Day 6 - Reflections of the Gospel Part 2
Over the last 5 days your family has had the opportunity to learn about God’s purpose for the creation of all things, which is to show who he is through what he has made, and to demonstrate the unfolding of his great plan for the salvation of all mankind. You’ll notice that the cross is at the very center of the poster. This is because Jesus is the very center of history, and the very center of creation. The first half of the Bible is about God preparing humanity for the messiah who would come and save us. 2000 years ago Jesus came, died, and rose again, and this is the good news Gospel message. The latter half of the Bible is about Jesus establishing his church, spreading his Gospel message to the world through his followers, and finally preparing humanity for his future return when all things will be finally set right. We will learn more about that on day 7 and 8..
On of the main purposes of this devotional is to help your family better understand and treasure God’s design of marriage and sexuality. Although we touched on the creation of marriage and sexuality on days 1 and 2, the reason days 3-5 focused so much time on the Gospel message is because in order to fully understand and treasure God's ultimate plan for marriage and sexuality we must first understand and treasure the gospel. Let me explain.
Old Testament Symbolism
All throughout the Old Testament we hear the language of marriage and sexuality being used by God to describe the relationship he wants to have with his chosen people, Israel. He tells them that when they are faithful to him alone, it is just like a wife's faithfulness to her husband, but when God’s people go after other gods, God compares it to an adulterous wife going after other lovers. In fact, the book of Hosea is all about God asking a prophet to marry a prostitute who cheats on him repeatedly. God tells Hosea that when God's people sin, it's just like they are cheating on God.
Now It's no coincidence that God uses the language of marriage and sexuality to describe his relationship with his people. The picture of marriage where 2 people become one flesh was always meant to be a physical symbol of the deep spiritual oneness shared between God and mankind. That is why It matters so much to God that marriage only be between a man and a woman, and why sex should only occur within the boundaries of marriage, because anything other than that is a distortion of the symbol of God’s covenant relationship with his chosen people. Now that symbol was always alluded to in the Old Testament, however it wasn't until Jesus came and died for us that the picture was fully unveiled and explained. We discover through the New Testament that Jesus is the fulfillment of all Old Testament symbols, and that sex and marriage is ultimately about Christ’s relationship with his church.
That is what your family will learn about today through reading Ephesians 5:21-32
New Testament Fulfillment
Before we read the beginning of Ephesians 5, let’s look at the end, because the end helps us best understand the beginning. In Ephesians 5:28-29 Paul says, “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.” Paul is saying that every born again follower of Jesus is so closely connected to him that we are literally a part of his spiritual body. Then, in Ephesians 5:30, to expand on this closeness, Paul quotes Genesis 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” and then finally Paul says, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” What mystery is profound? And why does Paul quote God’s creation statement about marriage and sexuality when describing the close relationship between Christ and the church? Well, let’s think about it. Eve was created from Adam, connected to Adam. She was separated from him, and then God brought them together and they became one flesh, reconnected to each other. Likewise, when God created humanity we were spiritually connected to him. We sinned, and became separated from him. And then Jesus came and restored us to God through his death and resurrection, and now we are spiritually one flesh with Jesus, reconnected to God. We are the bride, and he is the groom. And this is the mystery that Paul is saying is so profound when he quotes God’s pronouncement of marriage in Genesis 2. The mystery that is profound is that marriage was always meant to be a symbol of the church’s close intimate relationship with Jesus. That’s why God invented marriage. That is it’s greatest purpose. And what Paul means by it being profound is that it is profound that God created this symbol even before Adam and Eve sinned. God knew that Adam and Eve would sin before he even created them, and therefore he designed marriage as a picture of the redemption he would enact thousands of years in the future, because of their sin. Adam and Eve had no idea when they were marrying and having sex that it was all pointing to humanities future redemption through Jesus, and that is what Paul is saying is so mysteriously profound! Isn’t that amazing!
So, knowing that marriage and sex is ultimately a picture of Jesus and his church provides us parents the best foundation for teaching our children why the Bible puts certain boundaries around marriage and sex, and it helps us model for them what a proper Biblical relationship looks like between a husband and wife. Many people believe that marriage is ultimately about our happiness, but actually we see that marriage is ultimately about worship to God, by displaying a beautiful picture about God’s love for us, and our love for God.
So now that we understand that marriage and sexuality was designed to be a picture of Jesus and the church, let’s read the beginning of Ephesians 5:21-31 about how a husband and wife can practically
display this picture through the way they relate to one another.
Husbands and Wives, Service and Submission
Husbands, we learn in Ephesians 5:25-28 that just as Christ showed us how much he loves us by dying for us on the cross, we get the opportunity to display the sacrificial love of Jesus by laying our lives down for our wives. Verses 26 and 27 show us that just as Jesus washed and cleansed us from our sins “that we might be holy and without blemish”, we can spiritually wash our wives by praying for them, and reading the Bible and speaking God’s words to them. This is beautiful. In verses 28 and 29 Paul teaches us that our wives are a part of us, one flesh with us, and so when we love and sacrifice for them we are essentially nourishing and cherishing our own flesh, and in doing all this we display the way Jesus cares for his own spiritual body, his bride the church.
Wives, we learn in Ephesians 5:22-24 to “submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is head of the church, his body, and is himself it’s savior. Now as the church submits to God, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.” It may be difficult to read that a husband is the head of his wife, however remember that marriage was created by God in order to display the picture of Christ’s relationship with his church, and so this is the reason a husband is designated by God as head of his wife, is because Christ is the head of is church. How is Christ our head? He is our leader. Christ protects us. The head is responsible to look for dangers to the body, and to make sure the body is nourished and healthy. This is the role God wants a husband to play in his marriage, because this is the role Jesus plays for his church. So when Ephesians 5:22-24 shares that the role of a wife is to submit to her husband as her head, she is essentially helping him fulfill his role, which is to protect and take care of her. And when a wife submits to her husband out of purity and reverence for Jesus, even when her husband is not leading well, 1 Peter 3:1-6 says that she will adorn herself with an unfading beauty, and this is of great worth in God’s sight, which may encourage her husband to lead better and love her more. Now it’s important to note that a wife must never submit to her husband in disobeying the words of the Bible. Ultimately Christ is her leader, and the primary motivation for submitting to her husband is a reverence for Christ. Additionally, if a husband is harming his wife, the Bible would encourage her to seek help from her spiritual family, the church, and if necessary also request help from civic authorities, which God means to be for our protection.
Final Notes
So Ephesians 5:22-31 helps husbands and wives understand how to relate to one another to best display God’s intended picture of marriage through service and submission. This is wonderful and beautiful. Remember that when God teaches us the best way to live through the Bible, he is not intending that we do it without his help. Men, we cannot sacrifice and serve our wives without God’s help. That is why we must read the Bible daily and ask God for help to obey it. And women, you cannot submit to your husbands without God’s help. That is why you need to read the Bible daily and ask God for help to obey it. We all need God’s help to display the picture of marriage well.
I want to also encourage you if you feel inadequate or unqualified to teach this lesson to your children because you are a single parent or because you feel that you have failed in relationships. God is not asking us to be perfect people with a perfect marriage before we are eligible to teach our children about God and his ways. None of us deserve the grace we have received from Jesus, and all of us need God’s help. That is the message of the cross. When you do this day of the devotional with your family, simply be humble, and ask God to teach your family through his word how to properly think about sex and marriage.
God bless you and your family today.
https://www.focusonthefamily.com/family-qa/submission-of-wives-to-husbands/
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/clarifying-words-on-wife-abuse