THE COVENANT OF MARRIAGE

THE COVENANT OF MARRIAGE

                When two people decide to get married, they are entering into an age old covenant in which each person is giving his or her entire self, body, soul and spirit, to the other and in doing so the two become one in body, soul and spirit.

                Now if one of the spouses, after the marriage ceremony decides to tell the other spouse that they just got married so that they could become a citizen of the US and had no interest in consummating the marriage but had decided to remain celibate, then the deprived spouse would have both the legal right as well as probably the biblical right to have the marriage annulled. The covenant of marriage has been broken.

                So let us apply this principle spiritually. Let us say, for instance that the marriage ceremony takes place in the outer court of the tabernacle. We enter into a blood covenant (the slaying of the Lamb) we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to each other (Altar of sacrifice) and we declare our purity of purpose to remain faithful. (Laver)

                Now when the marriage ceremony is complete and all the guests go home, we enter into our chamber to consummate the marriage. Now to be sure, this consummation is more than a single sexual act. Our consummation of marriage represents a continual growing into oneness in body, soul and spirit. In marriage we give our all and that means mental oneness, physical oneness and spiritual oneness. In fact a marriage that is lacking in any of those three areas will be a very difficult marriage that either ends in divorce or in two lonely people living in one house.

                So in marriage the consummation of marriage results in a seed being planted in the womb that will create a baby that will grow in the womb for 9 months and will then come out into the world to wax and increase in wisdom and in favor with God and man under the nurturing and training of his parents.  And the goal in raising the child to maturity is so        that in its maturity it can take over the family business. Or at least that is the way it was in biblical times when the family farm or business was turned over to the heir.

                The point is that the seed that was planted in the womb grows to maturity through nurturing and training and then takes over the family business.

                In the same way, when we consummate our marriage to Christ, His Seed (His Spirit) is planted in our womb (our spirit) and we feed that spirit with the Word of God and with the Holy Spirit of God and with prayer that is mixed with the incense of the Holy Spirit until at some point our spirit is mature enough to take over the family business, so to speak, and we can live by the Spirit and not by the flesh.

                This then is what Romans 8 is all about. It is about that maturity of living by the Spirit until we become mature sons and daughters of God who can now produce more sons and daughters, because in our maturity we have also received the baptism of the Holy Spirit for power to witness and to do the works of Christ and to call others into a marriage with Christ. (That is to say, to make disciples.)

                But what we see taking place right before our eyes today is a large portion of the” body of Christ” that is saying that it is no longer necessary to consummate the marriage. We need no longer grow up being conformed to the image of Christ. We don’t need the new birth. We don’t need to be crucified with Christ or to give of our entire being in marriage to Christ, nor do we need to live by the power of His resurrection. Now we can use the philosophies of the world and New Age practices to come to maturity. We can dance around the altar in the outer court and shout that we are married without having to enter into that messy business in the Holy Place where the consummation actually takes place.

                But unfortunately to those people Jesus will say, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” Mt. 25:12. And that word “knew” is the same Hebrew word for physical consummation as in “Adam knew Eve and she bore a son.” Gen. 4:1.

                Now we gain a better insight into the 10 virgins. We know that the oil in their lamps represents the Holy Spirit, but it is deeper than that. The foolish virgins did not have the Seed of Christ in their wombs. (Their spirits) They had never consummated their marriage with Christ and as a result, their marriage with Him had been annulled. Hebrews 12:14.

                So we are being driven by the Holy Spirit to talk about maturity and sanctification now because sanctification is what takes place in the Holy Place, within the veil to bring forth of the man child, because the Seed of Christ has been planted in our wombs and by now that child should be mature enough to take over the family business. We can now live by the spirit and not by the flesh and so we are now beginning to reflect the features of our Father in heaven.

                It is that maturity of spirit, soul and body that will prepare us for the harvest when the kernels of wheat are fully formed in the head and the head is bowed down with the weight of His glory.

                Paul talks about this in Phil.3:8-11 saying: “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing (having consummated his marriage to) Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law (The Law cannot produce the Son in our womb) but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith that I might know Him ( Having consummated the marriage) and the power of His resurrection (The new life that was planted in our spiritual wombs by the Holy Spirit) and the fellowship of His sufferings ( In a true marriage we take the good with the bad, in sickness and in health, in poverty or in riches, we let nothing come between us) in order that I might attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

                In verse 12 Paul goes on to say that he had not yet attained it. What is he talking about? Everywhere he talks about salvation through faith in Christ apart from the works of the Law, apart from the works of the flesh, but through faith in Christ alone. Now in this chapter he is suddenly talking about not having attained it yet. What had he not yet attained?

                He tells us in verse 11. He was saying that he had not yet attained to the resurrection FROM the dead. And here we need to understand that there are two resurrections. One resurrection is FROM the dead and in this resurrection only the righteous saints are resurrected. This is the first resurrection and it is the resurrection of the faithful Bride of Christ… those who have consummated the marriage and have produced the man child. They have become like Christ. So this first resurrection FROM the dead is a resurrection of the Bride of Christ.

                There is another resurrection (OF) the dead in which all who are in their graves “shall hear His voice and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds, to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” John 5:28, 29. This is the general resurrection in which all people good and bad will be raised. It comes at the second coming of Christ with His saints. (See Revelation 19:8, 15, Zech. 14:5, 1 Thess. 3:13, 1Thess. 4:14 and elsewhere concerning  the Bride of Christ.)

                So as you can see, this matter of maturity, this matter of having consummated our relationship with Christ, His Seed having been planted in us by the Holy Spirit and bringing forth mature sons and daughters is indeed of key importance. We indeed want to be a part of the Bride of Christ. We want to consummate our covenant marriage with Him. We want His Holy Spirit to breathe life into our human spirit so that, Christ will be born in us.

                We want Him to grow up in us until He can take over the family business, so to speak, so that we, instead of living by the flesh, can live by His Spirit. This is what the Holy Place of the tabernacle is all about. It is about a relationship with Christ through His Holy Spirit, His Word and through fellowship with Him in Holy Spirit incensed prayers so that we can enter within the veil, into the very presence of God where we can consummate the marriage, thus becoming the Bride of Christ.

                This mystery of Christ in us is one of the mysteries that Paul revealed to the world. He said: “that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory. And we proclaim Him admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom that we may present every man complete in Christ. And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” Col. 1:26-29.

                Paul did not have exclusive ownership of this mystery. It is there for everyone who is willing to actually move beyond the outer court and into the chamber of the Holy Place wherein we might consummate our marriage with Christ and live by His power and not our own. Paul in Romans 8 tells us saying: ”For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” “For whom He foreknew He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the first-born among many brethren.” Rom 8:14, 29.

                Jesus is the first-born of those who, like Mary will allow the Holy Spirit to conceive in us to bring forth the man child. This then becomes the Bride of the first resurrection. And we, if we are wise virgins with oil in our lamps, having consummated our marriage with Christ, will become a part of the Bride and we will rule and reign with Christ for 1000 years.

                Is it worth it to leave the baggage of this world and to commit to a marriage covenant in which all else is left behind? This is a question that each of us must answer for ourselves, but as for me and my house, we are pressing toward the mark of the goal of our high calling in Christ Jesus. And by His Grace, our marriage here on earth becomes a picture of our marriage to Jesus Christ, for we have been made complete in Him.