◄ What Does Ephesians 5:25 Mean? ►

The Lord Jesus is the federal head of the new creation and the very personification of love, for the Man, Christ Jesus was also the eternal Son of God united in one human body. One in Spirit with the Father and yet a true Kinsman of humankind, Christ loved His God and Christ loved His Bride, the Church.

We read that GOD so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son to be the sacrifice for sin. Christ was made sin for the accumulated sin of the whole world in loving obedience to the Father, for He cried: "Not My will but Thine be done," and through His shed blood, the sin of the world was forgiven. But we also read that CHRIST so loved the Church that He gave Himself for her.

Christ gave Himself willingly for love of the Church (who is His Body) so that He could make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the Word, and that in so doing He could present her to Himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless in the sight of God.

It was His sacrificial death that paid the price for the sin of the whole world, and it was His glorious Resurrection that enabled all those that believe on His name to be sanctified and made holy in Him. Love was His motivating factor, love for God and love for His Bride, the Church. And a precious parallel is drawn between the mystic union of Christ with His Church and the sacred union of a husband with his wife. Just as Christ loved the Church so much that He gave Himself for her, so husbands are called to love their wives in the same way.

Those that are called to be children of Light and imitators of Christ are also called to live godly lives in Christ Jesus so that through the power of His Spirit, they are enabled to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God, in love. What a difference there would be in the Body of Christ today, if we were to apply all that is written in the Word of God in our own lives and marriages; if wives were to submit to their own husbands and husbands were to love their wives as Christ loves the Church.

Loving Lord, I want to be one that carries out this truth in my own life. Make me more like Christ, and teach me to love as He loves. In Jesus' name, AMEN.