Marriage Helps #12
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge (Hebrews 13:4).
Marriage ought to be held in honor—prized as precious—among all. Here is the fifth of 5 ways that Pastor demonstrated the preciousness of marriage.
Marriage is precious in its picture, the picture it reflects of the relationship between Christ and His church. Marriage exists for the glory of God. Marriage is a unique display of God’s glory (Hamilton). It manifests the most glorious “mystery.” This is what Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:29-32, as he seeks to give a good ground for the woman’s submission and the husband’s sacrificial love.
This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:32).
The mystery of marriage concerns “Christ and the church.” What was not known and not revealed until the coming of Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit, is that this union of husband and wife, this one flesh relationship, was designed by God at the beginning to be a prophetic picture, and earthly analogy, of the intimate and eternal relationship which would exist between “Christ and the church.” In other words, it is the intimate relationship between Christ and His bride which marriage was designed to illustrate, not the other way around! Paul explains the words of Genesis 2:24 in light of the way that Christ loves His church. God designed marriage, “so that the world would have a category for understanding the relationship between Christ and the church. Every marriage should be a minidrama of the gospel” (Hamilton). John Piper states it well, “The mystery of Genesis 2:24 is that [marriage] is a parable or symbol of Christ’s relation to His people. There was more going on in the creation of woman than meets the eye. God doesn’t do this willy-nilly. Everything has a purpose and meaning. When God engaged to create man and woman and to ordain the union of marriage, he didn’t roll dice or draw straws or flip a coin as to how they might be related to each other. He patterned marriage very purposely after the relationship between His Son and the church, which He had planned from all eternity.” Bromiley adds, “As God made man in His own image, so He made marriage in the image of His own eternal marriage with His people. Through marriage the glorious mystery is unveiled.”
Marriage is the earthly reality designed to reflect the heavenly reality, the loving rule of Christ over His church and the church’s trusting submission to Christ. Marriage is a Christ-centered and Christ-enabled and Christ-reflecting relationship.
