Hey Brother,
I’ve been married now for a little over six years. We’re not newlyweds by any means, but we’re definitely still near the beginning of our journey together. When I think of my marriage and what it means to be a husband, I often think of Jesus. He is, after all, referred to as the Bridegroom and we, the Church, are His bride. John the Baptist made this reference in John 3:28-29. Paul did it in Ephesians 5:25-27. And the book of Revelations refers to the Church as the bride and Christ as our husband several times.
The analogy is used so often that we better pay attention to it! The analogy not only shows us how intimate our relationship with Christ should be, but it also shows what kind of husbands we should be.
As a husband, you give up a lot of things for your wife. You can no longer just leave the house whenever you want without telling anyone. You can’t just buy anything you want at any time without considering how it will affect your wife. Often, you give up or pass on the thing you want for her benefit. At least you should be doing all this because…
Ephesians 5:25-27 tells us, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that 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.”
As Christian men, we are called to be like Christ in our marriage. Like Him, we do everything out of love first, including sacrificing ourselves for our wives. I don’t know about you, but that’s really hard for me to do. At the beginning of our marriage, I felt like things should be split 50/50. Chores? 50/50. The last slice of pizza? 50/50. Often, I would only do what I felt was my half of the problem at hand. It seems fair, doesn’t it? But what did Jesus do? Did He only redeem us halfway and expect us to redeem the other half? No, He did it all.
Sometimes I don’t want to do the dishes. Well, that’s a huge understatement. Let’s be honest. I never WANT to do the dishes. If I never had to clean a dish again that would be fine by me. There are those times when I finally have a moment to myself. The wife and the kids are out of the house. I finally have time to do what I want to do, and that’s when I see it – a sink full of dishes. It’s always so tempting to just leave them there. And sometimes I do… whoops! But more often than not, I realize that if I don’t do them, my wife will have to do them later. Or I’ll have to do them later when my wife and kids are around, and that means I won’t be able to spend as much time with them.
“For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Jesus had every right to come as a ruler, but He came as a servant. He did that so He could be with us and have fellowship with us. He wants a relationship with us!
The Bible tells us that when we get married, the two of us “shall be one flesh” (Ephesians 5:31). We are no longer individuals; we are one unit. Our identity has forever changed.
I experienced this firsthand immediately after my wife and I returned from our honeymoon. Before I was married, my friends would see me and say, “Hey, Kris is here!” As soon as I was married, they started saying, “Hey, the Galuskas are here!” This even happened when my wife wasn’t there. It’s as if they couldn’t see me as my old self. The fact is that I was no longer my old self, I had a new identity with my wife.
As Christians, we are the bride of Christ. Our identity is forever changed. We are no longer our own. “Now ye are the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27). We are one body in Christ just as we are one flesh in marriage. Our identity is no longer in ourselves, it’s in Him!
There are many, many more ways marriage works as an analogy for our relationship with Jesus. Feel free post your comments below! For me, though, the grandest part of the analogy is that it’s a relationship. God wants to have a relationship with us, and He chose the most intimate and personal relationship we have as humans to be His example of what He wants to have with us.
Someone so awesome, so amazing has chosen me? Well, now I’m a blushing bride!
Kristopher Galuska
Family Radio