Q: Should Christians Be Looking for the Coming of Jesus as King?
Selected from our Questions and Answers program
A: The Lord Jesus is not the King of the Church, and we are not looking for the coming of a King. The message to the Church is: "Behold, the bridegroom cometh" (Matthew 25:6). He is the Bridegroom and the Church is His bride. That is stated in the fifth chapter of Ephesians and the Book of Revelation also makes it very clear. We're looking for the Bridegroom. The thought given to us is, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13). Christ is coming to this earth to set up His kingdom, but that is not what we're looking for. We're looking for the Bridegroom to come and take the Church out of the world. If you're a Christian then you're the body of Christ, and that body is to be presented to Him someday as the bride. We're told in Ephesians 5: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (vv. 25-27). Paul is speaking of the Church as the bride of Christ being presented to Him. Then he goes back to the practical application he started out with: "So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself" (v. 28). The thought here is that the marriage relationship should mirror the relationship between Christ and the Church. Paul comes back again and says, "This is a great mystery...." That is, this is something the Old Testament never really developed. This is new truth. "...But I speak concerning Christ and the church" (v. 32) — that's the important thing. Then Paul makes the final application: "Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife, see that she reverence her husband" (v. 33). Now this is only for Spirit-filled believers, because all of this is prefaced by the fact that we are not to be drunk with wine but we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God (see Ephesians 5:18). That is the background for this wonderful new relationship that is to exist between Christ and the Church. We're not looking for the King to come, but the Bridegroom. And the message will be, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh." And the Book of Revelation ends with this urgent call: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come" (Revelation 22:17).
