the wife of the Lamb, the counterpart of Christ the Bridegroom, being joined to Him in a loving marriage union and living with Him an eternal marriage life for eternity!
The entire Bible speaks of this divine romance, and the New Testament expounds with many details and aspects the desire and plan of God to be join to man to Christ in marriage (as typified by the story in Genesis 24).
God the Father had an Eternal Purpose to Gain the Church as a Bride for His Son
First of all, God the Father made a plan in eternity past – He purposed to gain the church as a bride for His Son out of the human race. This is a mystery hidden from the ages and made known to the saints in the New Testament (Eph. 3:8-11), that is, that God is working on a masterpiece (Eph. 2:10), the church, to be the bride for Christ (Matt. 9:15).
God’s masterpiece is the church as the one new man and as the bride of Christ; the church is the poema, the work of art God is working on to obtain throughout the ages to express His divine wisdom and infinite design.
God the Father planned to have a bride for His Son. Then, God the Father charged His “servant”, God the Spirit, to not take a wife for His Son from the “daughters of the Canaanites” but from “His relatives” (see Gen. 24:3-4, 7).
In other words, God the Father didn’t want Christ to marry the angels or any other creatures but man, the race of God, the creature made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26; John 1:14; Acts 17:28-29; Rev. 22:17). Since Christ was incarnated to be a man, humanity has become His race – humanity is dear and precious to God because only out of humanity God can obtain the counterpart for His Son!
For two people to get married they have to be of the same species. God has to become a man to marry man, and man has to become God in life and nature (but not in the Godhead) to marry God. If man doesn’t become God, God would have a “strange marriage”!
But, Hallelujah, God became a man in the person of the Lord Jesus, and man is becoming God through the process of God’s organic salvation, so that the two – God becoming man and man becoming God, God and man – would be joined in a marriage for eternity.
This is the Father’s plan, His eternal purpose, and this is what the Bible speaks of. This mystery, Christ and the church, was hidden from the ages but it was revealed to the holy apostles and prophets in the New Testament in spirit (Eph. 3:5). Whenever we exercise our spirit, we see God’s plan and His purpose, and we praise the Father for His plan!
Praise You, Father, for Your plan and Your purpose to gain the church as a bride for Your Son out of humanity. Thank You for choosing us, human beings, to be a part of the corporate bride for Christ the Son of God. Enlighten the eyes of our heart so we may see that all You are doing today is to prepare man and perfect him to become the spotless and glorious Bride to match Christ for their eternal marriage. Father, we praise You! Continue to work Yourself into us every day until we become the same as God is in life and nature but not in the Godhead! Work Yourself into us until we match You in every possible way for our marriage!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (pp. 800-802), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 12 / msg 12, A Practical Living in Oneness with the Lord and a Type of Christ Marrying the Church.
- Further reading: see chs. 1-3 in, The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ (by Witness Lee).
- Hymns on this topic:
# Lo, the central thought of God / Is that He be one with man; / He to man is everything / That He might fulfill His plan. /… / God in man and man in God / Mutual dwelling thus possess; / God the content is to man, / And the man doth God express. (Hymns #972)
# I praise Thee for Thy mystery, / That I may truly contact Thee; / In unapproachable light Thou wast / But now as Spirit nigh to me. / The Father, Son, and Spirit, Thou, / The triune God, my life fore’er; / In me Thou art the full supply / That I Thy holy nature share. (Hymns #609)
# God before the world’s foundation / Chose the Church in Christ the Son, / That the Church might share the sonship, / Holy, blameless, with Him one; / That the Church be His possession / With the Spirit as the seal, / Of our heritage the earnest / While His Son He does reveal. (Hymns #823)
# Now we know the purpose of our God, / Visible the mystery became: / Christ, the church, together now we see, / And together put the enemy to shame. (Hymns #1232)
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