Ephesians 5:22-3222Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 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. 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: 30For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:22‑32)
As the bride of the Lamb, the church is viewed as wholly for Christ — the object of His love and care and delight. This aspect of the church brings into display in a special way the love of Christ, and for this reason it appeals very directly to our hearts. There is no more intimate relationship than that of a bridegroom and a bride. These figures suitably set forth the love of Christ for His church. We may say that the Spirit of God has used this most intimate of all relationships to set forth:
First, the church as the object of Christ’s love, care and delight.
Second, that in the church there will be an object suited for Christ to love.
Third, that in the church there will be found a companion suited to share with Christ the coming glories of His reign. All that the Bridegroom inherits the bride will inherit. As she is the sharer of His sufferings in the day of His rejection, she will be the sharer of His throne in the day of His glory. When Christ reigns over the wide earth, she will reign with Him.
In this very practical portion of the Epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle is exhorting us as to the conduct that becomes believers in the marriage relationship. In so doing, he shows the intimate character of the relationship. There are other relations in life, as parents and children, and brothers and sisters, but in no relationship is the link so close as in that of husband and wife. The Apostle says, “They two shall be one flesh.” Again he says, “So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.” They are viewed as one.
To enforce these exhortations and show the true character of this time-relationship of husband and wife, the Apostle turns to the eternal relationship of Christ and His church. This leads to a very beautiful unfolding of the love of Christ for His church viewed under the figure of a bride, of which Eve, in the Garden of Eden, is used as a striking type. The Apostle passes before us the love of Christ that secures the bride for Himself; then, possessing the bride, the love that forms her in suitability to Himself; and finally, having prepared the bride, the love that will present her to Himself.
The Love That Secures the Bride
First we read, “Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it” (vs. 25). The source of all blessing for the church is the unmerited love of Christ. Before ever the church was brought into being, He loved it with a perfect, divine and infinite love. He did not first die for it, cleanse it, and then love it, but He first loved it, died for it, and then cleanses it. And loving the church, He gave Himself for it. He did not only do something for it; He did not simply give up something for it. His love went a great way farther than doing something or giving up something for the church. His love went to the uttermost: He gave Himself — all that He is in His infinite perfections; nothing was held back. He gave Himself; more He could not give. And by giving Himself for the assembly, He secures it for Himself and possesses it by a perfect title. The church actually exists as the result of Christ’s work. Christ has purchased the church for Himself. Hence, though the marriage has not yet taken place, the relationship between Christ and the church already exists. The church is not a company of people who are being put to the test by commands which they have to obey in order to gain the relationship. Christ has brought us into relationship with Himself wholly by His own work, the fruit of His own love. The responsibilities and privileges of the church flow from the relationship that has already been formed. We belong to Christ, and it is our privilege, as well as our obligation, to be entirely His and entirely for Him. Christ has ever been faithful in His changeless love, though, alas, how much the bride has failed in devotedness to the Bridegroom!
The Love That Sanctifies the Bride
Second, having so touchingly presented the love of Christ in giving Himself for the church in the past, the Apostle proceeds to speak of the activities of the love of Christ for His bride in the present time. He tells us that Christ has secured his bride in order “that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” The love that by death secured the bride is now occupied in preparing her for the supreme happiness of being with Himself in glory. The Bridegroom would make her a suited object for His love and capable of responding to His love. To this end love is occupied in sanctifying and cleansing the bride. The cleansing is not in order that we may belong to Him, but because we are His, and being His, He would have us suited to Himself. He would have us in devoted affection set apart entirely for Himself and cleansed from all that is contrary to Himself.
The means used to bring this about is “the washing of water by the word.” The Lord expresses this in His prayer to the Father when He prays, “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. . . . For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” The Lord sets Himself apart in heaven, that, like Stephen, we might look up through the opened heavens and find in Christ in glory a sanctifying Object. Gazing upon Him in the glory we see what He would have us to be, and beholding the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, and we thus realize the transforming power of a perfect Object. The Word, too, while directing our gaze to Christ, gives us a true revelation of the perfections of the One we gaze on, so that we are not left to any sentimental imaginations of our own hearts. On the other hand, the Word detects and condemns in us, and around us, all that is contrary to Christ and the place where He is.
What a value this gives to the Word! It is the Word which He uses for the cleansing of His church. What confidence should this give in applying the Word to our own souls or in ministering the Word to one another — the confidence that we are using that which in grace He uses.
In the light of this Scripture which discovers to us what Christ is occupied with from His place in heaven, we may well challenge our hearts as to what we are occupied with down here. Occurring in the practical part of the epistle, this unfolding of the love of Christ for His bride is surely intended to have a very practical effect upon our lives. The question for us all is, Have we before our hearts what Christ has before His? Do we desire to be made suitable to Him and capable of enjoying and responding to His love even now, so that, in the time of His absence, we may be faithful to Christ as a waiting bride for her absent Bridegroom?
The Love That Presents the Bride to Himself
Third, the present activities of the love of Christ for His bride are in view of what is yet future — “the marriage of the Lamb” — when He will present the church to Himself a glorious church, “not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” It is not only that the church will be in glory, but it will be “glorious.” It will be like Christ, fit for His glorious presence. Thus He secured His bride by Himself, He is preparing her for Himself, and He will present her to Himself. His love is the source of all, and what love commenced at the cross, love will complete in the glory.
There is, however, further important truth concerning Christ and the church in this instructive passage. The Apostle proceeds to tell us that Christ nourishes and cherishes the assembly, treating us as “members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.” This brings before us another precious truth, distinct from that which we have been considering. We have seen that Christ is fitting His bride for heaven; now we learn that He is also caring for His bride on earth. Sanctifying and cleansing are in view of the presentation in glory; nourishing and cherishing have reference to our pilgrim journey on earth. His love not only looks on to the glory, but watches over us as we pass through this dark world from which He is absent, on our way to glory. He knows the circumstances we are in, the trials we have to meet, our weaknesses and infirmities, and in them all He cares for us and meets our needs, and thus it is He nourishes us. But He also cherishes us; that is, He not only meets our needs, but He does so as those who are cherished as being very precious in His sight.
H. Smith