Marriage is an institution that’s been around since the very beginning.
Adam and Eve were married, although not in the traditional way we think of marriage. God joined them together and they became one. No ceremony, no pastor, no license.
Marriage was given as a representation of what God intended for His Church….humans becoming one with God.
Yes, God is not out there somewhere. He is right here, right now. When we accept His gift of grace through Christ, we become one with Him.
Just like the couples who unite in marriage become one, the Church, which means the people, become one with God. We aren’t talking about a building, but those who unite with God through faith in Christ. The true Church is not a building made by hands, but those of us who have had the old sin nature crucified with Christ. We have been raised up with Him as new creatures, and are now one with Him.
God isn’t up in heaven sitting on a big throne looking down on us. No, He is right here within us through the Spirit.
Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17 asking that we might be one just as He and the Father are one. Through the work Jesus did on the cross, we have become the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Christ lives within us and we have become one with God.
That doesn’t mean we are God, but His Spirit is within us. The Kingdom of God is within us.
We should focus each day on the fact the God is within us. We don’t have to go somewhere and hope He shows up. We don’t have to wait until we die to be with Him. He loves us and lives within us each and every day. We are living in the kingdom right now, daily in His presence.
In this world, it is by faith that we live the spiritual life, but when this earthly life is done, we will see naturally what is already taking place in the spirit.
Thank God for marriage and the joy we have in this world. Even better than that is the wonderful marriage between the Lamb of God and us, the Church, united as one.
Thanks for writing & posting them, DonewithReligion…
My reading them is all pleasure — your writing them is mostly inspiration, a lot of work and a little satisfaction… so I (as reader) receive the most.) So, again, thanks!
Em
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Thanks for your comments Em. Good words, so true. Thanks for reading my posts.
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Excellent post! Right on! Ephesian 5 adds to this same understanding in a really unusual way.
Starting with v. 17 (“Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God…) and continuing on through vv. 31 & 32, the apostle Paul begins talking about the human marriage relationship (I call the “horizontal relationship”) he MERGES that with the Love and Care Jesus Christ has for His Bride (the Body of Christ which I call the “vertical relationship”).
But after exhorting the man to care for his wife as Jesus does for His Bride, it ends the passage with the classic “marriage” passage:
“For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh…”
One would think Paul’s talking about the “horizontal” or human mariage relationship. But the next verse shows he isn’t!!! v. 32 reads:
“This is a great mystery…” [meaning this miracle of two becoming one, like Adam and Eve, but then he adds, “but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
Paul MERGES the horizontal and the vertical marriage relationship into one in this passage — which implies that the purpose of earthly marriage is to be a visible, physical (shadow) example of the INvisible, Spiritual Reality of our eternal union with Jesus Christ.
Em
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Thanks for reading my posts, and for adding your comment.
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Sometimes itt’s hard to accept that God is living within us. What an amazing reality. We usually don’t hear that much in our churches today.
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That is the reason too men , or too females can’t be married. It is impossible for them to become one flesh . They can be married only by a paper but not on Gods eyes.
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Amen! My life changed the moment I realized that God lives within me. He is always there waiting to care for us. Great post!
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