Mystery of the Bride

Part 2

Vicky Moots

Now let us go back to the book of Genesis to examine more closely the account of the formation of the first Adam’s bride and compare it to the formation of the spiritual bride of Christ.  Whenever God does something in a special manner, He is doing it for a special purpose, and it always has a spiritual meaning.

Eve was not formed in the same manner, out of the dust of the earth, or at the same time as Adam was created.  Because of that, we find in Gen. 2:20 that Adam realized that even though all of the animals had mates, he did not have one.  This verse seems to imply that he was actually seeking a mate for himself: “And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him.” What does this mean to us spiritually? It is a picture of Christ, the last Adam, who also is seeking a bride for Himself.

The next two verses, vv.21-22, tell us how God responded to Adam’s desire for a mate and also how God’s plan and desire for Adam was fulfilled: “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.”  In this surgery, note that only a small portion of Adam’s body, a single rib, was used by God to form Eve.  She was then presented to Adam to be his wife.  

What is the spiritual significance of this? Adam represents Christ, as we have already learned.  Paul tells us in Eph. 1:22-23 that His body is the church.  In these verses, he states that God raised Christ from the dead, “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body…”

In I Cor. 12:13, Paul makes it clear to us that the body of Christ, the church, is composed of both Jew and Gentile believers: “For by one Spirit [not by water, but by the Holy Spirit] are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.”  Then in v.27 he states plainly, “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.”

This means that all true believers, all over the world, all those who have been born again, whether they have joined a church or not, are a part of the body of Christ.  God joins us to the living church, not a religious organization, and we become members of the body of Christ the moment we accept Christ as Savior.  Then out from among this large body of believers, God is separating out a small rib portion of saints, all those who desire to be a part of the bride of Christ, and who are willing to submit to the scalpel of His Word.