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A Divine Institution
by David Hulme
"Marriage is a natural union, but a divine institution, ordained of God." These are introductory comments to the marriage ceremony conducted by ministers of the United Church of God, an International Association, which publishes The Good News. Yes, we are an organization with a biblically based core of beliefs, some of which pertain to marriage and family. This issue contains helpful advice on how to build a happy marriage; we hope you find it inspiring and otherwise beneficial. What once was common knowledge can be surprising, simply because few express it anymore. The Bible does contain essential truths in the critical area of human relationships. Indeed, the truth about marriage is one of the most profound.
A man who was not married when he wrote about marriage penned some of the most meaningful and beautiful words about marriage ever composed. Often wrongly thought of as a woman hater, the apostle Paul said to men: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her" (Ephesians 5:25). Paul understood that marriage is a divine institution with great underlying significance. Whatever good happens within the marriage relationship is intended to teach us about God Himself and in particular about Christ. This is a dimension few of us ever hear about.
Paul’s counsel to women matched the wisdom he gave to men: "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" (verses 22-23). Paul passionately believed that husbands and wives should serve each other. To husbands he also said: "So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church" (verses 28-29).
These statements compare the human marriage relationship with Christ’s attitude of selfless service for the Church. The marital state is elevated to a much higher plane for us. We are invited to consider the transcendent significance of marriage. Paul alluded to this: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church" (verses 31-32).
A great mystery: Marriage can bring with it something so profound that Paul labels it a mystery. It is in the intimate communion of man and woman in marriage that a depth of spiritual experience makes possible. That experience is related to the humility and self-sacrifice of Christ Himself. When we truly learn to serve the one we love, then we are coming to a level of spiritual maturity that is rare in this life.
On yet another level the Bible teaches us that we humans, male and female, may be identified collectively as a wife, the very bride of Christ. The analogy is put forward in that mysterious book the Apocalypse, or book of Revelation. It explains that Christians are the bride to be married to Christ at His second coming. This requires from all of us a meek and quiet spirit, submission to the will of Christ.
John recorded the words he heard from heaven in a vision of the end of this age: "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7). Note that the bride makes herself ready by putting on fine, clean linen, symbolic of the "righteous acts of the saints" (verse 8). In other words, we come full circle in our analogies. As the human marital relationship spoken of by Paul requires the righteous characteristics of a Christlike attitude, so the wife of Christ exhibits those characteristics in her relationship to Him. We need to become spirit-led husbands and wives so that one day we can participate in the greatest wedding of all.
Perhaps marriage is not so much a mystery after all.
(c) 1997 United Church of God, an International Association
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