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[0:00] We're going to Ephesians chapter 5, and as we work through the Ephesians, a theme that stood out of the vision of the book of Ephesians is the first part, the first half is orthodoxy, what you ought to believe, and the last half is orthoproxy, what you ought to do.

[0:14] Now what's significant about this is that the Christian life, the Christian walk, is both theoretical and practical. It's not just theoretical contemplative speculation, and it's not just practical, it's both.

[0:28] Or as 1 Timothy 6, 3 puts it, a doctrine according to godliness, both right knowledge and right conduct. And the right conduct according to right knowledge, to walk worthy, involves walking in love, walking in light, and walking in wisdom.

[0:46] And today our section is in walking in wisdom, and our text for today is going to be verses 28 to 32, which is within the context of the household code, more specifically, the relations between husband and wife.

[1:05] Now the section of relations between husband and wife is more broadly verses 22 to 33. And to summarize that whole section, we could say, To the wife, your husband is your head, therefore you must be subject to him. And to the husband, your wife is your body, therefore you must love her.

[1:31] So in that greater theme, and the message of the duty to husbands and wives, there's, in verse 22, there's the duty to wives, which is wives, submit your own husbands, and then the reason is given, for he is your head.

[1:46] And then 25, it now switches the focus to husbands, and the duty is given to husbands. Husbands, love your wives. And then the pattern is given, the pattern of Christ in the church. And now that's picked back up again, the duty of husbands, in verse 28. And it starts off, you notice, by saying, so, so husbands ought to.

[2:11] So it's already been looking at the duty to husbands, the duty of husbands is to love your wives, the patterns given, and now it returns to that duty, and it restates it again. And so husbands ought to love their own wives. So what's going on here, as it starts with the word, so, is that it's transitioning from one argument to another, or to put it maybe more specifically, is for this reason.

[2:33] So it gives the duty, the pattern, for this reason. Now we transition back to the argument, or therefore. So we'll read from verses 15 to 33 for the greater context. But again, our particular text this morning will be 28 to 33.

[2:54] Starting in 15. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church, and he is the savior of the body.

[3:41] Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.

[4:02] That he might present her with the Lord, that he might present her with the Lord, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

[4:14] So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.

[4:30] For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

[4:43] This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

[4:58] Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that we have supernatural revelation, that we have divine testimony and scripturated in the scriptures before us.

[5:10] We thank you that it is translated in our own language, that the word of God, the whole counsel of God, the gospel, is to be spread to all nations and to every tongue across the entire earth.

[5:25] We thank you, Lord, that we have your word here before us. We thank you for the promise in your word of Christ's presence with the church. We thank you that you meet with your people and that you feed your people on the Lord's day.

[5:36] We pray, Lord, that as we gather together this morning to sit under your word, that you would speak to us, that you would illuminate your word to us by your spirit and give us an understanding of it. Not only, Lord, that we might have a right knowledge, but, Lord, that we might live accordingly, that we might live godly lives.

[5:55] Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So again, our text is going to be verses 28 to 33, and we're going to work through it, so make sure you keep that handy in front of you.

[6:06] But what our text is getting at, the entirety of the text, what's going on here is that the creation-rooted nature of marriage. So if that doesn't make sense, the nature of marriage so far as it's rooted in creation.

[6:22] So the creation-rooted nature of marriage contains the mystery of the union between Christ and his body. So we're going to see from our text, first of all, the pattern, the pattern for marriage.

[6:33] And we're going to see the nature of marriage and then the mystery that is in marriage. So first of all, the pattern for marriage.

[6:44] So it starts off by, for this reason, transitioning from the previous argument, which was the duty. If you remember, the duty to husbands, which was husbands love your wives.

[6:56] So it starts off, our text starts off returning to that duty. So 25, sorry, husbands love your wives. And 28, so husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies.

[7:10] So given the duty, which we've already looked at, we're not going to go into more detail about it. But given the duty of husbands to love their own wives as their own body, we'll make it clear that love of our own bodies or love of our wife.

[7:27] So it's stated here that we are to love our own bodies and to love our wives as we love our own bodies. So it must be clear before we continue that the love of our bodies or the love of our wife is not to trump the love of God.

[7:37] That is to say, as the highest good or the chief end. If we were to place our bodies in some particular way as the highest good or the chief end, or if we were to place our marriage, our spouse, our wives as the chief end and the highest good, so much as it trumps God, then this is sin and this is not what our text is getting at.

[7:59] This idolatry is putting something else as the chief end, putting something other than God's, putting something created as the highest good. We are created, our spouses are created, so to put them, a creature, as the highest good or the chief end would be idolatry.

[8:16] The love of earthly blessings, such as our bodies and our wives, are not the highest good and the chief end, but blessings for which we are to enjoy God and love Him. So we must see these things, we must see our bodies and our love for our bodies and for our wives, our love for our wives as blessings from God in order to enjoy God who has created them.

[8:38] So, given the duty, husbands ought to love their own wives. The reason is given, and the reason, if you notice, is an argument from nature. The reason is that the husband and wife are one flesh.

[8:52] Now this expels the notion that headship and submission is belittling or unloving. As we looked at the duty of wives to submit to their own husbands, inferiority in order is not inferiority as a person.

[9:08] And those who may attempt to argue against godly structure or order within marriage, suggesting that it's inferiority as person or belittling, this expels that notion that the two are one, they are one flesh.

[9:22] The head is to love his wife, the two are one flesh, therefore he does not hate her, but nourishes and cherishes her.

[9:34] So this expels any notion that some might argue against the proper place of an order, a God-ordained order in marriage to suggest that order, therefore, must mean belittling, which is not the case.

[9:50] The two are one. Now, notice what it says. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes.

[10:03] Nourish and cherish, the lexical meaning of these words, to draw out nourish and cherish, the lexical meanings is to provide food and to make warm. So to nourish and to cherish, to provide for, to make warm, to warm.

[10:20] And Christ feeds his body and clothes his body in the garments of his righteousness. Now, we, of course, are not Christ and husbands as pictures of Christ in the church or to structure our marriages patterned after Christ in the church.

[10:37] Of course, we cannot clothe our wives in righteousness, but in the physical, tangible sense of how husbands love, care for, and cherish their wives is a picture of what is spiritual, of how Christ clothes his bride in garments of his righteousness and feeds his bride.

[10:55] And then the pattern is given, or the example, that is Christ and the church. And we're going to draw this out further, but to put it quite briefly, is that the pattern in which the duty of husbands to love their wives is Christ and his body.

[11:15] Right? Husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies, and the pattern is how Christ loves his own body, which is the church. So we see here the pattern of Christ and the church for how husbands love their brides, who we now see the illustration or the picture of as a body, as his own body.

[11:36] Now, we need to understand the right context of viewing your wife as your own body. There is a form of trying to make sense of scripture by taking passages that may not fit and forcing them to fit.

[11:56] Now, when we come across texts that are less clear to us, how do we interpret it? We interpret scripture with sacred scripture. So, if we want to understand the depths of what this means, of the picture of a body, of how a husband is to view his wife as his own body, we need to interpret scripture with scripture, but as it harmonizes with the scope of all of scripture.

[12:26] Here's what I'm getting at. Let's say you wanted to say, Okay, I'm to love my own wife as my own body. What does scripture say of how I am to have a perspective of my own body? So you do a concordance search.

[12:37] Your concordance search provides you with Romans 7.24. So you think, Okay, let's find out how am I to view my wife as my own body. You read Romans 7.24.

[12:48] Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? So, it brings up an interesting point. That we don't just take any scripture that has the same word and insist that it interprets it, that it means the same thing.

[13:09] We have to have a system. When we interpret scripture, we have to have a system that harmonizes with the scope of all of scripture. So, we have to ask the question then, Why does Romans 7.24 not apply?

[13:26] Why is that not a reference? Well, what's going on in Romans 7.24? We're not going to spend our time here with an exposition of Romans 7.24, but what's going on in this text?

[13:36] What's going on is that it's a redeemed person, the Apostle Paul, a redeemed person grieving over remaining corruption in an unredeemed body living in a sin-cursed world.

[13:47] Would he have said this before the fall? This statement is a result of the fall. It's a result of sin, right? So, before the fall, before any sin, a person would not be able to say, Adam, let's say, Adam would not be able to say, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

[14:07] Because before the fall, there was no sin. There was no death. Okay? So, this Romans 7.24 is specifically a result of the fall and of sin.

[14:20] Now, the pattern for marriage, in regards to its nature, is not based on sin, but the mystery of redemption contained in marriage goes back to creation.

[14:36] It goes back to before the fall, before there is any sin, and before there is any death, which means before there is any sin in marriage. So, even if we just stop and think what marriage would have been like before the fall, before sin, where Eve would have perfectly submitted to Adam as her head, and Adam would have perfectly loved and nourished and cherished Eve, his bride, without any sin.

[15:05] But the mystery of redemption contained in marriage goes back to creation. So, secondly, the nature of marriage. If you look at verse 30, we're going to read 30 and 31, it says, For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

[15:23] For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Now, you might be wondering, how do we gather that this is speaking about creation?

[15:36] How do we gather that this is creation-rooted nature of marriage? Well, you'll see the quotation marks in verses 31. It's quoting scripture. It's quoting the Old Testament. What it's quoting is Genesis 2.24.

[15:49] Now, this is interesting, isn't it? Because verse 30 isn't quoted. Verse 30 is this text, and then it's quoting another text, but saying, for this reason.

[16:03] So, in our passage, for the reason given in verse 30, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

[16:14] But what about the original context of where it's being quoted? There's a reason that's given, and the text is being quoted, and then for that reason. So, it's pretty interesting, isn't it?

[16:27] What is the reason that's given, and what significance does it have to our text? So, keep your finger here in Ephesians, and flip back to Genesis 2.23 and 24.

[16:39] Again, what's quoted is verse 24, but it says, for this reason. So, we want to see the reason that's given in verse 23. So, Genesis 2, we'll go straight to 24.

[17:04] 24 is the verse that's quoted. Now, what is the reason?

[17:16] What's the therefore? What does it signify? Verse 23 says, And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

[17:27] She shall be called woman because she has taken out of man. This is pretty interesting, isn't it? In Genesis 2.24, the reason why a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his flesh is because, as Adam said, woman was from him, from his bones, and from his flesh.

[17:47] In our text, 24 is quoted, For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother. And the reason that's given in our text is Christ referencing the church being of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

[18:01] It's interesting, isn't it? So, there is a very similar comparison. One is from Adam, and one is to Christ.

[18:13] Now, Adam's wife, as we see in Genesis 2, so we have the same text. The text is quoted in Genesis 2.24. We have it quoted here in Ephesians 5. The preceding verse in Genesis 2 shows us that Adam's wife was formed from his side, from his bones, and from his flesh.

[18:36] Adam was put to sleep, his side was opened up, and his bride was formed from him, and when he awoke, when he arose from his sleep, his bride had been formed from him.

[18:53] And our text in Ephesians 5, and the text preceding for this reason, is that Christ's body, the church, is from his flesh and of his bones, and when Christ died on the cross, his side was opened up, and when he arose from the dead, his body, the church, his bride, had been formed from him.

[19:19] And it says here, of his flesh and of his bones, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother. There's something significant going on here that both has to do with creation, and has to do with redemption.

[19:32] Now, of course, we wouldn't see this until Christ died on the cross, redemption, and even inscripturation of the word. John Gill draws the link to Eve, Adam's bride, being formed from his side, and the church, Christ's bride, being formed from his side.

[19:59] So the formation of Eve prefigures the creation of the church to be Christ's bride. So before, the church was formed from Christ to be his bride.

[20:13] This is prefigured by the formation of Eve in creation. Genesis 2, 24, while the original author would not see necessarily the mystery, there is a mystery of cosmic unity in Christ, the union between Christ and his body, and it's shown typologically through Adam's pre-fall union with Eve.

[20:40] So, to put this in other words, or what this means is, we affirm the inerrancy of Scripture. Scripture cannot contradict itself, it cannot lie, because it is inspired by God.

[20:55] So, God cannot lie, God cannot contradict himself. Now, the original authors, particularly, the human authors, particularly in the Old Testament, they are writing about a specific Old Testament truth.

[21:08] And, when we interpret the Old Testament, we need to interpret it, first of all, through the Old Testament truth, and then, from that truth, what that means at that time for them, and then, how Christ fulfills that, and what that means for those who are united to Christ.

[21:22] But, what I'm getting at is that there is a historical truth in the eyes of the human authors, but, of course, Scripture is being inspired by God, through the Spirit, by the Spirit.

[21:36] There is also a spiritual meaning through all of Scripture, according to the scope of all of Scripture, and that scope is Christ the Messiah, incarnation, suffering, and subsequent glories.

[21:48] So, that spiritual meaning is contained and harmonious in all of Scripture. So, while the human authors would see that truth of Eve being formed from Adam, there is a redemptive meaning within all of Scripture, according to all of Scripture.

[22:07] Now, with typology, we'll come back to that shortly, but, with typology, we see here Adam's pre-fall union with Eve being that of Christ and his body.

[22:19] So, this is cross-calling cultural. This means that the nature of marriage is not just a matter of our culture because of our time and where things are at.

[22:31] The nature for marriage when the New Testament was written wasn't based on the culture at that time, but, it's based on creation, which means it's cross-cultural for all of creation.

[22:44] So, what is the nature of marriage? Notice what our text says about the parties involved. We probably, when we read this text, we read through it quite quickly and there's much which we take for granted, but when we pause and think about each particular component, the parties involved, what does it say?

[23:04] It says, man and woman, a man and his wife. A similar text is Mark 10, 59, but it draws it out in a little more further detail. Mark 10, 5-9 says, from the beginning of creation, so again, this is rooted in creation for all of creation.

[23:21] It's not cultural or specific to a particular period of time, but, from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. Biologically male, biologically female, God made them.

[23:36] Okay? God made them male and female for this reason. Here we say it again. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

[23:54] So then, they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate. Now, we see a man and we see a woman.

[24:08] We see the parties involved in marriage. We see that God made them according to God's design, male and female. We see that this goes back to the beginning of creation. And we see that this is specific because for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother.

[24:26] You'll probably notice a cycle. We see a cycle here. A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. The two, so we also see the number, monogamous relationship.

[24:41] The two shall become one flesh. So they are one flesh and God has joined them together as one flesh according to the nature of marriage which God has ordained ever since the beginning of creation.

[24:57] Now, this is specific because for this reason. it's specific because it is a picture of Christ and the church.

[25:08] It typologically points to Christ and the church. It's not Christ and Christ. It's not the church and church. Nor is it Christ submitting to the church.

[25:19] It is a picture of Christ and the church. So the very specific nature of marriage according to God's design from the beginning of creation is specific because for this reason it is a picture of Christ and the church which also points to us headship and the importance of headship in the church.

[25:38] Again, it's not Christ submitting to the church. Adam was head over all of his posterity, all of his offspring, all of mankind that came from them.

[25:51] He was head over them. Christ is head over the church and the husband is head over the wife. So we see not only the parties involved, not only the number of parties, not only the nature of marriage being from the beginning of creation but also the particular order and structure.

[26:12] All of these things in the nature of marriage, the order of marriage and God's specific design and the timing is a picture of Christ and the church.

[26:23] Notice also from our text that a man is to leave his father and mother. To leave and to cleave. That is, they are now ordered as husband and wife.

[26:37] It's not that he continues to live and his parents and she continues to live with her parents but they leave their parents and they come together and they are now ordered as husband and wife.

[26:48] There's now structure in their home and that home's structure is ordered according to God's structure. It also means cohabitation, means living together.

[27:00] Where the head goes, the body is there with it. The body wants to be with the head. The head wants the body to be with it. To leave and to cleave and then notice also in the nature of marriage, our text shows us procreation as one flesh.

[27:17] Now, we are, there has been numerous generations before us. So there's been a continual flow of fathers and mothers having children, those children, finding wives or husbands, them becoming fathers and mothers.

[27:33] So if you, if you pause it as though a loop of music, so you have a loop of music where it's short, you can look at it but where it ends, if it continues where it starts again, it flows continuously and it's, it sounds right.

[27:48] In a similar way, how generations proceed is like how that loop of music continues to play with the flow of the sound of music and it's, it works, there's harmony.

[28:00] But when you pause the music and look at that loop, that's what we're doing with our text. We're pausing generations and looking at one specifically. And we see not a cycle of music but a cycle of father and mother, don't we?

[28:13] So, what is significant? Well, we see here the parties involved. There's a father, the man and there's a mother, the woman or the wife. Biological father, the biological mother who have themselves left their fathers and mothers, they've cleaved together and they have become one flesh.

[28:35] Being one flesh, they were fruitful and multiplied. Being fruitful and multiplying, they are now themselves fathers and mothers. And then, their children, they raise their children, their children, leave them, they cleave to their spouse and they become father and mother.

[28:53] So, what's specifically necessary for this? Well, the nature of marriage being one male and one female, man and woman. This points to Christ and his bride.

[29:08] Christ and his bride are being fruitful and multiplying, extending the glory of God over the earth, not by union of the flesh, but by the spirit. More specifically, by the word and spirit.

[29:22] So, the nature of marriage is very important to understand the mystery of marriage. And then, the very nature of marriage contains the mystery of redemption.

[29:34] So, that brings us to our third point, the mystery of marriage. So, to be specific, there's not a mystery in marriage where marriage itself saves, but there is a mystery in marriage that points towards redemption.

[29:49] So, what exactly does that mean? It means that marriage contains an illustration of the new creation union of Christ and the church, which is his body.

[30:00] The language is very specific. The church is the body of Christ. The husbands are to love their own wives as your own body. Now, it says a great mystery.

[30:15] If you recall, the smoke a few, it was a month ago or a couple months ago, there was a lot of smoke. Even that last amount of rain we got after that rain, there was a lot of smoke in the air, wasn't there?

[30:31] Now, the smoke itself is a sign and it points to something in which it signifies. it's a sign which signifies the reality of something else.

[30:45] So, you were in the smoke but the smoke was a sign of something else. Isn't that right? So, the smoke was a sign of what? Of wildfire. The smoke itself isn't the wildfire.

[30:56] You were in the smoke, you weren't in the fire. The smoke is a sign that there is a fire. So, also, when we say a mystery or a typology, it means that something is acting as a sign of something else that it signifies in shadow form or as a type.

[31:16] Now, B.B. Warfield used the illustration of a room which is dimly lit and you walk into the room that's dimly lit and you can see that there's furniture but because it's so dark you can't make out the details of the furniture.

[31:29] You can't tell the fabric or the pattern because it's too dark and someone comes in the room and turns on the light like us in B.B. Worsfield. It's time it would have been lit candles. So, somebody comes in and lights candles and now you can see the furniture.

[31:42] You can see the details. You can see what it looks like. You can see the pattern. So, also, before the coming of Christ things were in shadow or as a type which was like just the dark silhouette and the coming in and the turning on of the lights or the lighting a match and lighting candles is Christ coming into the world his incarnation his suffering his death and his resurrection.

[32:05] that turns on the light. This great mystery our text says it's a great mystery this great mystery means a sign what it's talking about before what's preceding this means that this is a sign of the reality of the union of Christ and the church.

[32:24] So, before Christ's coming it would have been in shadow form like the furniture dimly lit. so, in Genesis 2 it was like furniture dimly lit if that makes sense.

[32:37] So, signs symbolize or signify what they point to. Now, it says mystery a great mystery a mystery means a deeper hidden meaning that could not be understood until Christ.

[32:50] The hidden meaning of Christ in the church is naturally typified and matrimonial union of Adam and Eve. It's typified in the very nature of marriage as it goes back to the beginning of creation in Adam and Eve.

[33:05] Now, Martin Luther wrote a metaphor which he used of this of a king who had married a harlot or a prostitute and when they got married all that the harlot was and all that was hers became the king's and all that the king was and all that was hers became oh, sorry, all that was his became hers.

[33:31] So, all that the harlot had was her poverty, her shame, her disgrace, her sin and all of that is what she had to offer the king and all that became his.

[33:42] All that the king had, of course, was riches and royalty. So, all that the king had then became hers. this is a pretty vivid metaphor for what happens with Christ in the church because scripture quite often refers to idolatry as adultery or as harlotry.

[34:06] Especially in the Old Testament it refers to idolatry as harlotry, particularly with Israel. Perhaps back then it was more the idols of the nations around them, but idolatry, as we understood earlier, could be placing something that is creation as the chief end and as the highest good.

[34:26] The Bible tells us that doing so is comparable to harlotry. So, just like the metaphor of the king who married a harlot, so also with Christ and the church, with the church, fallen sinful believers who have no positive righteousness, all that they have to offer is their sin and their shame and all of that becomes his and so also all that the king has, all that Christ has, his royalty and his riches becomes hers.

[35:07] Now, there's two particular things that this draws out from our text. One of them is a spiritual union to the person of Christ as our head.

[35:19] So, when we think about this metaphor, it gives us a picture of a king and a harlot, but how can we apply that to ourselves? The union of marriage, the union of this illustration of a king and a harlot, it's a union of marriage.

[35:39] And that union, that covenantal commitment, a covenantal union, is a picture of the covenantal union of Christ and the church.

[35:50] And this is a union where the spirit unites the person to Jesus Christ as their head. The second particular thing that it draws out from our text is the doctrine of imputation.

[36:07] All that the harlot was and all that was hers became the king's, which was her shame, her disgrace, and her sin. At the point of our salvation, of our conversion, where the spirit unites us to Christ, to the person of Christ as our head, all mankind is lost in sin.

[36:30] They are not righteous in the sight of God. What holy and just God requires is perfect, exact, entire, perpetual obedience, perfect righteousness. And ever since the fall, no man has had perfect righteousness.

[36:45] So there's a two-fold problem, is that righteousness has not been obtained, which is required to be in right standing before God, and our sin stands over us, which condemns us.

[36:56] So, with the doctrine of imputation, just as all that belonged to the harlot became the king's, so also our sin and our shame and our disgrace becomes Christ's.

[37:13] Our sin is imputed to Christ. Now, there's actually a previous imputation where Adam's sin is imputed to all of his offspring. So, everybody who's born of a father and mother, born from the descent of Adam, his sin is imputed to us.

[37:33] We're born sinful, and then we do actually sin. And all of the sin, so the bride of Christ, just like the king and the harlot, the bride of Christ, all of her sin, so all who are believers, all of their sin is imputed to Christ.

[37:50] Christ takes it to the cross, pays the penalty, it's nailed to the cross, and the debt that's required for our sin is there finished. Once for all, it is finished.

[38:03] Divine justice has been satisfied because our sin is imputed to Christ. So imputation is actually an accounting term where something is accredited to account, or accounted to a person, which means for it to be accredited to the account, it's not in the account.

[38:21] It's accredited, it's a foreign, it belongs in a foreign account. So for us, for a righteousness, it's a foreign righteousness that's accredited to the account.

[38:33] It was not there. There is an absence of it, and it's accredited into the account. Christ was without sin. Sin was not there in Christ's account.

[38:44] Our sin is accredited, is imputed to Christ. He who was without sin, or knew no sin, became sin by taking the sins of the bride of Christ, those who would be believers, took it to the cross, and paid its price.

[38:59] there's imputation from us to Christ, but then there's also imputation from Christ to us. Now, if it was just a matter of there being a clean slate, of just being forgiveness, of our sin being imputed to Christ, then there would still be lacking the problem that we are not righteous, that we do not have perfect, exact, entire, perpetual obedience in which a holy and just God requires for us to be in his presence.

[39:27] So there's still an absence of the righteousness. That's where the doctrine of imputation is helpful in showing us Christ's righteousness, Christ's perfect, exact, entire, perpetual obedience, Christ's righteousness accredited to our account.

[39:45] Where with the king, all that was his, his riches and his royalty was now the harlot's, so all that Christ has is accredited to our account. That is to look at all of imputation, it's Christ's obedience and Christ's satisfaction.

[40:03] And when we look in the Old Testament, we see the scapegoat, and the scapegoat, speaking of typology, is a type. If you remember, what happened is all of the sins of the people was transferred onto the scapegoat, where the scapegoat was taken away.

[40:16] The sins of the people were taken away, and this is a type of Christ, how the sins of his people are transferred to Christ, and they're taken away. It's a type, the scapegoat is a type of Christ, and that shows us imputation as far as satisfaction of justice, or atonement, right?

[40:31] The day of atonement, Christ's satisfied justice, divine justice, atoning for the sins of his people. now, if I was to ask you, why the incarnation?

[40:46] Why did the second person of the Trinity, who is very God, take to himself a body, assume our nature, be born in a low condition? Why did the word become flesh?

[41:00] Well, you would probably say to die. He came to die for the sins of his people, and you'd be right. But, I have a follow-up question for that. Why did he die at the age that he did?

[41:11] Why didn't he die sooner? Because part of the incarnation is not merely the death of Jesus of Nazareth, but also the life, the two parts of imputation.

[41:25] And his death, really in all of his suffering, being born in a low condition, and living in a sin-cursed world, is part of his humiliation, a part of his passive obedience, but also his active obedience is his fulfillment of the law, his positive righteousness, his doing what we all failed to do, what Adam failed to do.

[41:47] So, Adam, Adam, because of his sin, when Adam was in a state of innocence, it was unstable and defectable, because he did sin, and he fell from that state.

[42:01] so Adam did not have eternal life and eternal blessedness based on a positive righteousness. Christ's life was a positive righteousness where he merited eternal blessings and eternal life.

[42:19] So all that Christ lived, all of his righteousness, all of his merit, all of his blessing, all of his reward of his life, becomes ours.

[42:31] The doctrine of imputation, all that is his, the king, becomes his, his brides. Therefore, all those who are united to Christ as his head receive all the benefits, all the reward of eternal life, eternal blessedness.

[42:51] And then finally in our verse, we see in verse 33 a brief summary of the duties. So it's briefly stated the duty of husbands in marriage and then it gives for us the nature of marriage and then the mystery of marriage and then it returns back to the duty of both the husband and the wife and gives us a brief summary of the duties.

[43:17] So because of all of this, for this reason, because of this, in verse 33 it says, nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

[43:33] So we see here that the will of God and divine prescription of the husband and wife relation is given to us and that is for the husband to love the wife and the wife to respect her husband.

[43:46] Now to briefly draw out what these two words mean, the duties for the husband to love his wife and the wife to love her husband, the lexical meaning according as it applies specifically to this verse of love for a husband to love his wife.

[44:04] What does that word love mean? The lexical meaning is to have a warm regard for and interest in another, to cherish, to have affection for, and to love.

[44:16] This is the duty of a husband towards his wife because she is his body. And for the wife to respect her husband, the lexical meaning of that word respect is to have a profound measure of respect for, have reverence, respect with special reference to fear of offending.

[44:36] So because the husband is her head, the wife is to respect her husband. So you'll notice that the reason for the duty and the pattern that's given is actually a two-fold reason.

[44:53] One reason, for example, the husband is to love her wife and will love his wife. The reason is because she is his body. There's a two-fold reason. Because in so loving his wife as his own body, it is not only God's prescription for marriage, the very nature of marriage, rooted before creation, but is also a picture of Christ in the church.

[45:13] and there's such a greater blessing of understanding the beautiful glory of the union of Christ in the church, of the body of Christ.

[45:28] And so also the two-fold reason for the wife to respect her husband, the first reason, which is given the initial, first in the text, is because he is her head. But the two-fold reason is again because of Christ and the church, and the pattern in which that entails.

[45:47] So some concluding uses. We see that there's a mystery of redemption contained in the very nature of marriage, the very nature of marriage going back to creation, right?

[46:00] So you can't, you can't claim the God of redemption if you reject the God of creation. If you reject the God of creation, the God who has created man, male and female, and for this reason, the man is to leave his father and mother and to be joined to his wife, the two are to become one flesh.

[46:21] If you reject the God of creation, you reject the God who is the God of redemption. So you can't reject the God of creation and think that you're claiming the God of redemption because it's the same God.

[46:35] You must, you cannot reject a part of God and hope to claim another part of God. You must cast yourself on God for who he is and all of who he is.

[46:48] He's the same God. Next, why is the doctrine of imputation crucial? Imputation is crucial because it's essential to justification.

[46:59] Justification is our being made just, our being in a right standing before a holy and just God. God. So it's essential to justification because our sin means we cannot stand before a holy and just God.

[47:14] Our sin has to be dealt with and we cannot pay that price. So imputation of our sin imputed to Christ and paid for in full to satisfy divine justice, we receive a full pardon.

[47:26] That is the first part that is required to be justified. but then also Christ's active obedience, his actual positive righteousness which he perfected and the blessings and reward for it is accredited to our account.

[47:42] So we're not only forgiven and pardoned that we can be stand before God but we also have positive righteousness which has been accredited to our account in order to be in a right standing before God.

[47:56] So imputation is crucial because it's essential to justification and justification is essential to the gospel. So it needs to be made personal.

[48:10] There needs to be personal union with Christ. In order to embrace the gospel, in order to be justified before God, a believer, it's not just wanting the benefits of Christ's death of having a clean slate.

[48:30] It's casting ourselves upon God for who he is, casting ourselves upon Christ for what he has done, seeking to be united to Christ, not wanting to stand before God in the filthy rags of our righteousness and our sin, but in the forgiveness by the blood of Christ and in the righteousness of the white robes of Christ.

[48:52] Christ. So it needs to be made personal. It needs to be union with Christ. So the question then is, where do you stand? Are you still under Adam or have you been united to Christ?

[49:05] To be united to Christ for the spirit of God to unite us to Christ is by faith alone. We cannot by any merit of our own be united to Christ.

[49:15] We cannot by any merit of our own be justified before God, but it is by receiving Christ, by receiving all the gospel promises and resting on Christ alone for salvation, for justification.

[49:29] And finally, God's order for marriage is a gospel illustrating picture of redemption as we have drawn out from our text. So if you are married, is your orientation, is this your orientation for marriage?

[49:44] Or do we just sit back and hope that God will somehow make it appear as though it's a picture of Christ? Remember the illustration of plowing a field and keeping your orientation straight ahead.

[49:58] Is your orientation for your marriage of your, of marriage being a gospel illustrating picture of redemption? Let's pray.

[50:10] Our great God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what you have revealed to us in your word. We pray, Lord, that you would indeed lead us into all truth and cause truth to bear upon us that we must ask ourselves, what must I do?

[50:24] What does this mean for me? Lord, whether we be united to Christ as our head or as husbands or as wives in our duties, how the duty for marriage, the pattern in marriage and the nature for marriage goes back to creation before the fall of marriage being a very picture of Christ and the church, which is his body.

[50:49] I pray that you would bless our marriages, that you would bless them and cause us to glorify you through them and to seek to be faithful in our duties, which you have not only called us to, but blessed us to.

[50:59] You have blessed us with a spouse. And thank you, Lord, for the even greater blessing of Christ and his body, for the blessing of Christ to the church, Christ as head over the church.

[51:11] Our sin, our shame, our disgrace being imputed to Christ, taken to the cross, paid in full, never to return, and Christ's righteousness imputed to our account that we are in a right standing before God, being united to Christ as our head.

[51:32]  Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We'll stand and sing now. Blessed be the Lord, our God, which is...