This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon. 

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Heaven is not our final home; it’s the intermediate state between physical death and future glorification, which is pictured in the third and final act of ancient Jewish wedding ceremonies.

Nissuin

We’ve examined the shiddukhin, or marriage contract, and the erusin, or engagement. Now, we come to the nissuin, or marriage. This Hebrew word is derived from naso, which means to lift up. At this time, there’s great fanfare as the groom fetches his bride and escorts her to his father’s house. The couple again enters the huppah, recites a blessing over a cup of wine – a symbol of joy – and finalizes their vows. 

At last, after a year of separation, the husband and wife enter the bridal chamber and consummate their marriage. A friend of the groom waits outside until he’s informed that the new couple has engaged in marital relations for the first time. The friend announces this to the guests and, with resounding joy, the marriage feast begins. Often, the celebration lasts for days, as we see in the wedding at Cana, where Jesus performs his first miracle (John 2:1-11).

We don’t have intricate details of the earthly nissuin, but John captures a view of the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven and invites us to look with him:

Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude, like the sound of cascading waters, and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying, Hallelujah, because our Lord God, the Almighty, reigns! Let us be glad, rejoice, and give him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has prepared herself. She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure. For the linen represents the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: Blessed are those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb!” He also said to me, “These words of God are true” (Rev. 19:6-9).

John hears the voices of the redeemed in heaven, a vast multitude whose praise sounds like Niagara Falls or peals of thunder. They echo the cry of the twenty-four elders in Revelation 11:17: “We give you thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.” Babylon has fallen, and all who have profited from its corruption lament their loss. But God’s people rejoice at the inauguration of Christ’s kingdom. 

John notes that “the bride has prepared herself.” This is the true church, which has kept herself pure and ready for the Lord’s coming. “She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure. For the linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.” It’s probably best to understand these linens as something God provides for the bride, clothing us in his righteousness rather than our own merit (although his righteousness proves itself in believers’ good works). Consider the white robes of Revelation 7:9 and 14, which are washed in the blood of the Lamb. It must always be the righteousness of Christ that merits salvation, not our own good works.

Isaiah foresees God’s provision of clothing for his bride: “I rejoice greatly in the LORD, I exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a groom wears a turban and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Isa. 61:10).

It makes the most sense to see the wedding of the Lamb as a reference to the resurrection and glorification of the saints. The bride has made herself ready in that she has taken seriously her vows of chastity and has waited eagerly for the coming of the groom. As a result, the Lord has given his bride garments of fine linen to wear – the imputed righteousness of Christ. Now, glorified and perfected in body, soul, and spirit, the bride is united with the groom and they begin a new and joyous phase of their relationship for all eternity. Paul describes the bride of Christ as “a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish” (Eph. 5:27 NIV). 

Where’s the bride?

But why don’t we actually see the bride in the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-13)? Why don’t we actually see the bride and groom in the parable of the wedding banquet (Matt. 22:1-14)? And why does John say, “Blessed are those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9)? Why not, “Blessed are the bride and groom”?

It seems the symbolism is flexible throughout the New Testament. Just as the people of God are symbolized both as the sun-clothed woman (Israel) and as her children in Revelation 12, so the church is both the bride of Christ and the individual Christians invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb. 

Note a further curiosity: the bride is identified as “the New Jerusalem” in Revelation 21:2, 9. John notes in Revelation 21:1-2:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

The bride of Christ is best understood as the church (see 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25-27, 32; cf. Isa. 54:5-7). The New Testament also likens followers of Jesus to the temple of God – individual temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19), and living stones being built to create a corporate habitation for the Lord (1 Pet. 2:5). So, it shouldn’t seem strange for the people of God to be compared with a city.

God’s presence often manifests in natural and man-made structures – a burning bush, a pillar of cloud and fire, a tabernacle, a temple, and so on. Consequently, as the Spirit inhabits each of us as temples of the Holy Spirit, New Jerusalem may be seen as the corporate dwelling place of God. It needs no formal temple, because the Father and Son are its temple (Rev. 21:22).

Put another way, the New Jerusalem that comes down out of God from heaven may be seen as the redeemed of all ages collectively forming a dwelling place for the Lord, who descends to the earth in the second coming, sits on the throne of King David, drives out his enemies, and provides security for his people. 

As Eckhard Schnabel writes:

The “holy city Jerusalem” is God’s true people, the followers of Jesus who had remained faithful to the Lamb (rather than joining the Great Harlot of Babylon), described in Rev. 20:9 as “the camp of the saints and the beloved city.” The New Jerusalem is the community of the redeemed, the faithful who have refused to commit immorality through idolatry, the believers in Jesus who have persevered even in the midst of suffering and martyrdom. The people are themselves the city and also the temple in which God’s presence resides (21:2-3, 12-14).

Next, we should ask: In what way, specifically, has the bride made herself ready (Rev. 19:7)? She has appeared before the judgment seat of Christ as a resurrected, glorified, and rewarded community of saints. At the judgment seat, her works are evaluated and all her spots and blemishes are removed (see 1 Cor. 3:11-15; 2 Cor. 5:10). With this completed, the bride is ready to return to earth with the bridegroom.

In ancient times, the wedding feast after the nissuin might have included seven full days of food, music, dancing, and celebration (see Judg. 14:1-12). This happens before the bride and groom settle into their new life together. 

Some interpreters see this as support for a pre-tribulation rapture in which the church (the bride) and Jesus (the bridegroom) celebrate in heaven while seven years of judgments are poured out on the earth. Others believe the marriage supper of the Lamb takes place on earth after the return of Jesus with his saints. Still others see it taking place in heaven just after resurrection and glorification but without a seven-year delay before Christ’s return. In any case, the marriage supper of the Lamb is a time of celebration associated with our future glorification and the return of Christ to earth.

Whether the marriage supper of the Lamb takes place in heaven during an earthly tribulation, or at some other point, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s the fulfillment of God’s promise to the redeemed. And in our glorified bodies, now fully adorned for the wedding, we consummate the marriage and return with Jesus to live forever in new heavens and a new earth.

There’s little doubt that the marriage supper of the Lamb involves the redeemed of every tribe, language, people, and nation (Rev. 5:9). Jesus makes this clear when he tells those observing a Roman centurion’s faith, “I tell you that many will come from east and west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:11-12).

The banquet hall is filled. The marriage of the Lamb and his bride is upon us. And the feast is about to begin. This scene in heaven harkens back, not only to the parable of the ten virgins, but to Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet (Matt. 22:1-14). 

Next: Parable of the Wedding Banquet