The true meaning of
marriage, according to God’s holy Word, is union
with Jesus Christ, whereby, "the two shall become
one flesh (Eph 5:31:32)." In Genesis we read
that God took Eve out of Adam and then gave her to
Adam... "And Adam said, This is now bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh...(Gen 2:24) ." The Apostle Paul wrote to
the Church regarding Jesus Christ, that: "...we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of
His bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father
and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife,
and they two shall be one flesh. This
is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the
church (Eph
5:30-32)." Here we are given the true
meaning of marriage - complete union
with Jesus Christ. The Church is to be as
Jesus Christ, or as 1st John 4:17 reads, "...as He is, so are we in this
world."
In this marriage union the
husband is to represent Christ and the wife is to
represent the Church. Both roles are impossible
apart from the grace of God through the power of
His Holy Spirit. Our marriage union has an
eternal purpose associated with it "that
now through the Church, the manifold wisdom of
God should be made known to the rulers and
authorities in the heavenly realms, according
to His eternal purpose that He
accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord (Eph
3:10-11)."
For God, in the beginning, put Adam to sleep and
took Eve from his side just as He likewise did the
Church from Christ's side at Calvary. Then God
brought Eve to Adam and commanded them to
be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:28), and because
our marriage is both physical and spiritual (2 Cor
6:14), this command applies in both realms.
Adam is a created son of God according to
Luke chapter 3 verse 38 and therefore God's
command to them was in order to fill this earth
and universe with sons and daughters of God. This
means that marriage is the Ministry
whereby God intends to accomplish His purpose
regarding His un-created beloved Son,
Jesus Christ. For just as there was never the sun
without light and heat, our Triune God has ever
and always existed. Now it was God Who brought Eve
to Adam and so Jesus taught us that "No one comes to me
unless the Father Who sent me draws them.." (John 6:44). In John's
Gospel we read that "My Father is
glorified by this, that you bear much fruit..."(John 15:8).
Jesus goes even further in John 15:16, that He "appointed us" to bear much fruit and
that our fruit should remain. Again, this fruit is both
physical and spiritual. When both husband
and wife physically love each other, children
(fruit) multiply in a very natural way.
Similarly, because of our genuine love for Christ,
we naturally share His Gospel message and the
Church is enlarged. Billboards, advertising
and programs will never succeed in enlarging His
Church if it is trying to replace His Heavenly
Pattern - genuine Vine supplying Love.
The "Heavenly Pattern" for
marriage shows forth The Creator of marriages "For since the creation of the world
God's invisible qualities - His eternal power
and Divine nature - have been clearly seen,
being understood from what He has made, so that
people are without excuse (Rom 1:20)." God, made marriage in the
beginning (not the State or any local Government
or Court ruling) and unlike the sodomitic or
contraceptive union which is for pleasure only, our male female (Christ and
His Church) union is designed and purposed by God
to be both pleasureful and fruitful, for better is one day in
His courts than a thousand elsewhere. Now it
is this eternal purpose of marriage that has come
under attack as of the 1930 and subsequent Lambeth
Council decisions. There, the Anglican Church
embraced new doctrines (contraception and
birth-control, most all of which is abortifacient)
for the wife of Christ. While we reject the
evolution of mankind and applaud "creation"
affirming ministry in our Churches, we ignorantly
send our wives to have their tubes tied or we
ourselves submit to a vasectomy, and thereby, we
lose our Christ honoring testimony. We claim
knowing Christ Who said "I will never leave you or
forsake you" and yet we divorce our wives and
re-marry with immunity. From Abraham to Calvary
and right up until 1930, no Christian denomination
had ever accepted these sorcerous (pharmakia)
practices and all the refomers along with the
Catholic Church preached firmly against
them.
Now to understand the
purpose of marriage we need to know why God
took Eve out from Adam, or to be more correct, the
Church out from Christ. The answer is: to
enlarge or increase Adam, i.e., to glorify and
magnify Jesus Christ. Our marriage to
Christ takes place during our baptism, for
it is there He gives us His NAME:"Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit."
(Matt 28:19) Notice here that we
are only given One NAME, His glorious
Name, for these Three are One in NAME. In a Christian
marriage that wishes to show forth the
"Heavenly Pattern", the wife will give up
her family name and take on the name of
her husband because of Christ and the offspring are to
be named after Him (him). In Psalm 24:1 we
read that "The earth is The Lord’s, and the
fullness thereof;...". When God created the
earth, He created it with a definite purpose; to
fill it with Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:16
tells us that ..."all
things were created by Him, and for Him." Notice again, it was
created for Him. Psalm 72:19 says..."let the whole earth be filled
with His glory " and again back to
Colossians, "...Christ in you, the hope of glory
(Col 1:27)". So then, the true
meaning of marriage (complete union with Christ)
is for the propagation of Jesus Christ, both by
evangelism and raising Christ-like children, until
He fills the whole earth, "...until He (Jesus Christ)
is all and in all (Col
3:11)." The joy and the pleasure of
the union may be ours but the fruit of the union
is His for "the fruit of the womb is His reward"
(Psalm 127:3 ASV). He purchased, redeemed
every last one of them at Calvary.
In the Church there is no
room for patriotic nationalism, whether Greek,
Jewish, American, or Barbarian, for His Gospel is
sent to all nations and therefore His present
Kingdom is without borders or particular
nationality. He rules as a King on a throne in the
heart's of all who respond, as they hear His voice
and will not listen to anyone else. There is only
Christ "all and in all" in the Church. "I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the end, the first
and the last (Rev
22:13)". Here again we see
plainly stated that only that which is Christ or
joined in matrimony to Christ will survive
eternity.
Today, we are being told by
many church leaders and family organizations that
left wing radicals and homosexual groups are out
to destroy marriage. If we only look on the
surface of things, that might very likely be our
conclusion. But, the nuclear bombardment of
marriage was the 1930 Angelican and subsequent
Lambeth Council decisions, and the propogation of
those new and contrary doctrines by the NCCUSA
(National Council of Churches USA) here in the
USA. These new doctrines have since spread
like leaven causing multitudes to take the Name of
our Lord in vain. When the Church began to
reject God's blessing of new life, her purpose was
also being rejected (aborted). "Then understood they how that he bade
them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of
the
doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees
(Matt 16:11-12). "For I say unto you, That
except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven (Matt 5:20). This is as true today as
when these words were spoken. Unlike the Christ
which these new doctrines portray, our Heavenly
Patterned Christian marriage union is to be
fruitful. God designed it so. Regardless of
how potentially fertile a female is, she will not
be fruitful until (a man) her husband comes into
her. In the same way, Jesus taught us that "As the branch cannot bear fruit by
itself, unless it abides in the vine,
neither can you, unless you abide in
me. I am the vine; you are the
branches. Whoever abides in me and I
in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for
apart from me you can do nothing
(John 15:4-5). Again, we can plainly see
that God created and instituted marriage to show
forth His Heavenly Pattern and that the purpose of
marriage according to The Heavenly Pattern - (our
being conformed to Jesus Christ) is fruitfulness.
We are told that Moses heard these cherished
words: "Well done, good and
faithful servant!" because
he made everything according to the Heavenly
Pattern shown to him on the mount (Exod. 25:8-9;
Heb. 8:5). Similarly, we who are being conformed
to Jesus Christ and have come to Mount
Zion (Heb 12:22) need to recognize God's Heavenly
Pattern for our marriages. If we do, then unlike
the State or civil counterfeits, our Christian
marriages will truly be a Sacrament (something we
do to show forth something else), "that now
through the Church, the manifold wisdom of
God should be made known to the rulers and
authorities in the heavenly realms,
according to His
eternal purpose that He
accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord
(Eph 3:10-11)."
If not, the intended Sacrament is turned into a
Sacrilege regardless of supreme court rulings.
Now we come to something
of the utmost importance regarding the Church,
the wife of Christ. Around 600 B.C.,
the prophet Jeremiah declared that God was going
to create a new thing on the earth, "A woman will surround
(encompass) a man (Jer
31:22)." In fulfillment of this
prophecy, we read in Ephesians 1:22 that God : "gave him
(Christ) to be the head over all things to
the church, Which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all." Here the
Church is described as the fullness
of Him. The bride (encompasses) is the
fullness of Christ. Therefore each and every
member of the Church is to be Christ-like, an
expression of Him and so we read: as He is
so also are we in this world
(1 John 4:17). The Church alone
(made up of all the true Churches now and
throughout the ages), one body, is stated here
to be the
fullness of Him, Who is
to fill all and be in all. For "..there is
no other Name under heaven given
to men by which we must be saved (Acts
4:12)". The true Church,
then, is the wife (bride) of Christ and she will
be found possessing, and honoring, and seeking
to bring fruitful increase to the Name which is
above all names - His great NAME. In
loving union with Christ, the true Church will
always seek and cherish a full quiver, both
spiritual and physical, until Jesus Christ is all
and in all and the whole earth is filled
with His glory.
