The Glorious Church Series

John explained this new reality in Revelation 21:

Revelation 21:1-8 [21:1] Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. [2] And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. [3] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. [4] He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." [5] And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." [6] And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. [7] The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. [8]But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death." (ESV)

• For those who are born twice, they will die once. For those who are born once, they will die twice.

A husband’s greatest motive for loving, purifying, protecting, and caring for his wife is Christ’s love, purifying, protecting, and caring for His own bride, the church. Christian marriage is to be loving, holy, pure, self–sacrificing, and mutually submissive because those virtues characterize the relationship of Christ and the church. The main point this passage makes about marriage is not the distinct roles of husband and wife but rather the unity between them, unity as seen in the one-flesh-ness of the creation story, unity as between a head and a body, unity as between Christ and the church. (Roberts, M. D. (2016). Ephesians. (S. McKnight, Ed.) (p. 205). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.) God ordained human marriage, not merely for pragmatic, social, or procreative reasons (important as all those are), but so that the human race might have a picture of just how much Christ loves his church, and of how the church, in return, loves and follows Christ. That is why Paul can say that, in all his discussion of marriage, “refers to Christ and the church.”…When you attend a wedding and see the bride dressed in dazzling white, looking up into her bridegroom’s eyes—loving him, trusting him, believing in him—you see a picture of how the church ought to look into Christ’s eyes. When you hear the groom making those incredible vows—to love this young woman, to honor her, to cherish her all his days—you hear just a glimpse of Jesus’ commitment to his church! Moreover, the same picture will be painted, sixty years later, when he comes every day to the nursing home and spoons out her oatmeal, bite by bite, and as she continues to look into his eyes with complete trust and faith! This is how Christ and the church relate to one another! God ordained human marriage so that we might see and understand that greater, spiritual marriage. (Strassner, K. (2014). Opening up Ephesians (pp. 119–120). Leominster: Day One.)