²² Wives, subject yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Saviour of the body. ²⁴ But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, ²⁶ so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with a proclamation***, ²⁷ that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. ²⁸ So husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; ²⁹ for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, ³⁰ because we are parts of His body. ³¹ For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. ³² This is a great mystery, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. ³³ Nevertheless, as for you individually, each husband is to love his own wife the same as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband [Eph5:22-33]

From a pastoral perspective, this passage concerns how husbands and wives should relate to each other. Not being a pastor (or a husband for that matter) I am as ever more interested in the theological perspective – how Christ relates to His Bride-to-be and the fact that the Church is  described as the body of Christ. Paul, more than any other contributor to Scripture, uses the word “mystery”, and he appears to regard this one as the greatest of them all – that in some mystical sense, just as husband and wife become one flesh, so does Christ with the Church (vv31-32).

Paul does not set out the full implications of “this great mystery” (v32), still less can I. What the illustration does reinforce is the fact that the Church is quite special. In Peter’s words, she is “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light”. These could never be the proverbial “world and his wife”, it is Christ and His, whom according to Revelation shall share a throne with their Husband (Rev3:21). These are the elect, the majestic ones (Ps16:3), called out from the world to be God’s own personal possession. Yet, all the earth is God’s – He loved the world enough to sacrifice His Son to save it (Jn3:16).

This is the nature of the mystery that I am in the business of setting out. It is not new revelation (nor could it be), but a new interpretation of what the bible as a whole is  surreptitiously disclosing. But do not mistake me, regardless of the vastly broader benign providence I am adducing, this passage is clear enough that it is only the Church as body of Christ that is currently being saved: “Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Saviour of the body (v23). Not “all people of good will”, indeed not even the “sheep” Jesus refers to in Mt25 – the elect having already been raptured at that point.

All such good folk shall “go to heaven when they die” or if alive at Christ’s return become citizens of God’s kingdom. That is what Jesus was referring to in Mt25 (in which religion is not so much as mentioned), but it is not what Paul or scripture usually means by “salvation” or attaining “eternal life” – all of which is explained in my book.

It is the Church alone that Christ is sanctifying “that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless”.  This is not possible for anyone else, and Rom7:24-25 best summarizes why, if only it were understood.Relatedly, only the Christian is provided with the spiritual resources by which he may “possess his vessel in sanctification and honour (1Thes4:4). That ultimately is for the occasion when Heaven shall declare: “Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to Christ: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready” (Rev19:7).

*** Verse 26 is often translated along the lines “so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water through the word”.  That is fine providing it is understood that Paul is not here referring to the scriptures.   Paul never employs ῥῆμα^G4487  when referring to the bible. That would be   γραφή^G1124 . He therefore must be referring to what is declared at baptism, for “washing of water” has no soteriological benefits apart from the declaration concerning the Father, Son and Spirit in Whose names it is performed.

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