Marriage Part 3

Ephesians 5 21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery.


Dan Lebatard on his radio show last week was talking about the former quarterback of the Miami Dolphins, Dan Marino.  It has been revealed in the New York Post that Marino had a child with his girlfriend.  Marino is a married man and a pillar in Miami's community.  Lebatard's conclusion is that marriage is dying and most men will not be faithful to their wives.  Men are only as faithful as their options.  That marriage is antiquated, and will go the way of the dinosaurs.  This is my paraphrase of his words.

I agree that if we continue with our main option, ourselves, marriages and all of society will die.  I am not Marino's or Lebatard's judge.  But i do judge myself.  If my marriage is to flourish, my focus cannot be on my needs.  If our society is to flourish, we need to change our mind about wanting what is best solely for us.

Marriage is a “great mystery.” We cannot discard it, as it is too important, but it overwhelms us. In the Bible, mystery is used to mean not some esoteric knowledge known only to insiders but rather some wondrous, unlooked-for truth that God is revealing through his Spirit.  A secret we would say.

But what is the secret to marriage.  In short, the “secret” is not simply the fact of marriage per se. It is the message that what husbands should do for their wives is what Jesus did to bring us into union with himself. And what is that?

Jesus gave himself up for us. Jesus the Son, though equal with the Father, gave up his glory and took on our human nature (Philippians 2:5ff). But further, he willingly went to the cross and paid the penalty for our sins, removing our guilt and condemnation, so that we could be united with him (Romans 6:5) and take on his nature (2 Peter 1:4). He gave up his glory and power and became a servant. He died to his own interests and looked to our needs and interests instead (Romans 15:1–3). Jesus’s sacrificial service to us has brought us into a deep union with him and he with us. And that, Paul says, is the key not only to understanding marriage but to living it.

This is the secret—that the gospel of Jesus and marriage explain one another. That when God invented marriage, he already had the saving work of Jesus in mind


The Meaning Of Marriage Timothy Keller pg 42-47