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God's Plan of SalvationCovenant of Love on the Cross
The fall of Adam and Eve opened the door for sin and death to enter the human race (Rom. 5:12), separating man from the Holy God. However, God did not forsake His children and sent His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place to atone for our sins so that we could return to God’s presence and glory.
“As sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. ” (Romans 5:21)
Death through the 'first Adam', and life through the 'last Adam', Jesus Christ.
God put the 'first Adam' to sleep, took out a rib and created a woman for Adam, making her 'bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh' (Gen. 2:21-23). This is the shadow of Jesus’ redemption, in which God let His Son Jesus be the 'last Adam', died on the cross and was pierced in the side of the rib to shed 'blood and water' (John 19:34) in order to redeem mankind. The blood is the atonement for sin and the water gives life (Matt. 26:28; Rom. 3:25; John 4:14).
Those who accept Jesus’ salvation on the cross are "bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh" (Eph. 5:30). They are betrothed to the Lord Jesus and eagerly await the glorious 'Marriage Supper of the Lamb' when Jesus returns.
The Bible is the inspired Word of the God (2 Tim. 3:16). It is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament by the birth of Jesus. The Old Testament is the shadow of the New Testament, which foreshadows the salvation of Jesus Christ.
God set seven feasts in the Old Testament during the time of Moses, which summarised the history of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt to the building of the tabernacle. This is a timetable that God ordained to foreshadow the events that Jesus will accomplish when He comes into the world (Col. 2:16-17).
God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt, which fulfilled God's promise to their forefather Abraham (Gen. 15:13-14). Moses was a faithful servant of God who delivered God’s people from slavery in Egypt. He foreshadowed Jesus, the Son of God, who redeemed the world from the slavery of sin (Heb. 3:5-6).
Feasts of the Lord God's Timetable
Moses was God's chosen servant, and through him God ordained seven ‘Feasts of the LORD’ (Lev. 23:1-4). Each of these feasts was prophetic, a divine timetable of God’s great plan of salvation for mankind. It revealed the divine love of God the Father for us and the sacrificial love of His Son Jesus, who atoned for the sins of mankind and established the covenant of love on the cross with His own precious blood.
The four spring Feasts foreshadow the salvation of Jesus, the fulfilment of God’s love and justice, and the Age of Grace for humanity.
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Passover: A shadow of Jesus as the scapegoat to redeem our sins - Jesus offered the ransom for His Bride.
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Unleavened Bread: A shadow of Jesus precious blood - Jesus’ Bride is justified and sanctified through faith.
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Feast of Firstfruits: A shadow of Jesus’ resurrection gives us eternal life - Jesus’ marriage covenant with His Bride.
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Pentecost: A shadow of the descent of the Holy Spirit to dwell in us – Jesus’ betrothal token to His Bride as co-heirs.
The three autumn Feasts foreshadow the return of Jesus to complete the final phase of God's plan of salvation and to bring mankind into a new heaven and a new earth.
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Feast of Trumpets: A shadow of the Second Coming of Jesus to establish God's Millennial Kingdom - the Rapture of the Bride of Christ.
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Day of Atonement: A shadow of the great White Throne Judgement of all the living and dead - the crown and reward of the Bride of Christ.
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Feast of Tabernacles: A shadow of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the tabernacle of God on earth - the Lamb’s wife, New Jerusalem.
Jesus’ First Coming has completed and fulfilled the sowing of seeds through the four spring feasts. He now awaits His ‘Second Coming’ in the autumn to reap the harvest and fulfil the last three feasts to complete God's ultimate plan of salvation - the tabernacle of God on earth.
As for us, the Bridegroom has paid the betrothal gift and the wedding invitations have been sent out. All believers who have accepted the blood covenant of Jesus are betrothed to Him and are being dressed up by the Holy Spirit, eagerly awaiting the rapture at the sound of the last trumpet. We will receive the crown of victory and reward before the throne of the Lord and enjoy the wedding feast with the Lord at the Feast of Tabernacles. We will reign with the Lord in His Millennial Kingdom (Rev. 20:4), and enjoy the presence and glory of God the Father for all eternity (Rev. 21:1-4)!
Passover · Lamb · Betrothal Gift
Love of God
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
- Romans 5:6-10
God told the Israelites to prepare a lamb on the 10th day of the first month (Exod. 12:3) and to slaughter it at twilight on the 14th day of that month. The blood of the lamb was to be put on the doorframe to mark the house, so that the plague to kill the firstborn of Egypt would pass over them that night. On that night, they must eat fire-roasted lamb and unleavened bread for 7 days (Exod. 12:6-8, 13, 18) to commemorate God's deliverance from Egyptian slavery (Exod. 12:41). God ordained the twilight of the 14th day of the first month as the Lord’s Passover (Lev. 23:5), foreshadowing Jesus' crucifixion on the Passover (Heb. 2:14).
On Palm Sunday before Passover (the 10th day of the first month), the Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem meekly and humbly, riding on a donkey colt (John 12:1, 12-15). This fulfilled what the prophet Zechariah had prophesied 500 years before Jesus came into the world (Zech. 9:9). Jesus personally became the Passover lamb at the Passover Feast (1 Cor. 5:7) and accomplished God's plan of salvation on the cross by paying the ransom price with His own blood and life, so that mankind could be delivered from the slavery of sin (John 1:29).
The fall of Adam, our first ancestor, caused the world to fall into the bondage of sin and death. God the Father sent His beloved Son Jesus into the world to be the scapegoat for our sins. Jesus willingly endured the cruel crucifixion on the cross for the Bride of Christ with sacrificial love, paying the price with His life and precious blood as a dowry. His redemption on the cross revealed the great love of God the Father for mankind (John 3:16). Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)
Unleavened Bread · Blood · Justification
The Last Supper – Holy Communion
Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you”.
- Luke 22:15-20
Leaven in the Bible represents sin (1 Cor. 5:6-8). The removal of leaven foreshadows the removal of sin. God rescued the children of Israel from the Egyptians on the night of the Passover and commanded them to eat unleavened bread for 7 days (Exod. 12:18). God performed the miracle at the Red Sea to help the Israelites cross the Red Sea, free them from the pursuit of the Egyptian army (Exod. 14:21-23,28-29) and receive the baptism of life into God. God ordained the day after Passover, the 15th day of the first month, to be the ‘Feast of Unleavened Bread’. They must eat unleavened bread for 7 days (Lev. 23:6). This foreshadowed Jesus’ death and burial, just as our baptism is into His death and burial with Him (Rom. 6:3-6).
On the day the Passover lamb was to be slaughtered (Mark 14:12), Jesus foretold His betrayal and crucifixion at the Passover meal. With the bread and the cup, He foretold the breaking of His body and the shedding of His blood on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. “Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Matt. 26:27-28). Jesus was betrayed that night by Judas, crucified the next day (Luke 23:44-46) and buried in the evening (Mark 15:46). Life is in the blood, and the blood atones for sin (Lev. 17:11; 1 Cor 5:7). (See Days of Crucifixion & Resurrection) (Note)
God imputed all the sins of the world to His beloved Son Jesus, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ before God, just as the prophet Isaiah prophesied over 700 years before Christ (Isa. 53:6-8). The cup that the Lord Jesus took at the Last Supper is the betrothal cup of the marriage covenant with us. The Lord Jesus made a "new covenant" with us through His precious blood on the Cross, so that through His body (the bread) and blood (the cup) all those who accept Jesus’ salvation will have their sins forgiven (Eph. 1:7), be justified by faith (Rom. 3:24), and enjoy eternal life (John 6:54). This fulfilled God’s promise to make a new covenant with His people and write the law on their hearts (Jer. 31:31-33). (see Blood on the Mercy Seat).
Feast of Firstfruits · Fruits · Marriage Covenant
Righteousness by Faith
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
- Romans 3:23-26
God manifested His might at the Passover, delivering the children of Israel from Egyptian slavery and giving them a new birth and a new life in God (Exod. 15:1-2). After crossing the Red Sea, they wholeheartedly praised God's salvation, declaring, “You in Your mercy have led forth the people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation” (Exod. 15:11-13). The Feast of Unleavened Bread is on the day after Passover for 7 days, and the first day is the High Sabbath. God told the priests to offer the firstfruits to God on the ‘day after the Sabbath’ (Lev. 23:10-11). This foreshadowed the resurrection of Jesus on the third day after His crucifixion (Luke 24:7; 1 Cor. 6:14). (See Days of Crucifixion & Resurrection)
Jesus was crucified on the Passover (1 Cor. 5:7), but three days after His death God raised Him from the dead (Matt. 28:1-6). He became the firstfruits of those who are asleep (1 Cor. 15:20-22). Before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples many times that He would be mocked, scourged, and crucified in Jerusalem, and then resurrected three days later (Matt. 16:21; 20:19). He also publicly told the Pharisees that He would be in the ground for three days and three nights, just as the prophet Jonah was in the belly of a fish (Matt. 12:40). After His resurrection from the dead, Jesus appeared to the world for 40 days (Acts 1:3; 1 Cor. 15:6), spoke to His disciples about the Kingdom of Heaven, and promised to send the Holy Spirit, who would be with us always (John 16: 7).
The world was bound to death by sin because of the fall of Adam. The Lord Jesus has defeated the power of death as a human being, so that mankind can be delivered from the death caused by Adam’s sin and receive eternal life through the resurrected Jesus Christ (John 5:24). All of us in the world have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), but God has made the Lord Jesus our propitiation through His blood (Rom. 3:25-26), so that everyone who accepts Jesus becomes a new creation, bearing His divine nature. We become the firstfruits of Christ (Jas. 1:18; Rom. 16:5) and are the "bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh" (Eph. 5:30), that is, the Bride of Christ who has accepted the marriage covenant of the Lord Jesus.
Pentecost · Holy Spirit · Seal
Seal of the Holy Spirit
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
- Ephesians 1:13-14
After the Israelites left Egypt, God led them to the Promised Land by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God fed them with manna from heaven and water from the rock. In the third month, they camped before Mount Sinai (Exod. 19:1-2). God told the Israelites to count the days from the Feast of Firstfruits to the day after the seventh Sabbath, a total of 50 days, as the Lord's Pentecost (Lev. 23:15-16). At Pentecost, God descended in fire on Mount Sinai (Exod. 19:17-20), made a blood covenant with the children of Israel (Exodus 24:8), and gave them the tablets of Ten Commandments (Exod. 31:18). This foreshadows Jesus’ fulfilment of the Law to establish a new covenant through His own blood (Heb. 10:16).
On the 50th day after Jesus’ resurrection as the firstfruits, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-4), just as Jesus had promised (Acts 1:4-5). The Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts and is with us forever (John 14:16-17), becoming the seal of the "new covenant" between the Lord Jesus and us (2 Cor. 1:22). When the disciples received the Holy Spirit, they were empowered to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8) and to baptise believers in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). All who believe in the Lord Jesus are born again as new creations (2 Cor. 5:17) into God’s family and become children of God (Rom. 8:16-17).
The law came through Moses, but grace comes to all people through Jesus (John 1:17), so that no one who is in Jesus Christ will be condemned (Rom. 8:1-4). God loves the world and made His Son Jesus the vessel of His grace through His redemption on the cross in order to save the mankind from a sinful and evil world (John 17:16-17). The Lord Jesus made a new covenant with us through His precious blood and sealed us with the Holy Spirit, so that we could be "sanctified" in Him through faith. The Holy Spirit is the "token" given by God the Father to the "Bride of Christ", to bear witness that we are co-heirs with the Lord Jesus to inherit the Kingdom of God for eternity (Eph. 1:13-14).
Life Preparation · Ten Virgins
The Parable of Ten Virgins
Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
- Matthew 25:1-13
God called Moses to Mount Sinai for 40 days to receive the Law (Exod. 24:17). During this time, the Israelites rebelled against God by making a golden calf and worshipping idols (Exod. 32:7-8). Moses smashed the tablets of the law in anger and asked God to forgive His people (Exod. 32:19). God called Moses back to the mountain for 40 days to make new tablets (Exodus 34:28), and the people repented during this time (Exod. 34:4). Moses brought down the new tablets of the law and their sins were forgiven. This was the Day of Atonement. To this day, the Israelites still regard the 40 days before the Day of Atonement as for repentance. After the Exodus, the Israelites repeatedly broke the laws and disobeyed God (Deut. 9:6-7, 24), but God is faithful and loving (Hos. 11:1-4, 8). He promised to make a new covenant with His people by writing the law on their hearts (Jer. 31:32-33). This refers to the New Covenant of the Lord Jesus.
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law (1 Cor. 15:56-57). Jesus’ redemption fulfilled the law so that we are no longer slaves to sin (Matt. 5:17; Rom. 6:14). After the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the early churches grew rapidly. With the power of the Holy Spirit, the disciples spread the gospel from Jerusalem to the whole world (Acts 1:8). When people confessed their sins and repented, the Holy Spirit descended upon them. They were born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; 19:6; 2 Cor. 1:22), testifying that they belonged to Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:9,16). Jesus used the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-4) to tell us that true believers are those who have been born again in Christ (Titus 3:5) and have the anointing of the indwelling Holy Spirit as their source of light (lamp oil) for life (Isa. 61:1; 1John 2:27). Jesus asks us to be vigilant and prepared for His return (Matt. 25:13).
I belong to my beloved and my beloved is mine (Song 2:16). Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven to a king's wedding feast for his son (Matt. 22:1-4). Jesus, "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb. 12:2). As the Bride of Christ, in the face of temptations, persecutions and sufferings of the world, we must be like wise virgins, relying on the indwelling Holy Spirit to prepare ourselves for the return of our heavenly Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus. We must be faithful and watchful, waiting for the wedding feast with the Lord (1 Pet. 1:13-19). All born again believers who are justified by faith can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those children of God who have been called and sanctified by God, and have lived a victorious life are qualified to attend the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. (See The Grand Marriage of the Universe).
Feast of Trumpets · Rapture
The Last Trumpet – Jesus Returns
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
- Matthew 24:29-31
After God forgave the Israelites for their idolatrous worship of a golden calf at Mount Sinai, He set aside the first day of the seventh month as a holy convocation. The priests blow shofars to mark the Feast of Trumpets (Lev. 23:24). The trumpet is sounded to gather the people (Num. 10:3) for the Day of Atonement ten days later (Lev. 25:9). The sound of the trumpet reminds the people that the Day of Atonement is near and calls people to turn back to God, repent of their sins and look forward to the coming of the Messiah. The trumpets sounded loudly when God descended on Mount Sinai to make the covenant (Exod. 19:16,19), and so it will be when Jesus returns (Joel 2:1; Matt 24:31). The Feast of Trumpets begins with the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. The biblical New Year falls on the first day of the first month (Exod. 12:1-2). The celebrations last for ten days of repentance, culminating in Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement (Exod. 12:1-2).
The Feast of Trumpets typifies the biblical prophecy of 7 trumpets in Revelation, when God will judge the earth, and the Lord Jesus will return to gather His people (Matt. 24:29-31) and proclaim the year of Jubilee (Lev 25:9-10). Jesus told us about the signs of the coming tribulation and His return after the Great Tribulation, “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” (Matt. 24:7-8) The Lord warned us to be watchful and prepared, for the day of the Lord's return will be like the days of Noah. People were eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage as usual, until God told Noah's family to enter the ark. The great flood came suddenly and destroyed them all (Matt. 24:37-39). The miraculous restoration of Israel after over 2,000 years of destruction, is the prelude to the return of the Lord Jesus. (See The Last Judgement).
The last trumpet is the catastrophe of the world, but it is the Jubilee of the Lord Jesus and the Bride of Christ. Jesus told us that He has gone back to God the Father to prepare a place and would come again to take us to Himself (John 14:2-3). At God's appointed time, when the last trumpet sounds, in the twinkling of an eye, all the children of God who believe in Jesus and are born again will be caught up into the air by the power of the Holy Spirit to meet Jesus (1 Thess. 4:16-17). We will be physically transformed into incorruptible glorified bodies in order to be conformed to the glorious body of Christ for eternity (1 Cor. 15:52; Phil. 3:20-21). We must be like wise virgins, preparing ourselves as the Bride of Christ, looking forward to the Lord’s return to take us to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Those who have not accepted the Lord Jesus and do not have the life of Christ will not be able to enter the Kingdom of God. (See also The Rapture of the Believers)
Day of Atonement · Sanctification
Eternal Redemption - Once for All
But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
- Hebrews 9:11-15
God ordained the 10th day of the seventh month as the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:27), on which everyone must fast, pray and repent (Isa. 57:15). This was the only day of the year when the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant (Lev. 16:14-15) to make atonement for himself and the people so that they could be cleansed before God (Lev. 30). On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would also lay his hands on the head of a male goat, passing all the sins of the people onto the lamb, and then send the goat into the wilderness (Lev. 16:20-22). The rite of atonement signified that God imputed the sins of the world to the head of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ (John 1:29), as a sacrifice of atonement (Isa. 53:6,10). Jesus’ blood must also be sprinkled on the mercy seat for the forgiveness of sins. (See The Blood on the Mercy Seat)
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:21) God made Jesus a sin offering (Rom. 3:25-26). Jesus, who died, rose again, and ascended to heaven as our High Priest, has sanctified us once and for all with His own blood (Heb. 9:11-12). As a result, all who believe in Him are sanctified and no longer need to offer sacrifices to atone for their sins. We can enter the Holy of Holies and come before mercy seat of God the Father at any time, “for by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” (Heb. 10:14,18-20). The Lord Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant, which gives us an eternal inheritance in heaven (Heb. 9:15). When Jesus returns, He will judge the world and people righteously (Ps. 98:9; Rev. 20:11-12). The righteous will have eternal life, and the wicked will be cast into the lake of fire (Matt. 25:31-32, 46).
The Lord Jesus offered an eternal sacrifice of atonement for our sins (Heb. 10:12), so that through the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:27), “we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:4-5) In this way we are set apart from the world to the resurrected eternal life of Jesus (Col. 2:12). God's ultimate plan is to establish His holy Kingdom on earth through us, the new creation in Christ, reborn into the Kingdom of God with the life and divine nature of the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:10). We are built into One Body, the Bride of Christ, fully united to Jesus, the Head, the Bridegroom (John 17:22-23). “By Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”(Col. 1:20-21)
Feast of Tabernacles · Marriage of the Lamb
The Marriage of The Lamb
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” … 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, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” 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, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
- Revelation 21:1-4; 9-11
After Moses came down from Mount Sinai, God instructed him to build the Tabernacle of God with the Israelites (Exod. 25:8-9; 40:2-3) so that God could dwell among His people. God designated the 15th day of the seventh month as the Feast of Tabernacles for the people to live in the tabernacle for 7 days in remembrance of God’s dwelling with them through the tabernacle for 40 years in the wilderness after He brought them out of Egypt (Lev. 23:34, 42 -43). God warned Moses three times that the tabernacle and its sacred objects must be made exactly according to His instructions (Exodus 25:40; 26:30; 27:8), because it is a picture of the heavenly entity, pointing directly to the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ and the heavenly tabernacle – the New Jerusalem (Heb. 8:5; 9:11). This is illustrated in the picture below.
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? ” (1 Cor. 3:16). We are the temple of God, and all who are called and sanctified in Christ (1 Cor. 1:2) are being masterfully built up together by God the Father. With the Lord Jesus as the cornerstone, we are being built into one body (Eph 4:16), gradually becoming the spiritual temple of the Lord, the holy city of the New Jerusalem - the Bride of Christ (Rev 21:2, 9-11). Although the Bride of Christ is made up of human beings visible to the naked eye, her substance is a spiritual being that transcends time and space, full of the stature of the Lord Jesus (Eph. 4:11-13). It is God's temple on earth (1 Pet. 2:5), where God dwells through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:20-22), and it foreshadows the heavenly New Jerusalem (Rev. 3:12; 21:2, 9-11).
The Marriage of the Lamb is the wedding feast of the Lord Jesus and the Bride of Christ. It is a cosmic marriage between the Redeemer and the redeemed, a divine wedding celebrated in heaven. As the Bride of Christ, we are “bone of the bones” of the Lord Jesus and “flesh of His flesh” (Eph. 5:30), and members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27). We will become one body with Jesus, joint heirs and partakers of His inheritance given by God the Father (Rom. 8:16-17). We will sit with the Lord Jesus on His throne, ruling over the earth (Rev. 3:21) throughout the Millennial Kingdom into the eternal New Heaven and Earth. We will regain the authority, kingdom, and glory lost by Adam and Eve, restore our intimate relationship with God, and enjoy God the Father’s presence and glory forever in eternity (Rev. 21:2-3).
