The Bride of Christ

God wants relationship with His children.  To clarify further—God desires intimate relationship with us.  The Bible describes God’s relationship with His people in several intimate ways—Father and son/daughter, Husband and wife, Bridegroom and bride, Friend.  The Husband-wife references are particularly to Israel, the Bridegroom-bride Scriptures refer to Christ and the Church and eventually expands to include all the redeemed of all the ages as becomes clear in Revelation.

Paul explains that marriage between a human husband and wife is a representation of the union between Christ and His Bride, the Church:

“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.   Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.   Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself.  After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body.  ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’  This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.”

Ephesians 5:22-32 (NIV) 

Elsewhere Scripture describes the relationship of the Bridegroom with His bride:

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!  For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.”

 

Revelation 19:7 (NIV)

 

“One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’” 

Revelation 21:9 (NIV)

 

“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’”

 

Revelation 22:17a (NIV)

 

“And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come.’” 

Matthew 22:1-3 (NKJV)

 

“Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.  For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.  But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

Romans 7:4-6 (NKJV)

 

Christ’s divine love for His Bride is a purifying love.  In His prayer to the Father for us Jesus says that he sanctified Himself in order to sanctify His Bride:

“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.  For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”

John 17:15-19 (NIV)

 

God’s divine love seeks to completely cleanse those He loves from every form of sin and evil.  For the reader who has developed an unhealthy relationship with food, if you experience conviction be thankful--you are dearly loved by God!  Submit to Him and He will take you through the temptation and bondage to cleansing and freedom.  Since it is not sin to enjoy food the Holy Spirit will not convict you of simply enjoying food.  Since it is sin to make food an idol a believer may be convicted by the Holy Spirit regarding their relationship with food but it is important to distinguish between the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the condemnation from the enemy because there is a lot of false guilt imposed by the culture in the area of food and body image.

 

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

Romans 8:1 (NKJV)

 

If you struggle with bondage to food I pray that you will know God's love for you and exchange your bondage to food with the incomparably more satisfying relationship with God.

For more encouragement you can check out the N.E.W. LIFE e-book which includes further support, the N.E.W. LIFE Eating Plan and additional nutrition information.

Your Christian dietitian and friend in Christ,

Diane