In general, men are driven by intellect and women by affections, and because of this men in the Bible generally represent knowledge and truth and women generally represent love and the desire for good. This generally carries over into marriage, where the man's growing knowledge and understanding and the woman's desire to be good and useful are a powerful combination. In many cases in the Bible, then, "husband" refers to things of truth and understanding, much as "man" does. Magnificent things can happen in a true marriage, though, when both partners are looking to the Lord. If a husband opens his heart to his wife, it's as though she can implant her loves inside him, transforming his intellectual urges into a love of growing wise. She in turn can grow in her love of that blooming wisdom, and use it for joy in their married life and in their caring for children and others in their life. Many couples, even in heaven, stay in that state -- called "Spiritual" -- growing deeper and deeper to eternity. There is the potential, though, for the couple to be transformed: through the nurturing love of his wife the husband can pass from a love of growing wise to an actual love of wisdom itself, and the wife can be transformed from the love of her husband's wisdom into the wisdom of that love -- the actual expression of the love of the Lord they have built together. In that state -- called "Celestial" -- the husband represents love and the desire for good, and the wife represents truth and knowledge.

63. The holy city Jerusalem means that new church in regard to its teachings. That is why it was seen coming down from God out of heaven, because the only source of genuinely true teaching is through heaven from the Lord.

It is because the city New Jerusalem means the church in regard to its teachings that it says “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2) and then,

One of the seven angels came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the spirit to a high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. (Revelation 21:9-10)

It is common knowledge that the bride and wife mean the church and the Bridegroom and Husband mean the Lord. The church is the bride when it is willing to receive the Lord and is the wife when it does receive him. We can see that the Husband means the Lord in this passage because it says “the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”