«　WEEK 4　DAY 3　»

　　Rev. 19:7-8 Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints.

　　The Lord Jesus regenerates the church so that the church may be His bride (John 3:3, 5, 29-30). The Lord is the Bridegroom with the divine life and the divine nature. If we would become His bride, we must also have the divine life and the divine nature. For this, regeneration is necessary. Apart from possessing this life and nature, we could never become Christ's counterpart. In John 3 we see that regeneration qualifies us to be Christ's bride. Only after we have been regenerated with the divine life and have thereby received the divine nature can we, sinners, be taken by Christ to be His love....Through regeneration we receive another life, the divine life. In this life and by this life we are qualified to become Christ's counterpart and to match Him. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 647-648)

　　On the day of His wedding, Christ will marry the one who has been fighting the battle against God's enemy for years. This means that Christ will marry the overcomers, who have already overcome the evil one, the devil (Rev. 12:11). As the God-cut stone, Christ with His overcomers—the corporate Christ—will strike the ten kings with Antichrist (19:11-21), signified by the ten toes of the great human image. In so doing, the corporate Christ will crush the great image from the toes to the head (Dan. 2:35); that is, the corporate Christ—Christ with His newly-married bride composed of the overcomers—will come as a stone cut without hands and smite the human government into pieces. In this way, Christ with His bride will annihilate human government. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 4346)

　　At the end of this age, Christ will come to marry His redeemed and to take her as His wife (Rev. 19:7). The present age is an age of "dating," courtship, and engagement between God and His people. At the end of this dispensation, there will be a glorious wedding day, at which time Christ will marry His redeemed ones. This revelation of the marriage between Christ and His redeemed ones is a major revelation in the Bible.

　　At the very end of the Bible we see that God will enjoy a married life with His people in eternity and for eternity. For eternity in the new heaven and new earth, the New Jerusalem will be the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 21:9). This is the fulfillment of God's romance revealed in the Scriptures. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 648)

　　[In Ephesians 6] the church is not the Body, the building, the family, the kingdom, the new man, or the bride. Here the church is God's warrior. The church should be not only the Body to express Christ, the dwelling place for God's habitation, and the new man for the fulfillment of God's economy; the church must also be a warrior, a soldier, to defeat God's enemy.

　　According to Revelation 19, the church is both the bride who is presented to Christ and the warrior who fights with Him against God's enemy. At His coming again, the Lord Jesus firstly will meet His bride. After receiving the bride, Christ and the overcomers will enter into battle against the enemy.

　　In Revelation 19:7 and 8 we see that the bride is clothed in "fine linen, bright and clean." Then in verse 14 we see that the armies which follow the Lord into battle are "dressed in fine linen, white and clean." These verses indicate that the bride's wedding garment will also be the uniform she wears as God's army to fight against His enemy. Therefore, to have the wedding garment is also to have the uniform.

　　As the bride, we must be beautiful, without spot or wrinkle, and be clothed in fine linen. As the warrior, we must be equipped to fight against God's enemy. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 814-815)

　　Further Reading: Three Aspects of the Church, Book 1: The Meaning of the Church, ch. 9; Truth Lessons—Level Four, vol. 3, lsn. 50