Married to Christ

2 Corinthians 11:2 - "I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him."

The Apostle Paul speaks in terms of the Church being a chaste virgin, married to Christ. This may seem a strange way to refer to a relationship that can never be a marriage in the physical sense. However, in the Old Testament there is a similar metaphor of God's relationship with the nation of Israel:

Isaiah 54:5 - "For your Maker is your husband, the Lord almighty is his name, the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.

Jeremiah 31:32 - " 'It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them' declares the Lord."

There is a clear parallel between the covenant made between the covenant made between God and Israel and a marriage agreement. When Israel began to constantly go astray after other gods, God divorced her.

Isaiah 50:1 - "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away."

In the marriage of His Son, there will be no repetition of the sadness and disappointment which God experienced in His relationship with Israel. The marriage between Christ and his Church will be on a spiritual level, where those acting as the Bride will have proved themselves faithful while still human. No longer mortal they will have been resurrected, or changed to spiritual-plane beings at the return of Jesus Christ to this earth. (1 Corinthians 15:49 - 56, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).