Yesterday at work, I was just singing randomly, and I started singing about New Jerusalem, and then I had this question: Is New Jerusalem an actual city/place, or is it the bride of Christ? I remembered the Bible talks about it coming down “as a bride adorned for her husband”. This morning, I looked it up in Revelation (21:2) and read through that chapter. I noticed in verses 9-10, the angel tells John he is going to show him the Lamb’s wife, and then the angel shows John the city. And he describes the city as having a wall and gates, etc. Then in verse 27, it talks about the ones who will enter into the city are those in the Book of Life, so from that, I think the answer is that New Jerusalem is a place where only the bride is, not the actual bride, but I wanted to ask you about it.
Thanks,
Lyn
=========
You have it right, Lyn. I have heard some believers say that the city itself is the bride of Christ because of the verses you mentioned, but that is nonsense. Jesus will “marry” his faithful saints. Paul suggests this when he said that his goal was to present the saints “as a chaste virgin to Christ”. May God grant us the grace to be in that number “when the saints go marching into” the new Jerusalem! Oh, and to say that the city will be prepared for Christ and his wife “as a bride prepares herself for her husband-to-be” is just another way to say that God will make it very pretty for His Son to celebrate his wedding.
Pastor John