{"id":29728,"date":"2011-10-26T20:35:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T01:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=29728"},"modified":"2021-01-07T20:37:10","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T02:37:10","slug":"are-christians-individually-married-to-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-christians-individually-married-to-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Christians individually married to Christ?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Does the Bible talk about individuals being a bride of God or a bride of Christ? It is my understanding that the church as a whole is the bride of Christ, and I think it is not accurate to say things &#8220;I am married to God&#8221; or &#8220;Christ is my husband.&#8221; I know it goes along with the concept of how our dedication, love, and loyalty are supposed to be with God and Christ, but I think it sounds nutty because I have never read it in the Bible. I guess that I am not a fan of people creating their own buzz words or phrases because so many denominations do that to brand themselves.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>The idea that the church is Christ&#8217;s bride is widespread:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<em>Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another &#8212; to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God<\/em>&#8221; (Romans 7:4).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<em>For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ<\/em>&#8221; (II Corinthians 11:2).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<em>Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, &#8220;Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb&#8217;s wife.&#8221; And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God<\/em>&#8221; (Revelation 21:10-9).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is a continuation of an Old Testament theme that Israel was God&#8217;s bride:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<em>For your Maker is your husband, The LORD of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth<\/em>&#8221; (Isaiah 54:5).<\/li>\n<li>&#8221; <em>&#8220;Return, O backsliding children,&#8221; says the LORD; &#8220;for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion&#8221; <\/em>&#8221; (Jeremiah 3:14).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<em>I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD<\/em>&#8221; (Hosea 2:19-20).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While the bride of Christ is the church (Ephesians 5:23-27), the church is composed of individual Christians. Hence, we can say that collectively we as individual members of the Church are married to Christ. Both Romans 7:4 and II Corinthians 11:2 both talk in this manner. We are not each a bride of Christ in the sense that Christ has multiple wives, but we are all a part of the bride of Christ, which is the church.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding that, it isn&#8217;t necessarily wrong to say that each belongs to Christ. &#8220;<em>For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward<\/em>&#8221; (Mark 9:41). &#8220;<em>And if you are Christ&#8217;s, then you are Abraham&#8217;s seed, and heirs according to the promise<\/em>&#8221; (Galatians 3:29).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Does the Bible talk about individuals being a bride of God or a bride of Christ? It is my understanding that the church as a whole is the bride of Christ, and I think it is not accurate to say things &#8220;I am married to God&#8221; or &#8220;Christ is my husband.&#8221; I know it&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[642],"class_list":["post-29728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-christianity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8111,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-church-or-israel-the-bride-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":29728,"position":0},"title":"Is the church or Israel the bride of Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is the church or Israel the bride of Christ? Answer: In the Old Testament, Israel was depicted as God's bride in several prophecies. But she was declared to be a faithless wife. God declared that He was a husband to Israel (Jeremiah 31:32), but Israel broke the marriage covenant.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5427,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/beulah-land\/","url_meta":{"origin":29728,"position":1},"title":"Beulah Land","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Paul Springer What is Beulah land and should we sing about it?\u00a0\u00a0 The word is used in Isaiah 62:4-5 (NKJV), \u201cYou shall no longer be termed Forsaken, nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; nut you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the Lord\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47773,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-get-married-without-a-bride-price-being-paid\/","url_meta":{"origin":29728,"position":2},"title":"Should I get married without a bride price being paid?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, my brother, I am told your bride price must be paid before marriage and you can get married before your bride price is paid. My question is I want to get married and be clean before God because I have children with my fianc\u00e9 and we are not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66901,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/slinging-mud-on-the-bride-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":29728,"position":3},"title":"Slinging Mud on the Bride of Christ","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Richardson An Unthinkable Image Imagine attending a wedding. The bride is arrayed in a beautiful white wedding gown, ready to go down the aisle to be presented to the groom. As she walks down the aisle, people on both sides of her begin to throw mud at her.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27182,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-the-church-both-the-body-of-christ-and-the-bride-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":29728,"position":4},"title":"Why is the church both the body of Christ and the bride of Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please, why is the church called the body of Christ and at the same time called the bride of Christ? Thanks. Answer: People are known by a variety of names and titles because one name doesn't completely describe a person or his relationship with other people. I'm known as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68465,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-the-bridegroom\/","url_meta":{"origin":29728,"position":5},"title":"Jesus, the Bridegroom","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 20, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer God created Adam and Eve to be husband and wife, cleaving to each other in faithfulness (Genesis 2:24). Here is the beginning of marriage, but marriage was not meant to be an end in itself. Marriage is intended to point to something even greater: God and His\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}