|
By Matt Guerino|Published Date: June 07, 2010
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Ephesians 5:26, 32-33
What’s so great about marriage?
In reading Ephesians 5:22-33 – perhaps the seminal New Testament passage on the subject of marriage – one could easily conclude that the Apostle Paul had trouble staying on topic. He sets out to teach Christian spouses how to fulfill their roles as husband and wife, but he seems to keep wandering from that point. However, if we’re paying attention we soon realize that this is no mere attempt to provide how-to tips for a successful marriage.
Rather than writing an advice column with practical suggestions for married people, Paul instead explains the significance of marriage from God’s point of view. He moves effortlessly back and forth between discussing the husband/wife relationship on the one hand, and the Christ/Church relationship on the other, blending the two easily as though they were one subject.
Because from God’s perspective, they are.
Sacred mirror
From the very beginning, marriage held a special place in God’s plan for humanity. The story of marriage begins, as do all things from the Biblical point of view, back in the Garden of Eden before the Fall. In Genesis 1:27 God tells us that he made mankind in his image, as male and female. This linking of human gender with being in God’s image is significant. It tells us that God Himself would be somehow reflected when the man and the woman interacted with one another.
Then Genesis 2:24 tells us marriage exists precisely because God designed us in His image as male and female. The incredible privilege to reflect God that the human race has been given is expressed nowhere more clearly than in history’s first and foremost human institution: marriage.
This all adds a decidedly sacred cast to the husband/wife relationship. Even before sin and the need for redemption entered the world, marriage was a high and holy thing. It has always, by its very nature, been about more than just the people who participate in it.
Sin, curse, and divine drama
Even after the Fall, marriage continues to fulfill its intended purpose of reflecting God. To a rebellious world that has turned its back on its Maker, marriage is one of the main ways God shows the people of the world what His love for them is like.
No one was more familiar with how this works than the prophet Hosea. In the Old Testament book that bears his name, Hosea was told by God to marry a prostitute. This was a vivid picture of how God felt about His people, whom He loved fiercely despite their penchant for turning away from Him and serving other gods. The prophet’s marriage, rather than his words, became the primary vehicle for his message.
And the drama progressed from there. In chapter 3 Hosea’s wife has become indentured to another man, and God instructs Hosea to pay money to “buy” her freedom and return her home. It is a classic example of insult being added to injury. The prophet has to pay to get his own wife back.
Once again we see Hosea’s marriage serving as a powerful communication tool, as one can scarcely imagine a more vivid picture of the Messiah’s mission. Because God’s people have voluntarily walked away from Him and fallen in love with other gods, Jesus would pay with His blood in order to get His own people back again.
These blood-bought rebels, Christians, are His Church. And He has gone to great personal sacrifice to overcome our disloyal, wandering hearts. God loves us with the love of a husband; a fierce and relentless love which will countenance no rivals. And He uses the drama of a prophet’s broken marriage to put this love on display.
The eternal significance of “I Do”
So according to Scripture, the ultimate reason marriage exists is to demonstrate the relentless love that Christ has for His Church. For Christians who are married, knowing that puts all the daily mundane challenges of maintaining a marriage in a different light.
Every marriage contains its share of challenges. Every married person knows what it means to be disappointed, annoyed, let down, or discouraged by the perceived shortcomings of his or her spouse. When we forget that our marriages are really pictures of Christ’s love for the Church, it is easy for these disappointments to become magnified in our minds. Over time they increasingly appear insurmountable as they linger, fester, and grow into resentment and isolation.
Though our very real shortcomings let God down by ruining our relationship with Him; yet He did not let separation have the final say. Because of His relentless love He overcame our faults, at great cost to himself. And He calls Christian spouses to do the same with one another, by the power of His Spirit living – and loving – through us.
Is your marriage crying out for a dose of relentless love?
For more insight to this topic, get the book, When Sinners Say, “I Do”, by Dave Harvey, from our online store. Or read the article, “The Measure of a Marriage: A Biblical View,” by T. M. Moore.
Give us your feedback on this article.
|
