Jesus and His bride

For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:5 ESV)

The relationship between God and His people—Christ and His Church—is likened in the Bible to that of a bridegroom to his bride.  The marital metaphor used in the Bible describes the intimate spiritual relationship between Jesus and His Church and is meant to represent the passionate union of heart, mind, and spirit that Jesus seeks with each of His followers.

The Bible makes numerous references to the deep, enduring personal relationship between Jesus and His bride, the Church, also referred to as “the Body of Christ,” of which every true Christian is a part. In our Scripture, both Old Testament and New Testament, the relationship between God and men—between the Lord and Israel, between Christ and His Church—is presented as the relationship of bridegroom to bride.

The Scripture uses other images as well—God is our father, our shepherd, our king, our healer, our saviour. “But the marital metaphor is the most frequent one, the central and basic scriptural metaphor.”

To know Jesus is to love Jesus, for “He is altogether lovely.”  Once you “taste and see that the Lord is good,” you can truly “know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” [1]

May the most sweet Jesus, Bridegroom of faithful souls, be pleased to bring all who invoke his name to this marriage. - St. John of the Cross

[1] Anchor Relationship and Union with God