Marriage Glorifies Gods Redemption, Part 1

you can turn in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians and in Ephesians we find some of the most comprehensive teaching on the roles of marriage, husband and wife, and what they’re to do in their marriages. Doesn’t say everything that there is to be said about marriage and practicing marriage, but it does set some baseline instruction on the roles in marriage of husband and wife and it goes right back to Genesis 1 and 2, and what we see unfolded in God’s design for marriage.

But in Ephesians we find that marriage is set and the practice of marriage is set within the framework of divine redemption. We understand marriage to be an institution that is a creation institution. It’s designed on the sixth day when God created the individuals. He also created the institution to be a part of that for the individuals to be a part of and be shaped by. He did that on the sixth day.

But here in Ephesians we see marriage as it is to be in the framework of divine redemption. According to Ephesians chapter 5:31 to 32, kind of at the end of that instruction we find out that God tucked a mystery into the institution of marriage. It’s a mystery that was there ever since its inception, ever since its creation from the very beginning. But it’s a mystery that was not solved, not unveiled and unpacked until Christ redeemed his people on the cross.

The mystery in marriage unveiled in Jesus Christ is that marriage pictures Christ relationship to his bride, the church. When Christians practice marriage, as God intended them to do from the very beginning, Christian husbands and wives paint a beautiful picture of Christ’s love for the church and they in their marriages glorify God’s redemption in Christ. In fact, I’ll say that any marriage, Christian or non-Christian it will portray, to the extent that it approximates husband roll and wife role in marriage, a marriage, even a non-Christian marriage, will portray Christ and his relationship to the church. And the closer it approximates what God designed for marriage the more it unpacks and portrays the glory of God in his redemption.

 I want to begin today by laying a foundation for thinking about the Christian life and it sets marriage in its proper context. Without this context, we need to understand that marriage is undermined by a man-centeredness seeing marriage in isolation from the context that really Paul sets in Ephesians, it creates a man centeredness that leads ultimately to frustration and futility. But set in its proper context, marriage glorifies God and brings blessing and good to us.

Let me give you a first point right up front number one, we glorify God’s redemption in exaltation. We glorify God’s redemption in exaltation and by exaltation I’m referring specifically to the exaltation of God, not the exaltation of marriage per se, not the exaltation, certainly not the exaltation of man. It’s the exaltation of God that is primary.

So, if you’re looking at Ephesians, you can go back to chapter 1, and you’ll see that the first major section of chapter 1, it runs from verse 3 to verse 14. That is a single section in the Greek language, just a single sentence that runs from 3 to 14, very long sentence and Paul used a lot of commas. The opening section of Ephesians, it really does highlight the spiritual privileges of the believer, but you need to understand and if you follow the subject verb combination there in Ephesians 1:3 to 14, you see that it’s ultimately not about us at all.

That opening section is about God, and that’s what that first sentence in verse 3 tells us, “Blessed be” who? “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” So to miss that point, is to turn a God centered passage into a man centered passage. Let’s not do that. Paul wants us to see here that God is the one to be blessed, glorified, honored, worshipped, praised, and it’s because of all that he has accomplished in our redemption.

You can see that in all the subject verb combinations in the rest of this section. Why is it that God is to be blessed? Why is he to be praised, and worshipped, and honored, and thanked, and glorified, because you can follow it there, because, verse 3, God blessed us. Look down at your Bibles, you can see in verse 4, God chose us from before the foundation of the world; he predestined us to be conformed to the image of his son; he blessed us in verse 5. Again, in verse 6, he blessed us.

Then in verse 7, he redeemed us and forgave us. He lavished the riches of his grace upon us in verse 8. In verse 9, he made known to us the mystery of his will. In verse 11, he granted us an inheritance, in verse 13, he sealed us with his spirit, to make sure that we would receive that inheritance, that we’d be full beneficiaries of that inheritance. For all those reasons, God is to be thanked. He is to be worshipped because of all that he has done, all that he has done, accrues to our eternal benefit.

It’s all about unpacking, unfolding, who he is. Look back at those verses and see what God says about why he’s done what he has done. God has, verse 5, “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing,” Why? “According to the purpose of his will,” verse 6, “according to the praise of his glorious grace.” It’s about glorifying, end of verse 7, it’s about “glorifying the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.”

How does a king make himself known? How does a king make known his, his power, his glory, his majesty? It’s through the gifts that he gives. It’s through the treasury that’s his, the wealth, the manifest wealth. You see, how powerful, how great that king is. God is the same way he’s glorifying self, himself, in the riches of his grace, that there are eternal, infinite riches of grace that he pours out and lavishes upon us, verse 8. He does that in the infinite perfection of his wisdom and insight; this is all about, verse 9, it’s about the unveiling of his will according to his purpose. It’s a plan that he set forth in Christ, verse 10, “to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on Earth.”

He is a great king. He is a mighty God. He can take this broken, ruined, sin saturated world and bring glory to himself through it all. God has predestined all of this according to verse 11, “according to the purpose of him, who works all things according to the counsel of his will.”

 Why? So that we might be, we might exist, we might be to the praise of his glory, all that is going to be guaranteed by the seal with which he has sealed us and secured us; his own Holy Spirit is the seal, verse 13 and again all of this, verse 14, “is to the praise of his glory.”

For all these reasons, God is to be praised. He is to be worshipped. He is to be honored, magnified, glorified. Why is that, because that’s why he has done what he’s done, that he might be honored and glorified, so that he would glorify himself. When God is glorified, listen we are blessed. We are filled with joy and rejoicing, that’s what we created for is to glorify God, and when we, when we see the purpose for which we are designed and created, fulfilled, our hearts are bursting forth with praise. God’s glory is our reason for existence. It’s why we are. It’s why we’re here.

Why am I saying all this to start a thing on marriage? Because this sets our lives and our marriage is in proper context, doesn’t it? It sets everything that we are, whether we’re married or unmarried. It sets everything in proper perspective. This is not about us. Whether we’re married, whether we’re single, whether we’re divorced, whether we’re widowed, whatever the status is, if we have failed in the past and had multiple marriages and we got blended families and everything is a big scrambled egg omelet, confusing mess. Don’t even know how many birthday cards to send every, every year. It’s very difficult things, and yet we see this is not about us. It’s never been about us.

It’s all about God’s goodness and God’s grace and whatever status we’re in, and whatever condition we’re in, whatever the circumstances are, it’s all about him, all of it being fulfilled in Christ and pointing to Christ. Just as God glorified himself, revealing his manifold goodness in creation in like manner in the same way God has glorified and is continually glorifying himself by revealing his manifold grace through the redemption that’s in Christ Jesus.

So our marriages are caught up in this, along with everything else in our lives, along with every single relationship, all things are to the glory of God’s goodness because of creation and his grace, because of redemption.

When both husband and wife share this perspective, what is there to argue over? What financial troubles, relational conflicts, difficulties of circumstance, or situation, affliction, trials, circumstantial challenges, what of all of that can weigh heavier than the ultimate and supreme privilege that’s theirs that they share to glorify God. This is why we exist. This is why we’re created.

Once again, we see that teleology of marriage, the end for which we’re created, the purpose and end for which marriage exists. It’s there to glorify God. It’s there to exalt the glory of his goodness in creation and now his grace in redemption. We glorify God’s redemption in exaltation, exalting him.

Second point: we glorify God’s redemption in sanctification. In sanctification. Again, just trying to set some context for talking about specific roles in marriage, first the wife for today and then next, we’ll get to the husband. But we are making our way, you can turn there, to Ephesians 5:22, Ephesians 5:22. The specific instruction to the wife. Paul writes there, “Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.”

We need to say this and that’s why we’re making this point: marriage glorifies God’s redemption in sanctification. We need to understand, larger point, marriage is not isolated from a larger context. Marriages is not isolated from other relationships. More specifically for us, as Christians, marriage is not isolated from the church. I’ve tried to show this marriage is embedded in a much larger context. The glory of God in redemption. But that glory of God in redemption requires sanctification of the Christian in and through the local church.

Marriages are to be engaged in, intertwined with, growing out of, the local church. If they’re isolated from the local church, they’re like branches that are cut off from a tree just lying on the ground, withering and dying on a hard, barren ground. Look back to Ephesians 5:14 in the end of the verse there it says, “Awake O sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

That is one way of expressing what it means to be a Christian. Awakened from a death sleep, to be risen from the dead, like Lazarus, waking up and walking out of the tomb, we too see the light of Christ and we emerge from the darkness, we walk around in the light of truth, as verse 15 says. Look what it says there, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise. Making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with,” or by, “the spirit.”

 Walking wisely, redeeming the time, understanding what the will of the Lord is, all of this happens when we are filled with or by the Spirit. It’s another way of saying the controlling factor in our life, the controlling dominant influence in our life, is the light of truth we’ve received from Christ by the Spirit of God. Where does that light come from? Where does that truth come from? What is the filling work of the Spirit? It’s in the teaching ministry of the local church.

This is at the end, that practical section starting at Ephesians chapter 4 and moving on. How do we walk wisely? Who’s to say what’s wise? How do we redeem or make the best use of the time? Who’s to say what our priorities should be? What we should be spending our time doing? Who’s to say how do we understand what the will of the Lord is? By living life with a local church, central in our lives, it takes us back to the beginning, as I’m saying, of Paul’s instruction in chapters 4 to 6. All about the teaching, the equipping ministry of the local church.

We notice in Chapter 5 verse 19 and following we see the effects of God’s word in our lives. We speak to one another, verse 19, in a totally different way. We speak to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. in a totally different way.

Verse 20 we give thanks for everything. Everything is a big word, isn’t it? Good and bad. When things are going well and things are going poorly; when things seem to accrue and be moving toward our benefit, or when they don’t; we give thanks for everything, always to God the father in the name of Christ. That’s what happens when the word is active within us. We speak to one another in elevated psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We give thanks always at all times for everything, good and bad, because “we know that all things work together.” Romans 8:28, right? “All things work together for the good of those who are called by God, who are called according to his purpose, and who love him.”

 Give thanks for everything and verse 21, “We submit to one another.” We line up underneath authority. We participate in the authority submission structure. We embrace the role that God has assigned to each one of us and look what it says there, end of verse 21, we do this out of reverence for Christ. Literally the word is phobos, it’s the word fear. We do this in the fear of Christ.

Practice submission as an outworking of holiness. We practice submission because it’s it, it accrues to our sanctification. We live under authority and submission to authority. We see the authority of the church in Ephesians 4:1 to 5:21. We see the authority of the home practiced in the home in Ephesians 5:22 to 6:4, it’s all about the relationships in the home. Luther called it the haustafel, it’s the house table. I think many commentators and exegetes have taken that language from Luther, haustafel, they talk about Ephesians 5:22 to 6:4 and even beyond, all the way up to 6:9 because it’s talking about the workplace relationships.

All that is the house table. It’s how a, it’s how a house and how a person in the workplace, private and public, it’s how he orders his life, according to this table. So, inside the home authority, outside the home authority, we line up under the structures of authority and submission. As Christians, every single one of us, we’re all called to submit. We are all called to live in submission in various spheres in our life. Submission is a good and godly virtue of the Christian life.

The Greek word is hupotasso. The fundamental meaning of hupotasso is to line up under. It implies that there’s authority above, and we line up under. Here’s some definition straight from some Greek lexicons, hupotasso means to bring something under the firm control of someone, to subject to, to bring under control. Hupotasso means to arrange under, to subordinate, to subject to or to put in subjection. Hupotasso also means to place or arrange under, to post under two subject or to be obedient.

In those definitions, you hear how many times, under, is a part of that definition? Under is a part of the meaning? That’s the hupo. The hupo prefix in hupotasso, it’s a preposition that means under, so it’s a concept of hierarchy. Someone is over and someone is under, that’s how we line up.

Listen, we understand this submission is good for us. God’s blessing comes through structure. It comes through order. When things are unstructured and disorderly, chaos abounds and no one’s blessed. Someone being in charge, someone else following, structures of authority and submission are good, and healthy, and beneficial.

And yet, don’t we know it, that it is endemic to our fallen nature to buck against that, to suspect authority, to resist authority. Huh? Wonder where that came from? Go right back to Genesis 3, right? All authority, ultimately represents God. Since God is the ultimate and absolute sovereign authority over all. All authority is ultimately from him. All authority ultimately represents him. It’s a sin nature that’s inherited from the fall.

The sin nature is predisposed to question authority, to suspect authority. Just as Adam and Eve did in Genesis chapter 3. Men and women alike are influenced this way, and it’s because of the sin nature and yet, though we are suspicious, though we’re resistant, though we buck against calls to line up under authority, we are living contradictions. We contradict ourselves in this all the time, because we live appreciating, and benefiting from, and supporting the order of hierarchical structures all over the place in society, don’t we?

When some refused to submit to orderly arrangement and hierarchical structures established in government with the civil and criminal code; we know that people suffer, we know that property is lost, bodily injury and even death follow. When insubordination comes into a military context, listen, it’s no joke. People die because of that.

We take authority submission relationships for granted, and if we’ll recognize that fact if we realize how all of us are called to live under authority and line up under authority, we realize we’re to line up under government authority, under church authority, under workplace authority, and under domestic authority. “Whoever resists authorities,” Romans 13:2, “resists what God has appointed, and that person who resists authority that God has instituted and authorized, that person will incur judgment.”

It’s an issue of motivation. Biblical submission, Christian submission is a matter of the heart. It’s internally motivated. It’s joyfully and cheerfully offered up to the one in authority. Biblical submission looks beyond any human authority and looks to the God who placed authorities over us and rejoices.

Look at verse 21, for two reasons for this, first the verb form hupotasso, there in that verse to line up under, it’s in the middle voice. Okay, so if your need a quick grammar refresher, active voice means I make you submit. Passive voice means I’ve been made to submit. Middle voice used here, verse 21, it means I submit myself. I line myself up under the authority of one another.

So, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ, this is something that is done from the heart. It is internally motivated, not externally imposed. The submission Paul describes as self-willed, it’s an internally motivated, it’s voluntary, we’re called to do it, the will is acknowledged, and the fact that this is in an imperative form.

Second evidence for this, the prepositional phrase in the ESV it’s “out of reverence for Christ.”  The literal render, rendering as I said is in the fear of Christ, so the fear of the Lord, the fear of Christ, that’s a matter of the heart again. Why are we to line up voluntarily, line myself up under the authority structures that God is, God is set for me? It’s because I’m motivated out of the fear of the Lord, out of the fear of Christ. Fearing Christ is what motivates biblical submission.

So working definition for the submission, Paul commands here. Biblical submission we could say is the voluntary, thoughtful, active practice of lining up under the authority of one in charge in the fear of Christ. Biblical submission, I’ll just say it again, is the voluntary, thoughtful, it’s not turning the brain off, it’s thoughtful, it’s through understanding, so biblical submission is a voluntary, thoughtful, active practice of lining up under the authority of someone in charge and we do this in the fear of Christ.

It’s in light of Christ’s love for us as our savior; it’s because of his work of redemption. That’s what motivates our obedience to him, in love, from a heart of fear, of awe, a profound regard of deep reverence. In the fear of the Lord, we love him. We are devoted to him, and we’re eager and zealous in obeying him and so, when we see a command to submit, we’re eager to do it. This is what sanctification is, is walking in that.

Mutual submission is not a burdensome duty. It is a joyful privilege. It is what we get to do in the outworking of our sanctification. And as partners in the covenant of marriage the husband takes up his part, the wife takes up her part; the husband takes up his part to love and care for his wife, and the wife, the wife takes up her part to respect and to submit to her husband. As love and respect join the marriage partners together, the husband and the wife mature in the experience of authority and submission practiced together and they grow in blessing and joy, that’s what happens throughout life. In a marriage, it’s lined up according to God’s design.