Is not” the Bride " in the place and relation we should expect to find her in the apocalypse? " The Bride, the Lamb's wife," could not be said were there no Bridegroom—" the Lamb." It is then primarily, in relation to Him, that the Bride is spoken of: for the Spirit says “The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready;" and this is not as yet the government of the world. The marriage is celebrated before the Bridegroom and Bride come into public display, in relation to the reign in glory in the world. “The Bride, the Lamb's wife," is heard of first in association with the Lamb personally and in the marriage scene, which is surely indicative of the deepest affection, before she is seen associated with Him in the brightness of displayed glory. First the love and then the glory! Indeed, this is how the Lord said the Father's love should be demonstrated: but the love is there to be so (John 17:23-2423I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 24Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:23‑24)). For is it not the glory given which displays the Father's love, if not to the Bride, at least to the saints of His family —" Hast loved them as thou halt loved me 2" The title " Bride " is given because there is a Bridegroom whose love has won her heart, and whom she loves with bridal affections.
I admit that the title, Lamb (Arnion), in the apocalypse is a title made good only in the future, and which will come into display in relation to the glory and government of the millennial world. The rejected One shall be the reigning One. This title occurs nowhere else, as applied to Christ: but in the book of the Revelation, which contemplates the seating of the Lamb on the throne of God; and it is a remarkable thing that it should appear there as often as twenty-eight times. Might we not say that this intimates that "The Lamb” characterizes it?
And I doubt not “the Lamb's wife” is also a title of the future; and that, as such, she will be associated with Him in glory when He governs the world in righteousness. But it does not take much spiritual discernment to see that love is that which makes and unites a bridegroom and a bride. The devotedness of the love on Christ's part is seen in what he has done and is doing: " Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it in order that he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word, that he might present the Assembly to himself glorious, having no spot or wrinkle or any of such things, but that it might be holy and blameless." This is the love, and these are the doings of love, and the object of the love on Christ's part: and surely, in each heart there is even now the reciprocal affection of the Bride, if there be not yet the preparedness, the marriage relation, or the glory. The love tells of present attachment to the Lamb the title “the Lamb's wife " of her coming special relation to Him in His glory, when administering the blessing and government of “the world to come."