At the end of the forty-five days of the Day of the Lord, the Lord descends to the Mount of Olives, and his bride comes down with him to reign.
The Marriage of the Lamb
…for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
— Revelation 19:7
The marriage means that Christ and his church become of one spirit, which is to say of one mind (1 Corinthians 6:17). Now we know in part; then the church will know the thoughts of God's own mind (1 Corinthians 13:12).
The fine linen she wears is her righteous deeds, the good works she was appointed to do. The Word prepares her. Christ cleanses the church 'with the washing of water by the word' (Ephesians 5:26): as she learns the Word and her life changes to match it, she becomes the church God wants. The wedding feast is the Word too, the food that gives eternal life.
Revelation 21:9 calls her 'the Lamb's wife'. A woman is a bride before her wedding; this one was taken up and joined to the Lamb, and she now knows his mind well enough to reign as he wishes.
The Wife Is the City
The angel who offers to show John the Lamb's wife shows him the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven (Revelation 21:9–10). So the New Jerusalem is the Lamb's church, understood spiritually and not as a physical city. Those who enter it are spiritual Israelites, Gentiles included.
The new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:1) come about during the forty-five days: God shakes the earth until its axis shifts, different stars rise and set, and the seas dry up. At the end of those days the Lord comes, and the city descends beside him 'as a bride adorned for her husband'.
Its twelve gates carry the names of Israel's twelve tribes, and its twelve foundations the names of the apostles. The Israelites came in by keeping the law, and those built on the apostles' teaching are the New Testament people.
The city is as long as it is wide and high, about 1,200 miles (600 kos) each way. That height would pass the earth's atmosphere, so the picture is spiritual. Its gold, pearls and precious stones show how precious its people are, bought with the blood of Jesus Christ and written in the Book of Life.
A City That Serves the World
There is no temple, for 'the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it' (Revelation 21:22). Jesus is the church's light, and she walks in it.
The kings of the earth bring their glory into the city (Revelation 21:24). They are the people left alive on earth after the judgement of the living, with their own nations. They need not travel anywhere; they bring their offerings to the church, which serves as kings and priests, ruling and presenting the offerings to God. In glorious bodies, the church is like the angels, who appear and vanish suddenly.
The gates 'shall not be shut at all by day' (Revelation 21:25). No physical gate is meant: whoever lives on earth can join this spiritual church when his life ends, and that is entering by the gates. Nothing unclean enters, only those written in the Lamb's book of life.
The river of life flows from the throne, and the tree of life stands on either side of it (Revelation 22:1–2). One tree cannot stand on both banks, so this too is spiritual. Its leaves are 'for the healing of the nations': through his people the Lord gives the world health and a good life. 'There shall be no more curse' (Revelation 22:3): for those in the city, in glorious bodies, the Eden curses of death, childbirth pains, toil and thorns are gone.
Who Comes Down With the Lord
The Lord descends with all his people, who reach that day in different ways.
- Old Testament saints. They waited in Hades until Jesus was raised in a glorious body, and were raised and taken up with him.
- New Testament saints and the wife. Those who have died went up to the Lord as spirits. At the Lord's secret coming they are resurrected, and the living believers of the bride are transformed (the rapture) and taken up with them, when the half-hour at the start of the seven years ends.
- Martyrs. Good people not ready to be taken up are persecuted in the great tribulation and die as martyrs. They wait above without glorious bodies, and are raised when the Lord descends.
During the forty-five days the Lord holds all authority and lets no good person die. This is why Revelation 15:8 says no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues were finished.
Everyone whose name is in the Book of Life enters the city, the Lamb's capital, through which he reigns. None ranks above another: the labourers hired last in the vineyard got the same wage as the first (Matthew 20:1–16). In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female (Galatians 3:28), for male and female is a difference of the body, not of the spirit.
Becoming Like Him
…it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him…
— 1 John 3:2
We are God's children by new birth: faith, repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, and walking in the Spirit. A man's child grows into a man, a foal into a horse; God's children, grown, will be like their Father.
Accused of blasphemy, Jesus pointed to the law: 'I said, Ye are gods' (John 10:34). Psalm 82:6 adds that all are 'children of the most High', and children of the Most High, once grown, will become gods like him. But the psalm continues, 'ye shall die like men'. We have not reached the level of gods now, but we reach it when the Lord descends and the marriage of the Lamb takes place.
Takeaway
The Lamb's wife is made ready by his Word, and that preparation is happening now. We are to stay in the Word, let it change our lives, and grow until the Lord can take us up, so that we return with him and share in his reign.