The Adulterous Wife And The Virgin Bride

Q

I know a Bible teacher there who holds a meeting once a week and I am very concerned about this doctrine he teaches. He says that God has a wife, and that wife is Israel. Next, he says that Christ has a separate Bride. I have never heard this before. Can you provide either confirmation or correction ?

A

I don’t know how this teacher presented his view, but in the Old Testament God called Israel His adulterous wife (as in Ezekiel 16:32), and in the New Testament, the church is called the virgin bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). These are terms that symbolize the difference between the Law and Grace. God often described Israel’s disobedience as spiritual infidelity, especially when it involved idolatry. To Him worshiping idols is like cheating on Him.

But when Jesus went to the cross He took all of our sins with Him washed us clean with His blood. Now He sees the Church as if we’ve never sinned at all, as if we’re as pure as He is (Ephesians 5:25-27).

If the truth be told we’re no better than Israel, because we worship things other than God, too. Instead of statues, we worship money or material possessions or other things of this world. So it’s God’s view of us that’s different, and that happened because of what He did for us on the cross, not because of anything we’ve done for Him.