The Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
CHRIST LOVED THE CHURCH AND
GAVE HIMSELF UP FOR HER
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen! In today’s Epistle, God draws a connection between His gift of marriage
and His gift of salvation. God uses marriage as an analogy or a picture of our
salvation. God says,
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for
her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water
with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without
blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
Dear Christian friends,
Every person here today—except for the youngest among us—every person here
today has probably heard something about our nation’s ongoing debate over the
definition of marriage. Should marriage be defined as the legal union of one
man and one woman, or should other definitions be equally accepted, such as the
legal union of two adult men, or the legal union of two adult women? (By the
way, it is only a matter of time before new definitions of marriage get pressed
beyond the current possibilities of man-man, or woman-woman.)
Some people would argue that it does not matter what you believe about
marriage, so long as you keep your mouth shut and do not impose your beliefs on
other people. You think what you want to think and do what you want to do—and
you let me do the same.
Part of me likes that idea. If Christians could keep their mouths shut about
marriage, we would be spared a lot of discomfort, at least in the short run. We
would not need to suffer the insult of being called such things as backward or
legalistic or fundamentalist or hypocritical.
Yes, hypocritical. Our nation’s debate over marriage exposes each of us
Christians to accusations of hypocrisy—and the accusations are undeniable. How
dare we speak in defense of marriage when we Christians ourselves so routinely
assault marriage in our words and in our actions?
Hardly a Christian gathered here today has been untouched—unharmed—by the
murderous scandal of divorce. But divorce is just the tip of the iceberg:
• What about the things that so often set the stage for divorce—the
selfish actions and the hurtful words; the unforgiven and bitter memories; the
unresolved conflicts and the erosion of affection?
• What about wandering eyes, even when no action gets taken? (Matthew
5:28) For that matter, what about the destructive and grievous actions that get
taken?
• What about male chauvinism and what about feminism? These two equally
terrible diseases are rooted deeply even in Christian hearts and minds. Answer
me this: Why do so many Christian men chuckle nervously—and so many Christian
women cross their arms or roll their eyes—when God flatly says, “Wives, submit
to your own husbands as to the Lord?” It is because our thoughts and desires
have been soiled with sin.
(As an aside: some of you may be thinking, “My marriage is in good shape. I am
guilty of nothing.” Some of you others may be thinking, “Marriage has nothing
to do with me. I am single or I am too young or my spouse has already departed
this life.” What you need to be thinking is this: “We are the body of Christ.
We are all in this together. My fellow sinners need me just as much as I need
them. When one part of the body is injured, the entire body feels the pain. I
personally might not have fallen in the specific manner that my fellow
Christians have fallen, but we are all equally sinful, equally full of death,
equally desperate for the forgiveness that Christ has earned on His cross.
God’s Christians stand and fall together! God’s Christians confess the faith of
the Church together!”)
Because of our guilt concerning marriage (both personal and collective), we
Christians seem to be in NO position to speak in defense of marriage. Yet SPEAK
WE MUST. By all means, we should double and triple our efforts to preserve
God’s gift of marriage among us! Without a doubt, we must confess and repent of
the ways we ourselves have done damage to this highest and best relationship
that God has created for our blessing! But even if we fail in our best
efforts—as we so often fail in so many ways—we must nevertheless speak.
• We Christians must insist that marriage is a high and holy office—even
when we ourselves end up misusing or destroying the marriage God has given to
us.
• We must confess that God gave us a good gift when He created
marriage—even if our entire nation should plug its ears to such a confession of
faith.
• We must believe that God created marriage by joining a man to his
wife—and we must hold this faith even when marriage finally gets defined as
something other than one man legally united to one woman.
Marriage is not merely a relationship. Marriage is a picture of our Lord’s love
and mercy toward His Christians. Marriage is one of God’s highest and best
evangelism tools. God uses marriage as an analogy or a picture of the salvation
that our Lord Jesus created through His sacrifice on the cross. God says,
• Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church;
• Husbands, love your wives, as Christ …gave Himself up for her;
• Husbands, love your wives, as Christ… sanctified [His bride the
church], having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He
might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any
such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
When a man is legally united with a woman, God uses husband and wife to create
a picture of the Christ who loves His dear Church more than His very own life.
“Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.”
If a man were to be legally united with another man, such a union would depict
a false image. Essentially, such a union would depict Christ as if He loved
Himself the most. But our Christ does not love Himself the most. Our Christ
Jesus loves you the most and me the most and HE GAVE HIMSELF UP FOR US,
forgiving us every sin—including our every sin against His gift of marriage.
So, too: if a woman were legally united with another woman, such a union would
also depict a false image. Essentially, such a union would be a picture of the
Church who loves herself even more than her Christ Jesus. Stated another way,
if you re-define marriage as man-man or woman-woman, you end up turning
marriage into a picture of self-idolatry.
It is probably not fair to describe the situation of marriage in our nation as
a debate, so much as a violent shove in the wrong direction. The only thing now
needed for the total redefinition of marriage in our nation is time.
We Christians may nevertheless give thanks and praise to our merciful and
loving God, despite every windstorm that should swirl around us. The value of
marriage is for us, not the opportunity for a moral victory; but rather,
marriage is for us the confession of the one true faith. In this faith we are
already saved. In this faith we are eternally preserved and fully protected by
the Christ who “gave Himself up for [us], that He may sanctify [us], having
cleansed [us] by the washing of water with the Word.” Because Christ is our
husband and because the Church is His bride, we now have nothing to lose.
We have nothing to lose in this losing debate over marriage in our nation, but
we do have something to gain.
• We have nothing to lose because Christ already lost His life for us,
gaining all things for us by the power of His resurrection. In Him you live and
move and have your being (Acts 17:28). Jesus can no longer die, and neither can
you! For that reason, each of us can confidently confess that we have nothing
to lose.
• We have nothing to lose in this marriage debate, but we have our
neighbor to gain. Where some will ignore and mock our confession of faith
concerning marriage, others—perhaps only a few—others will listen. God willing,
those few could even be snatched from the fire (Jude 23).
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