EPHESIANS: The Reason Why

EPHESIANS Number 63

Ephesians 5:26–27 (KJV 1900)
26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Here we learn the reason that the Lord Jesus gave Himself up for His bride the Church. If we have not yet been convinced that godly Love is outward facing, this passage should set us straight.

Christ, we are told, gave Himself up so that His bride would be set apart, made perfectly clean (as 1 John 1:9 puts it, cleansed from all unrighteousness, which leaves her righteous), glorious, spotless, youthfully beautiful, pure, and perfect.

He did it all for His bride. He did it for her benefit so that she would be all that she was designed by God to be.

I bet there isn’t a husband here who doesn’t want that for his wife. I bet there isn’t a wife here who doesn’t want that for her husband. And that is the point of submission. Our submission to one another helps us understand our submission to God and His submission to us.

Wait! Did he just say God’s submission to us!?

Absolutely. God condescended to us while we were yet sinners. He sent Jesus as a helpless baby. He sent Jesus to carry the weight of all our sin and to serve the sentence of death we had earned. Jesus came to serve, not to be served.

That’s submission and it gives us an entirely different way to look at headship as well, doesn’t it?
For wives and for husbands.

This is the model for our one-flesh union in marriage.
This is the model for our one-spirit union with Christ.

Now we learn just how deeply personal this is.

Ephesians 5:28–29 (KJV 1900)
28So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
29For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

We are given the example of self-love to help us see the depth of this mutually submissive Love relationship. The Spirit compares a husband’s love of his wife to his love of his own body. Some might argue that not everyone loves their own body. I would argue that they do. People feed their body foods it likes (sometimes to the body’s detriment, I’ll grant you). People work out in gymnasiums to build muscles and to preserve and extend flexibility and stamina. People decorate their bodies with hair styles, jewelry, clothing, makeup, and even artwork. One only needs to walk through a department store, a drug store, or a grocery store to see the overwhelming number of products designed purely for care of the body.

Then comes the real revelation. “He that loves his wife loves himself.” Don’t let that slip by. In this we see the profound union God intends for us. In marriage, the union is so profound that what happens to one of us happens to both of us.

I propose that in our spiritual union with God; the same thing is true. What happens to us happens to God. The blessing that happens to God happens to us.

Here is an example from the Scriptures for each of those propositional statements.

What happens to us (the bride of Christ) happens to Him.
“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” (Acts 9:1–5a, KJV 1900)

What happens to God happens to us.
“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:21–24, KJV 1900)

And one more, just to be thorough.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:” (Ephesians 1:3, KJV 1900)