Anyone who has come to know me as a husband, father, grandfather, or pastor, quickly begins to see my immovable views on God the Father. The role of father and patriarch is of utmost priority and importance to my spiritual health and well-being.
We learn in Gen. 2:24, and reproduced by our Lord with greater distinctness in Matt. 19:4-5, that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all separate individual beings - but are One as a whole. God, the Father, established the institution of marriage in the Garden of Eden to prepare the way for the original, eternal design and union of Christ and the Church (Eph. 5:31; Mark 10:5-9; 1 Cor. 6:16; 7:2). The point is that a man and woman, united in marriage as husband and wife, combine to form one perfect human being; one is the complement and completer of the other. Therefore, Christ makes the Church a necessary appendage to Himself. He is the model from whom, as the blueprint, the Church is formed (Romans 6:5). He is her Head, as the husband is of the wife (1 Cor. 11:3; 15:45). Death is the tool that severs the bridegroom and the bride, but death cannot separate Christ and His bride. Our death is what unites us to Him (Matt. 19:6; John 10:28-29; 13:1; Rom. 8:35-39).
“This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church” (Eph. 5:32).
In this passage, the phrase "this mystery is great" is the truth; hidden once, but now revealed. Christ's spiritual union with the Church is mysteriously represented by marriage; not marriage in general, but the marriage of Christ and the Church. In Eph. 5:30, Paul says, "For we are members of His (glorified) body, (being formed out) of His flesh and of His bones” (NKJV, parentheses added). This statement should sound a bit familiar to you. When Adam was placed in a deep sleep, the Father formed Eve out of his opened side, symbolizing Christ's death - which was the birth of His spouse, the Church (John 12:24; 19:34-35). As Adam gave Eve a new name ('ishah, woman or wife - the counterpart of iysh, man or husband), so Christ gives the Church His new name: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it” (Rev. 2:17).
Every member in the Church should keep his/her place, just as every bone, nerve, and muscle in the human frame. Every member of the body should be in its right position; the heart, the lungs, the eyes, and the tongue should occupy their right place. And every nerve in the system should be laid down just where the Father designed it to be. If so, all is well. If not, all is deformity or disorder, just as it is often in the Church. Many Christians have asked the question: “Why did God allow deformities in mankind?” For me, it is not difficult to understand. I believe God the Father gave humans, who suffer with deformities, to help us see what happens when the body does not conform or cooperate with itself. When one or more members of a body do not rightly fit together, the body is forced to form in its own image, which is deformity in God’s design. Today, we live in a world that has a “deformed” body of Christ – separated, independent, opinionated, and full of itself. The engagement period of the Bride is for the purpose of uniting, purifying, and forming her for a perfect fit unto her Husband, Christ. “Being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Eph. 4:16).
FROM WHOM THE WHOLE BODY:
The church compared with the human body
The idea is that as the head in the human frame conveys vital influence, rigor, motion, etc., to every part of the body; so Christ is the source of life, rigor, energy, and increase to the Bride. The sense is the whole human body is admirably arranged for growth and thoroughness. Every member and joint contributes to its healthful and harmonious action. One part lends vigor and beauty to another, so that the whole is finely proportioned and admirably sustained. The whole body depends on the head with reference to the most important functions of life and all derive their vitality from the head; so it is with the Church. Everything is designed to be in its proper place and nothing, by the divine arrangement, is lacking in its organization to its perfection. For this is the reflection of the creation of the Father. His creation was, and is, a visual demonstration of the fitting together of the Body of Christ. For He has shown us how the Church depends on Christ (as the head) to sustain, invigorate, and guide it, through the illustration of the human body being dependent on the head.
FITTED AND HELD TOGETHER:
The body whose members are properly united to produce the most beauty and strength
Each member is in the best place and properly united to the other members. Let anyone read any work on anatomy and he will find innumerable instances of the truth of this remark; not only in the proper adjustment and placing of the members, but in the manner in which members are united to the other parts of the body. The foot, for instance, is in its proper place. It should not be where the head or the hand is. The eyes are in their proper place. They should not be in the knee or the heel. The mouth, the tongue, the teeth, the lungs, the heart are in their proper places. No other places would answer the purpose so well. The brain is in its proper place. Anywhere else in the body and it would be subject to compressions and injuries, which would soon destroy life. In addition, these parts are as admirably united to fill other parts of the body, as they are perfectly located. For instance, let’s examine the tendons, nerves, muscles, and bones, which secure the foot to the body and by which easy and graceful motion is obtained. We will be satisfied of the wisdom by which the body is joined together. We do not know how far the knowledge of the apostle extended on this point; but all the investigations of anatomists only serve to give increased beauty and force to the general terms which he uses here. All that Paul says here of the human frame is strictly accurate. The word used here, for “fitted together” (συναρμολογέω or sunarmologeō), means to properly sew together; to fit together; to unite, to make one. It is applied often to musicians who produce harmony of various parts of music. When the Bride of Christ is functioning in perfect harmony with itself, we are a song of worship unto His ears.
BY WHAT EVERY JOINT SUPPLIES:
Literally, “through every joint of supply” - that is, which affords or ministers mutual aid
The word joint (ἁφή haphē, from ἇπτω haptō “to fit”) means anything which binds, fastens, and secures. This does not refer to the joint in the sense in which we commonly use it, as denoting the articulation of the limbs or the joining of two or more bones; but rather, that which unites or fastens together the different parts of the frame, i.e. the blood vessels, cords, tendons, and muscles. In other words: every such means of connecting one part of the body with another ministers nourishment, and the body is well cared for. One part is dependent on another. One part derives nourishment from another. Thus, all become mutually useful contributors to the support and harmony of the whole. Therefore, it furnishes an illustration of the connection in the members of the Bride of Christ and of the aid one can render to another.
ACCORDING TO THE PROPER WORKING:
Greek for “according to the energy in the measure of each one part”
This means that each part contributes to, or labors for, the production of the whole result. This is in proportion to the measure of each part; that is, in proportion to its power. Every part labors to produce the great result. No one is idle; none is useless. Nevertheless, none are overtaxed or overworked. The support demanded and furnished by every part is in exact proportion to its strength. This is a beautiful account of the anatomy of the human frame. Please note the two key statements here:
- Nothing is useless. Every part contributes to the general result: the health, beauty, and vigor of the system. Not a single muscle is useless; not a nerve, not an artery, not a vein. All are employed, all have an important place, and all contribute something to the health and beauty of the whole, all are useful, and all minister life and strength to the whole. This is the perfect design of the Body of Christ. Each member is to function in the full capacity to which he is built. When one or more members do not, or will not, operate in the full capacity of their creation, they tax other Bridal members.
- None are overtaxed. Each part works according to the measure of their strength. Nothing is required of the minutest nerve or blood vessel, which it is not suited to perform; they will work on for years without exhaustion or decay. So it is with the Bride. There is no member so obscure and feeble that he may not contribute something to the welfare of the whole Bride. No one is required to labor beyond his strength in order to secure the great objective. Each one in his place and laboring as he should will contribute to the general strength and welfare of all. If not, he will only embarrass the whole and disarrange the unity of the system the Father designed for His Son’s Bride. If each of us, as Bridal members, functions in his full responsibility, we will increase the body’s strength for the work of edifying of itself.
BUILDING OF ITSELF IN LOVE:
In mutual harmony
Once again, this refers to the body. Here, the meaning seems to be made on the principle of love. When the body is functioning in harmony and love with itself, there is no collision or disturbance of one part with another. The Bride of Christ cannot work in harmony with itself unless “love, which is the perfect bond of unity (holds it together)” (Col. 3:14, parentheses added).
Every member of the Bride of Christ should contribute something to the prosperity of the whole. Bridal members should no more be idle and unemployed than a nerve or a blood vessel should be in the human system. The human body loves itself; every minute nerve and artery of the body functions together in perfect harmony because they don’t fight who they are or their function. In simple terms, they love and accept each other. If the obscurest member may do something to destroy the health of itself, the body prepares itself for destruction. It is the same with the Bride. If a Bridal member refuses to love itself, it will decay and die. We first must love ourselves with the love of the Groom and then love other Bridal members with this same love.
The Father’s View of Marriage Copyright © 2013 IOM America. Permission to reproduce for educational purposes. Please keep author’s name intact.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scriptures marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Next: Christ’s Bride No Longer Corrupt
No comments:
Post a Comment