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There are so many elements of marriage that are mysteries (especially to men!). Certainly procreation is an important factor, and an easy one to understand. I have always found it curious that marriage is so important to God and plays such a tremendous role in His plan, yet as soon as we enter eternity, the husband-wife relationship between people will cease to exist. I have also found it curious that God chose to use Christ's love for the church to illustrate how husbands are meant to love their wives.

Ephesians 5:2533
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her
33 and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

He could have just instructed husbands and left it at that, but God's design for marriage is husbands loving their wives the way Christ loves the church and wives responding to their husbands the way the church (should) respond to Christ. To me, this warrants a closer look.

God's Purposes
God does all things with specific purpose. Christ loved us on the cross; He suffered for us. There were many effects of His suffering and as He was enduring these sufferings, he knew that one of the effects was to make one of the deepest meanings of marriage plain.

Marriage's Design
Marriage was designed to display Christ's relationship with His people and to make Christ's love for His people more visible and understandable in the earth. God has an incredible way of accomplishing multiple purposes in one event or action. The cross points us to marriage, and marriage points us back to the cross. The cross provides us with an example of how we are to love each other (the second greatest commandment); specifically, how husbands are to love their wives, but more generally, how we are all to love each other. Through marriage we have the opportunity to witness, experience, feel, and participate in the same love that Christ displayed for us on the cross. No mere instruction could possibly accomplish that!

Accomplishing Our Call
God has given husbands the special responsibility of displaying the same love that Christ displayed on the cross for His people. That this is how every husband should love his wife; and that's a tall order to fill! How can mere men accomplish this when sin causes us to treat each other so badly? In my articles Freed From the Slavery of Sin and Die To Sin, Live To Righteousness, I describe how Christ has changed our nature, freed us from the bondage of sin, and given us the ability to turn from sin and its evil influences. The type of love to which we are called is possible because of Christ's sacrifice in the earth and on the cross. He gave Himself for us, and now as sinful but forgiven and empowered people, we are able to return love and goodness for evil the same way Christ did.

Conclusion
When you are interacting with others, think about the love for us that Christ displayed on the cross. Husbands, are you loving your wives the way Christ loves the church, even when she is unlovable? Wives, are you responding to your husband the way the church is meant to respond to Christ? Single people, remember that marriage is a picture, an illustration for all to see, of how Christ loves His people and how we are to love each other.

Learn more about this author, David Spaggiari.
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