Henderson Hills Baptist Church

The Mystery

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 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." (Emphasis added) Eph 5:31-33 (ESV)

We’ve been reading and considering some of the most important instructions of the entire Bible on the subject of marriage. I am writing this blog today on Marcia and my 39th wedding anniversary. While I have no desire to sound too sentimental, I can honestly say that I’ve had the joy of being married to a Spirit-filled woman who has demonstrated Paul’s teaching in this passage. This has been the most amazing joy for me. Every year I think that I couldn’t love her more and every year I do. My prayer is that our marriage might demonstrate the relationship that exists between Christ and the Church. That is, of course, the goal; living Spirit-filled lives in order to glorify Christ.

Verse 32 is a most enlightening verse. Nestled in these remarkable words about marriage, Paul reveals a motivating factor leading in his instructions about Christian marriage. He has been showing us the mystery that refers to the relationship between Christ and the Church.

Many people enjoy a good mystery story. Authors and filmmakers have made fortunes weaving tales that lead us in one direction and then the other to an ultimate discovery of the truth. We enjoy the excitement and mind-twisting clues that walk us into some resolution. The apostle uses the word “mystery” here to say, the model Christian marriage reveals Christ and the Church, and that is nothing short of a mystery. In the New Testament, the term “mystery” refers to a truth that was hidden in the Old Testament and revealed in the New Testament. The word is used 18 times in the New Testament; Paul uses the word a surprising number of times in his epistles.

• 1 Corinthians 2:7
•1 Corinthians 4:1
• 1 Corinthians 13:2
• 1 Corinthians 14:2
• 1 Corinthians 15:51
• Ephesians 1:9
• Ephesians 3:3
• Ephesians 3:4
• Ephesians 3:9
• Ephesians 5:32
• Ephesians 6:19
• Colossians 1:26
• Colossians 1:27
• Colossians 2:2
• Colossians 4:3
• 2 Thessalonians 2:7
• 1 Timothy 3:9
• 1 Timothy 3:16

The fact that something was a mystery doesn’t mean that God was trying to keep it from us. It may well be that we could not understand the meaning of the truth before Christ’s substitutionary death. We can understand in this age a truth not understood by the Old Testament believers. What is this mystery? It is that there is an amazing relationship between God and the Church because of Christ’s sacrificial atonement for our sins. God in His grace has made us right with Him when we couldn’t do that by anything we tried. As fallen people separated from God by our depravity, God made the way to Him when there was no other way. We were once fully separated from God but now, in Christ, we are inextricably united with Him (Gal 2:20-21; Rom 6:1-14). He is our bridegroom and we are His bride (Rev 18:23), united to Him by what He has given to us.

This metaphor is prominent in the Old Testament where the people of God adulterated themselves by the worship of idols. Israel was the unfaithful bride pictured in the book of Hosea (see also Jer 13:27). Why was God so offended by idolatry? Because it is in fact spiritual adultery; an unfaithful people uniting themselves with other gods.

Therefore, one of the primary reasons the relationship between Christian husbands and wives is so important is that it is an illustration of Christ and the Church. When a husband walks in the power of the Spirit, leading as Christ leads the Church and the wife submits to her own husband as she would to the Lord, their miraculous testimony is a beacon calling to the lost and showing them the way to life-giving safety and security. When, however, the Christian marriage is filled with antagonism, alienation, sharpness, and a lack of forbearance and forgiveness, that marriage sends a twisted and negative message of the meaning of Christ and the Church.

Let me challenge every Christian couple to live the life you’ve been called to live. This will bless your lives and more importantly serve to glorify Christ. Is it too late for you change your ways? They say that the best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago and the next best time is today. We can’t change the past, but we can allow Christ to change the future. Today, on our 39th anniversary, I pray that the Lord will forgive my insensitivity, fill me with the Spirit, and that I would lead Marcia in a godly way, and more than ever glorify our blessed Redeemer. No matter how many years you’ve been married, believe that Christ in you is the hope of glory (Col 1:27). If you were too old to be changed by Christ, I believe that He would have already removed you from this world and taken you to Heaven. And for you who are just beginning or early in your marriage, consider the wonderful way in which you, perhaps for decades to come, may live as a testimony of Christ in you and you in Him. 

2 Peter 3:18
Dennis Newkirk

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