Christ And His Church


Albert E. Farley


When we witness a beautiful wedding of faithful Christians, we are reminded of several Bible truths concerning marriage.Marriage is beautiful; it is divine and is to last for life.Genesis 2:18-24; Matthew 19:19.Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh … Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife: and they shall become one flesh.”Genesis 2:23, 24.NKJV

 

If one’s spouse dies, he or she is released from the vows taken in that marriage.In speaking of Christian widows, Paul wrote, “A wife is bound by law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.”1 Corinthians 7:39.


Paul used marriage to teach of the end of the Law of Moses.He said, in Romans 7:2, “For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives.But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.  So then, if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.  Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”The Law of Moses died in the purpose and work of Jesus Christ.Christ kept the law perfectly; He fulfilled it completely.When He died on the cross, He “abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances … Ephesians 2:15, 16.He took it “out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”Colossians 2:14.


Holy wedlock is further used by Paul, in Ephesians 5, to teach of the special relationship between Christ and His bride, the church.He said, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.  Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.”To the husbands, he wrote, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”5:25-29.He said, “For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.”5:30.


Today, Jesus is in heaven and His bride is on earth.In Matthew 25:1-13, Jesus spoke of when He would return for His bride.The church, composed of many individuals, is represented as ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom.The bridegroom came at midnight.Half of the virgins were ready and went with the bridegroom.The door was shut.The foolish virgins pleaded for the Lord to open the door, but it was too late.Jesus concluded, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”


We can learn many things from marriage concerning Christ and the church.– Editor.


Return to West Virginia Christian