Christ loves His Church.
Fidler on the Roof
“In the musical ‘Fidler on the Roof’, Tevye, a man devoted to tradition, finds his thinking challenged when his oldest daughter wants to marry for love, instead of having her marriage arranged by her parents. It never occurred to him that one would marry for love and one night he cannot help but ask his own wife the question (in song of course!): “Do you love me?”
T: Golde, do you love me?
G: Do I what?
T: Do you love me?
G: You’re a fool!
T: I know! But do you love me?
G: Do I love him? For twenty-five years I’ve cooked for him, cleaned for him, starved with him. Twenty-five years my bed is his. If that is not love – what is?”
“A Barrel of Fun” by J.John & Mark Stibbe
Luke 20:27-39
The Sadducee who came to Jesus asking this question about marriage in the resurrection. Jesus discerned that he was sceptical of the scriptures that tell of the resurrection and of God’s power to raise the dead.
“Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.” Luke 20: 34, 35.
The Sadducee quoted the law relating to marriage “A man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man (his brother) must take the wife, and raise up children for his brother.”
He continued with proposing that all seven brothers in turn married his brother’s wife, so therefore in the resurrection whose wife would she be? The Sadducee used this law to defend their position on being no resurrection.
Jesus gave insight into marriage in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus responded by telling him that the Angels in God’s kingdom do not die and that in the resurrection, death has no dominion in God’s kingdom. Those who enter the Kingdom of God through Jesus’ resurrection have entered eternal life.
No marriage in the Kingdom of Heaven between believers.
“What is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.” John 3: 6 RSV Bible
In the flesh
Matthew records Jesus in conversation with the Pharisee concerning divorce. Jesus said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” Matthew 19: 5.
Jesus upholds the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman in the flesh, and this is what a Christian believes and puts into practice, but sadly it doesn’t always work.
In the Spirit
When Jesus spoke to Martha concerning the resurrection, ”I am the resurrection and the life, he/she who believe in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” Through being born into Christ’s kingdom through the resurrection, Jesus’ words, ‘while we live’ in the flesh, brings Paul’s words, “We are individually members of one another, “ A Christian has entered the heavenly marriage in Christ. John 11: 25-27 Romans 12:
Christ loves His Church
God in his wisdom has identified the church which consists of male and female as betrothed to Christ, the ‘Bride’ of Christ. The marriage contract having been sealed, the dowry, through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Under Jewish law, which Jesus came to fulfil, requires that a marriage contract was secured with a dowry on betrothal.
Paul’s view on Christian Marriage in the Church.
Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, unites a woman to a man in marriage on earth, to marriage in Christ in heaven. Their marriage state of being one, while the husband still retains being head over a woman. Ephesians 5: 21-32.
But Jesus states there is no marriage in heaven.
“The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore.” Luke 20: 34-36.
It’s personal salvation, therefore, a man cannot save a woman even if they are married. Many Christians are married to unbelievers. God in his wisdom in my view separates heavenly marriage from marriage on the earth with its cultural diversity: having an arranged marriages, or more than one wife, same sex marriages, and partnerships.
Heavenly marriage in Christ.
Paul in my view gets it right when in his second letter to the Corinthians he wrote, “I am jealous for you with a Godly jealousy, I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so I might present you as a pure virgin to him.” 2 Corinthians 11: 2. N I V Bible
Personally we are individually saved by grace and within the body of the church. As members of Christ’s body we are called to be without spot or wrinkle, holy without blemish, a virgin in Christ.
Every Christian is responsible for the working out of God’s purpose and plan for our lives. While we work collectively, personal salvation means as Paul put it in his letter to the Romans, “So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.” Romans 12: 5.
I see our relationship in the body like the blood that circulates around our body.
We are united by the blood of Jesus and ministered to by his blood.
We have the example from our blood that contains red and white cells and plasma. The cells are tiny, and each cell has a function: the red cell collects oxygen from the lungs and ministers to a tissue giving its oxygen to it, which gives the tissue energy. The red cell takes from the tissue its waste and deposits it in the lungs carbon dioxide and into the plasma to be released from the body. This ministry of the red cell parallel’s with salvation: Jesus’ blood ministers to a person giving life and removing the waste, our sin from us.
The white cell contain DNA so is able to repair damage to our tissues. It also fights against bacteria, a splinter in our skin begins to develop puss around it, when the puss is removed with the splinter the skin is healed. The cell has won the battle over the invading splinter killing off the bacteria contained in the puss.
The plasma’s function sealing cuts stopping the flow of blood from the body, carrying the waste to the appropriate organ etc.
Our blood gives us life, so Jesus’ life’s blood contains the righteousness of God, saving us from eternal death.
The church consists of both men and women and is described as a ‘Bride’ a woman. Jesus is husband over the individual Christian life, while being also husband over all.
“Jesus said, the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth.” John 16: 12.
John in his vision elaborated on our relationship with Jesus. John witnessed the Holy Spirit’s ministry in bringing in the Gentiles, and heard first hand Jesus’ words to the Sadducee on the question of the question of the marriage state in the resurrection.
In the vision he saw the church, the bride being married to Christ. Christ loves His Church, and the wedding ceremony takes place in heaven, followed by the marriage supper. Jesus referred to the marriage banquet in his parables. Revelation 19: 7, 9. Matthew 22: 1-14.
The seed of faith contains the whole makeup of the Kingdom of God, including the new heaven and the new earth. Revelation 21
John saw the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven to a new earth and a new heaven. He identified Jerusalem as being the ‘Bride’ of Christ. He continued to describe the city: Christ being its continuous light, the entrance to the city through the gates of pearl, the pearl of salvation. The refined gold pavement, those who have been refined before the judgement seat of Christ. No temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God Almighty, the glory of the Lord its light.
