Omega Message – May 1994
Cecil duCille
The word “holy” as used in Scripture carries four basic meanings:
1. It means wholeness; right; righteousness (as measured by the standard of God’s intrinsic or divine character).
2. It refers to human statutes and relations.
3. Formal consecration.
4. Purity from defilement.
The words “Holy Matrimony” can only be translated in one way, by number one above, as measured by God’s standard and divine character. Matrimony is the rite of marriage. Marriage is described in the Oxford Dictionary as: “the legal union between a man and woman to live together and to have children.”
When God created marriage He revealed the whole principle upon which the universe would consist. He revealed the basic concept of the relationship between Himself and His creation. Let us look into the scriptural basis for this premise:
Genesis 1:27-28: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
Careful scrutiny of the above passage tells us a few astounding truths:
I. Adam was made as two persons in one, since God referred to him as “them,” when as yet Adam knew no such person as a woman.
2. “…Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth…” The words of God suggest here that there is another and more spiritual way of being fruitful and multiplying, different from the way we have known since the fall of Adam.
3. “…and replenish the earth.” This sounds like the earth was out of proper order. The language suggests that it was not in the condition in which God had created it, but that it needed replenishment and that the man was to fill in the need of the earth. This thought is further borne out by the first part of Verse 2 in Genesis 1:
“And the earth was (became) without form, and void…”
Here in this verse, the correct translation of the verb “to be” should not be “was,” but “became.”
In order to expand these thoughts, let us look into another scripture passage concerning the union of Adam and Eve:
Genesis 2:18-24 (From the Torah), “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him.’ And the Lord God formed out of the earth all the beasts and all the birds of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them: and whatever the man called each living creature, that would be its name. And the man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to all the beasts; but for Adam no fitting helper was found. So the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon the man; and, while he slept, He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that spot. And the Lord God fashioned the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman: and He brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called ‘Ishshah’ (woman) for from ‘ishi’ (man) was she taken.’ Hence a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, so that they become one flesh.”
Let us summarize this passage and consider the points of reference in this very important scripture:
1. It is evident that God must have had some great spiritual meaning behind the taking of a rib from Adam to form Eve. In the first place the word translated “rib” should rather be “curved organs.” The word in the Hebrew is pronounced “tsal-aw,” and it can either be singular or plural, but we believe it is plural because of the following:
2. In this verse, Adam said that she “…is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” This means that God did not just remove a single bone from Adam, but that He also removed flesh. Since, at the beginning when Adam was made, the Lord indicated that He had made both Mr. and Mrs. Adam in one being, then the parts of Adam which belonged to Eve must have been removed with the bone
3. Why did the scripture deliberately mention a rib bone? One of the reasons could be that Adam and Eve would have the same blood. There would be a blood bond and a blood covenant between them, even though their bodies had not been joined in a marital relationship. God had made them one. The blood is manufactured in the long bones, therefore Eve had Adam’s blood. This tells us why Adam could not walk away from her when she sinned. When she sinned, he also lost. She was his flesh and his blood. He was bound to stand with her for better or for worse, even unto death.
When Adam said to God, “The woman that Thou gavest me…” he actually cast the responsibility on God, but for this responsibility God had pre-arranged that Christ should go to Calvary to pay for our sins.
4. Adam’s deep sleep in the birthing of his wife is a type of the death of Jesus Christ and His being in the grave for three days, in which time He went to hell to pay for our sins; and the Church was born. Take note that Adam was wounded in his side, and that Jesus in the process was wounded in His side, and that in both cases a covenant in blood was made with the woman, and this covenant made them one.
5. This was the beginning of holy matrimony. The witnesses of heaven looked on while God, who was the Father of both, gave them away to each other. It was a momentous occasion in the history of humanity, because this was the pattern of that which should come, which would join God Himself to be one with the human race which He had made.
6. Adam said, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife….” Adam did not know anything about a mother or father in an earthly sense, and for him to say this, we must take it as direct prophecy. In Matthew 19:5, Jesus repeated the same phrase, ascribing it to God, which tells us that it was the Word of the Lord which was spoken by Adam.
Matthew 19:4-6, “And he (Jesus) answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder.”
From the above we see that God created matrimony and that He presided over the first wedding between man and woman. This matrimony was holy, because it was ordained of God to conform to His divine purpose. This became a pattern for all men, but in the transgression of man, we departed from God’s will and purpose in marriage. Thus there are marriages which are not according to God’s order and not in His will. There are even some marriages that would never be able to please God.
Jesus Christ expanded on what Adam said. It was God’s will that new families should be started with marriages. The marriage partners were no longer bound by the laws of God to obey their parents, but rather were to come out from under their umbrella and form a new household. Jesus explained that they would become “…one flesh.” Two bodies with one flesh. Again we see the blood covenant of God coming into effect.
THE BLOOD COVENANT
A blood covenant is one that involves the blood of the two parties. A story in the life of the great explorer, Stephenson, very adequately explains the meaning of a blood covenant. The story goes that he was traveling in Africa and could not pass through the land of a very fierce tribe who refused to give him passage. He, however, found among his men a man who said that he was a “blood brother” to one man in the tribe. (That meant that he had made a blood covenant with one man in the tribe). If he could establish this, then all of his company, regardless of who they were, would be accepted as blood brothers.
He approached the tribe, and they made them renew their covenant with the cutting of their wrists, dropping the blood into a vessel, mixing it with wine and drinking it. The story describes the change of attitude immediately after this was done. They were not only allowed to cross the country, but were given every help possible in doing so, and their goods were protected night and day
A blood covenant cannot be broken, except by death. If one breaks the blood covenant, then that one forfeits his or her life. When Christ made a blood covenant with the human race, He knew that they would break it; therefore when He became guarantor of the pact, His death became imperative.
Now in Matthew 19:6, He pronounces one of those divine order laws that cannot be broken: “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” No one could separate Adam and Eve. No one could write a bill of divorcement. In holy matrimony, there is no divorcement.
We could categorize marriage into two basic types:
(1) Holy matrimony, and
(2) Matrimony that is not holy.
1. HOLY MATRIMONY
Holy matrimony is the union of two persons according to God’s holy ordinance, with the intent to please God. The working parts of this matrimony are a man, a woman, and God. The foundation of it is love, as described below:
“Love endures long and is patient and kind; Love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy; is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited—arrogant and inflated with pride; it is not rude (unmannerly), and does not act unbecomingly. Love [God’s love in us] does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes not account of the evil done to it—pays no attention to a suffered wrong. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails—never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end. As for prophecy, it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [that is, it will lose its value and be superseded by truth]… And so faith, hope, love abide…these three, but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8,13).
Marriage was made for the Christian and divorce for sinners. Without the proper ingredients in the proper place, marriage is not holy. If men and women marry because they love the beautiful faces and beautiful bodies of each other, then their marriage is not holy. The motivating factor in holy matrimony is holiness. God must be the cornerstone of holy marriage.
Love and marriage
Our nature as children of God is to love, and our love is not always perfect but if our intention is to bring forth the will of God, then He will correct us. Because of our imperfections, we must realize that love of a person is not sufficient basis for marriage. If this was so then any brother could marry to any sister, but I believe that even as God crafted Eve for Adam, He makes and provides a partner for every man. Very often the man misses his true partner because of disobedience and rebellion. When this happens, then the Lord will have to fashion someone else for someone else. The Lord is always fixing and crafting to supply the needs of His creation. Here are some fitting scriptures:
“Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord” (Proverbs 18:22).
“House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a prudent wife is from the Lord” (Proverbs 19:14).
“Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies” (Proverbs 31:10).
God is in the business of creating wives out of women, and He began giving His daughters away to His sons in the beginning when He gave Eve to Adam, and He has never stopped since. A good man deserves a good woman and if the children of God follow the rules of righteousness, they will never be caught in the traps that are set for fools.
Check these “Ifs” and see where you stand.
(a) If a man finds himself lusting after a woman, or visa versa, then he is not ready to marry that woman or anyone else. The fruit of lust is sin, therefore one who wants righteousness cannot choose sin with the hope that it will work righteousness.
(b) If a man cannot resist the sight of a woman in scanty clothes, or otherwise, then he is vulnerable and not fit for battle, he must find repentance.
(c) If a woman loves to wear scanty clothes and make-up to beautify herself, then she is being oppressed by the spirit of the age, the spirit of the harlot. She must find repentance before Christ returns, for she will silently send many men to hell. She will attract men for the wrong reason, thus attracting the wrong men. Many women wonder why they are so bad lucked to be always getting the wrong type of person interested in them. The reason is not a secret. Whatever they are doing, they are attracting the wrong type of men. This is done by the mode of dress, hairstyle, body language, etc. Honey will attract bees every time, and flypaper will look edible to flies.
We implore each Christian to begin to look to the Lord for his/her partner. Do not trust in your titivation, good looks, or anything of the kind. For man looks at the outside, but God alone looks at the heart and God is mindful of each person’s need and will supply it according to His riches in glory.
2. MATRIMONY THAT IS NOT HOLY
Because God has set a standard for marriage, then everything outside of His standard, which is contrary to His law, is an unlawful marriage. For instance: Marriages of the same sex (homosexual marriages), marriages of convenience, marriages among sinners, and marriages of near of kin.
Homosexual Marriages:
In the Word, the Lord calls this type of marriage an abomination. The only cure for homosexuality is total repentance, which means that the individual would cease to be a homosexual at heart as well as in practice, and turn to God. There are cases of people who have been cured of homosexuality.
“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind. It is abomination” (Leviticus 18:22).
The Spirit of God speaking through the apostle Paul to the Roman church, speaks of this sin:
“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness (pornia) through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves…. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another: men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient”; (Romans 1:24-28).
From the above passage we see homosexuality condemned of God in both men and women. Let us look at the chief points in the foregoing passage.
1. Homosexuality is uncleanness. The Greek word “pornia” translated above as “uncleanness” is also translated in some passages as “fornication.” In the Greek it is a stronger term than is expressed in the English. It speaks of something diabolical and diametrically opposite to godliness. It means a depravity of mind, and the body as well, through demonically orchestrated actions.
2. It is a spiritual disease of the heart and not just superficial physical activity. This means that the very seat of man’s decision-making apparatus is bugged by the infusion of corruption into its mechanism.
3. Verse 21: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
The heart is that spiritual part of man which controls all his decisions. It says that their heart was darkened, which means that the individual who participates in homosexuality suffers a personality change so that a thing that is basically evil and unclean appears to him to be good and admissible.
4. Verse 24: “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness…to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.”
The functions of the body are set of God the Creator, thus anyone who creates dysfunction in his or her body dishonors the body and its maker.
God created man with these unique body systems: mechanical, hydraulic, electrical, and excretory. We can fix the mechanical, and achieve some measure of mobility by replacing joints with artificial joints. We can tamper with the electrical, and boost nerves with electronic chips and other methods. We have a measure of success also with the excretory. The hydraulic, however is a different matter. It has a delicate balance of chromosomes, DNA, corpuscles, and plasma with a mysterious energy that is not yet fully understood by science. This energy, we know from the Scriptures, is called the “life.” Leviticus 17:11 tells us that, “…the life of the flesh is in the blood,” which is the reason why we should not eat blood.
The Scripture says a man and his wife become one flesh. This is because they exchange body fluids, and the seminal fluid is indeed blood. The practice of homosexuality, however, involves an exchange of body fluid that is not within the system which God has ordained for it to be placed, but where fluid from the hydraulic system (the blood) is mixed with the excretory system. The excretory system is meant to handle the waste matter that the body rejects and it is full of bacteria. If these same bacteria get into the drinking water, people come up with fearful epidemics like cholera, etc. We believe that this mixture of the blood with fecal bacteria is the cause of AIDS since it is a blood disease that breaks down the main building blocks of the blood.
5. It says, “…God gave them over….” Whatever God gives over, the devil takes. This means that those who enter homosexuality become demon possessed.
6. “…God gave them over to a reprobate mind.” The “reprobate” mind is that of a castaway, or a person whose mind is adversely affected by truth or righteousness, so that he will act the opposite to the way he ought. He will reject those that are good and acclaim those who are evil. He will call good evil and evil good. If such a person becomes a judge, administrator, or an officer with powers over others, he will show a twisted and biased approach to justice, and he will sometimes mistake logic for truth.
Marriages of Convenience:
A marriage of convenience is one that is designed basically for the purpose of satisfying the physical needs of the parties involved rather than to glorify God. There are cases where women have been caught in carefully laid schemes and trapped into marriages, to which they consent only to cover the shame to which they were subjected by some masculine human animal that raped them.
There are other marriages where men and women consent to a legal joining, where they recognize that the law that joined them has the power to break or dissolve the marriage. This is not so with a true Christian marriage. Those whom God has joined together, no man can break apart. Under this heading would come the Hollywood and Paris type of marriage. The Scriptures speak of this in Matthew 24:38-39:
“For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
In some of these, they have pre-nuptial agreements in which a divorce agreement is actually written inside of the marriage contract. A marriage with a divorce agreement is a desecration of marriage, and in short is just another legal contract; only in this case, the participants are investing their life and their blood.
Marriage among sinners:
It is written that a sinner must sin, but even as there is a sin unto death, there is a sin against marriage that can break a marriage. Sinners are under the law, since they have not attained grace, which is only in Christ Jesus. The law, therefore, was written for sinners, as you will agree with me that if you are told not to kill, not to steal, not to covet your neighbor’s wife, not to commit adultery, then this injunction in itself is saying that there is an expectation that you would be doing these things. So then, the law was not made for the righteous, but for sinners.
In Matthew 19, Jesus explained the law written in Deuteronomy 24, and in doing this He reiterated the law that says that fornication (“pornia” in the Greek) breaks a marriage. This is so, because when a married person has sexual union with another partner, then he/she mixes their blood with another blood, and the married couple are no longer one flesh. This is not the unpardonable sin, and the Word encourages us in 1 Corinthians 7 to forgive, but if there is no repentance and the sin continues, then all three persons will be living in adultery. Let me give you the scriptures here before going any further.
Deuteronomy 24:1-2, “When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife.”
Matthew 19:7-9, “They say unto him (Jesus), Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery:”
Let us observe these two utterances—the first by Moses and then the other by Jesus Christ. In Moses we read that a man was allowed to put away his wife if uncleanness was found in her. Jesus says here in Matthew that this was not so from the beginning. Of course, there could not be divorce in the beginning because there was no sin. Jesus used the words, “…because of the hardness of your hearts” as to why a man was allowed to put away his wife. Moses gave the reason for the putting away as “uncleanness.” Moses wrote in Hebrew and so when Jesus was quoting Moses, He was speaking in the same language of Moses (Jesus never spoke Greek).
The Hebrew word which was translated “uncleanness” in Deuteronomy 24:1 is “ervah” (shame, nakedness). The same word spoken by Jesus was translated in the Greek as “pornia,” and then into English as “fornication.” This word “ervah,” or “pornia,” has a much wider scope of meaning than “fornication.” It would encompass every form of sexual sin and moral turpitude. It would include all that the law calls abomination, which would even include sorcery or worshipping of strange gods. Any of these can disrupt a marriage, nevertheless, the chief sin which Scripture pinpoints as breaking a marriage is sexual impropriety, since it contaminates the very foundation of the blood covenant, and the blood covenant can only be broken through death.
In a spiritual context, when a sinner makes a covenant with a sinner and then breaks it, that only adds to the sinner’s sins, and when he is forgiven of his sins, then he is forgiven of all. The dead (sinners) cannot make an effective covenant of death with the dead. It would have no meaning. It follows that only those who are “alive” are capable of making a holy matrimonial covenant.
Very often we find Christians involved in matrimony with a sinner. The Bible in 1 Corinthians 7:l3-15 is clear on this point. The believer should not leave the sinner, but if the sinner leaves then the believer would be free. In Verse 11, the Word says that if the believing wife finds it necessary to leave her unbelieving husband, then she should remain unmarried; and that the believing husband should not put away his unbelieving wife.
A Christian who goes out and marries a sinner generally is in disobedience to the Lord and will come under much tribulation. However, God will redeem such a marriage if they both repent.
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:14).
The Christian should not marry the unsaved. There cannot be holy matrimony between a Christian and an unbeliever, for the only time a sinner can please God is when he or she repents. God can intervene in a sinful marriage and make it holy, but when a Christian marries a sinner, he or she has made a definite act of rebellion against God.
Marriages of near of kin:
Leviticus 18:6, “None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord.”
In Leviticus 18, Verses 6 to 20, the Word describes what is meant by “near of kin.” Marriages with these would be an abomination unto God and would be considered incestuous.
GOD’S PLAN OF THE AGES
God made man as a bridge between Himself and His creation. We were made in the image of God and created in His likeness. That means that the blueprint of man is not that which we see manifested at this time. He did not keep us in the dark about His plans, but over the ages He sent prophets, priests, and kings who revealed to us His Word. The revealed Word tells us that the things that we see in the earth are patterns of things in the heavenlies:
“It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true: but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:23).
At the beginning of time, God set the earth in order and created all things necessary for natural life here; and then He made a man. This man was a perfect specimen of humanity, but his wife was made as part of himself. He was deliberately made along with his wife, who was afterwards separated from him. This tells me that God makes a woman for every man. The proof of this can be found in Genesis 4:16-17:
Verse 16, “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.”
Verse 17, “And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.”
It is apparent that a great deal of time elapsed between Verses 16 and 17, quite possibly hundreds of years, but the manner in which Verse 17 begins, it would suggest that Cain had a wife. It did not say Cain married one of his sisters after a couple hundred years, but it said he knew his wife, which strongly suggests that he had a wife previously, which implies that he had a twin sister. Another point to consider is that Eve did not have a third son until approximately 100 years afterwards. This theory is all genetically feasible, since women are still having multiple births.
We believe it is possible for a person to miss God and miss his or her God-ordained partner, sometimes taking next best and even getting next worse. We feel, however, that those who are trusting in Christ and waiting on Him, that they do eventually get their right partners from the Lord. This arrangement of God is one that is under constant attack from the enemy. On the side of the enemy is every disobedient servant and everyone who is overcome with ungodly lusts.
From the beginning, God made Adam as a type of Christ. Types in scripture can only be types in some specific thing or things. Adam, therefore, as a type of Christ, had his wife taken from his side. God made an incision in his side, and took a rib with the curved organs, with blood, and placed it in another of His creation; and Adam called her “woman.” The Church was taken from the side of Jesus Christ, and blood and water came forth. The Father meticulously orchestrated all of this, because the earthly things were to match that which was before in the heavenlies.
Marriage between man and woman, if it is to conform to the spiritual plan of God, must then have man and woman being the type of Christ and His Church. The man must be to his wife as Christ is to the Church. Because we are imperfect, even in our Christianity, we find that our marriages are also less than perfect types of Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, there is one redeeming factor, for as we are learning truth and following Christ then we will be constantly growing in grace, and thus our relationships will improve daily to become more like Christ. The end result of this growth in the human realm is a development that will bring a segment of the Church (the Bride) to a point where we will be made ready to be united with Christ even while we are here in our physical bodies.
Most of the old order teaching is that we have to die to be perfected. They are in effect saying that God cannot perfect man unless he kills him. In my estimation, a dead man is a corpse, and there is not one promise in the Bible to corpses. In other words, the Scripture says that, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32). On the other hand, there are many promises that say that God will have us perfected before death. We believe that this is that which is described as the promise of the Father. Let us look at some of these scriptures.
Romans 8:18-19, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.”
Verse 29, “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Hebrews 8:10, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.”
Because Jesus Christ was a natural man and worked as a carpenter taking care of His mother, sisters, and brothers, then the Christian is designed to follow in His footsteps and live and overcome in the natural until he or she comes to spiritual maturity. There were three stages in Jesus’ development: (a) The natural stage, (b) The spiritual stage, and (c) The New Created Man stage.
(a) He was born by natural birth from a nine months pregnancy; grew up as a child; experienced heat and cold, hunger and tiredness, and came to the age of thirty years.
(b) After His baptism in water by John, He was publicly proclaimed by the Father to be His Son. Some said it thundered, but to some it was clear enough that it could be written in the Scriptures. The fact that the Scriptures also recorded that a dove lighted on His head says that someone saw it. Quite likely the relater of all this must be Mary, the mother of Jesus. This silent narrator is seen through the whole of the New Testament and in theology is called “Quil.” This is illustrated in phrases like this: “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19); or when Mary approached Elizabeth it is recorded that, “…the babe leaped in her womb” (Luke 1:41). There are hundreds of these in the Scriptures that we ascribe to Mary and, of course, the Holy Ghost. It should be noted that Jesus’ ministry began with a wedding.
(c) The ministry of the new creation man began with Jesus’ resurrection. The first words of this ministry were spoken to Mary Magdalene as she wept, thinking that they had taken away her Lord. “Mary,” He said, and she answered, “Rabboni.”
The image of the New Creation Man is beyond our imagination. He comes into the room and convinces the brethren that He is not a spirit. They feel His side and see Him eat and drink, and just as they thought they understood Him, He disappears into thin air.
He meets them again, encourages them, and they begin to feel comfortable about the fact that they have Him with them always; then He bids them good-bye, levitates above them, and a cloud of the heavenly host comes over Him and takes Him out of their sight. Now we all have Him, and He comes and goes, and yet He is with us always.
It transpires, then, that the coming of Jesus that we are looking for must be a coming back in His “New Creation Man” form. It is no secret that whenever we rise up in the spiritual realm we can see Jesus as He is. But then, how is He? After His resurrection He appeared in different forms as different persons several times. Mary saw him as the gardener. His brethren in the upper room saw Him with the wounds in His hands and side. When the brethren were fishing and He met them and brought forth the miraculous draught of fishes, they saw Him as a stranger, although they knew it was He. Just after His resurrection, the brethren on the road to Emmaus saw Him as a stranger, and obviously He did not have nail prints in His hands and feet; and He changed right before them as He broke and blessed the bread.
Who then do we look for? We have a clue from the Scriptures in Acts 1:11, “…this same Jesus, which in taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” This says not only that this same Jesus will return, but that He will return in the same manner in which He was taken up.
The promise goes further than this. Just as we have been followers of Him in the first two stages (natural and spiritual), we are designated or predestinated to be conformed to His “New Creation Man” image. In Matthew 1, we see the genealogy of the forty-second generation or the generation of Jesus Christ. In us, He is bringing forth sons to be like Him in His new created form. Thus we can envision a world peopled by super beings—humans transformed into immortal flesh and functioning under a law higher than the natural law.
This law is the Law of the Spirit, which at this present time is freeing us from the natural. This freedom will only be accomplished when we are filled with the same fullness that Jesus Christ has. This will only be done when we have overcome the natural—that is, when this body of death is eradicated from our beings. So far no man but Jesus Christ Himself has achieved this, but we know that this is reserved for a people that God calls His “elect.” This refers to the elect of this age. The elect of other ages did not overcome and have a final victory over the devil, but it is written that this elect will achieve this overcoming, not because of any goodness of theirs but because it is God’s time to bring all things to their fullness and to bring the battle to an end. This brings us to the final reason why God created marriage:
THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB
It was ordained of God that two should become one. The power and the glory of marriage lies in the oneness of two. Any man and woman who achieve oneness between them are well on the way to understanding the oneness of the Body of Christ, and the oneness of God and His Church. Let us look at these verses of Scripture that describe God’s heart concerning oneness:
John 17:20-23, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word: That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou has loved me.”
The oneness described here of Christ and the Church also involves the oneness of the Church and the Church, but it begins in the home. This is the school of oneness; this is where we learn to be one with another person. This is where a man learns to chain his masculine nature and conform to a gentler being who has the other side of the coin that is essential to make it spendable. Oneness cannot be achieved without submission, with the male submitting to the female, as well as the female to the male. Christ submits Himself to the Church. This is the greatest lesson of submission. Many of us cannot fellowship with others, because in our estimation they do not walk correctly in the Lord. We personally find some brethren to be cantankerous and hard to get along with, but think of this—that the Almighty God, Who is Righteousness, condescends to live with us and in us (even when we are sinning), and that He has promised us that He will never leave us or forsake us. The presence of God will automatically destroy sin, and it must be very painful to God to dwell in our wilderness, like the scapegoat of old. It is even more than this. He wants to marry us, and become one with us in a sense and in a way we have not yet experienced.
Our human experience at times takes us to the very threshold of this great spiritual experience. As described by Jesus in John 17, He wants to be one with us, and He wants us to be one with each other and with Him, as He and the Father are one.
Once I asked the Lord to describe to me the mystery of the Trinity. He simply said for me to look at my own being. I am spirit, soul, and body. Each part of me is in a different realm, nevertheless there is no doubt as to the fact that each part is uniquely me, and cannot be separated from each other and still function as man. In the final analysis, spirit must capture soul in an eternal embrace, and soul must claim its body, even if it be disseminated and separated into billions of atoms, and scattered over the universe. Spirit, soul, and body will meet again to dwell eternally together. This is the power of the resurrection.
MARRIAGE IS A PROCESS OF LEARNING
When man and woman come together in marriage, it is only the beginning, and not by any means the finality of union. They must learn the spirit and the heart of each other, and as they do, the benefits will accrue in a spiritual experience. Some of the experiences in oneness are that one feels the joy or the pain of his/her partner. Even as a mother feels for her child, so does the husband and wife feel for each other. Jesus speaks of us being one with each other and with Himself even as He and the Father are one. In His description to me of the Trinity, I learned that He wants us to be one even as my mind and body are one, or as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one. Married couples in Christ begin to melt into each other—becoming one flesh. They also become one soul and one spirit (“…I in you and you in me”). Then the children become a common union, being part of each, not only in their bodies, but also in their souls (minds) and spirits. They were created in the image of their parents. Adam was the only man created in the image of God, but we all are created in the image of Adam (our father).
Our earthly union, therefore, was designed of God to bring us experientially to understand the heavenly union. God’s great desire before the foundation of the world is to create a being through which He could express Himself to His creation. Because of His mighty power, He cannot approach unto His creation, which is yet in an imperfect state.
When He came down on Sinai to talk with the people of Israel, the mountain burned and the rocks melted. The physicist should understand this readily. Light, as pure as man can make it, is the laser beam. This will at present go through steel of more than an inch. However, the laser is a poor light when compared to the glory of God. Thus God must hide Himself from His creation. Jesus Christ as a man was the insulation of God, and in His present form still is.
The Holy Ghost can only dwell in man when he, the man, has received the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood makes a home in the human being for the Spirit to dwell, thus the Spirit does not come in contact with human flesh. Sometimes when the soul is moving into the Holy of Holies it causes the body to quake and convulse, and utterances pour from the lips, while the mind remains inactive.
Sometimes Christ shouts in His temple and drives out the moneychangers. Do you want to be one with Him? Then you are about to lose your self. Your human pride will be the first to go. Of course, as you follow Christ you will be criticized, even as I am for writing the things that I write.
The best way of dying is to have Christ alive in you. A brother once told me that He asked God to make him perfect, and the Lord told him yes, but that first he would have to get rid of all his imperfections. There is a specific time ordained of God to bring man into perfect union with the Father. Revelation 19:7: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me. Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb….”
The context to this passage, in Chapter 18 of Revelation, speaks of the destruction of Babylon (the world-system), and also the place that is the center of this system and its glory. It shows an overthrow with violence, and in scriptural contexts it would seem that the violence will not be just natural disasters, but that it is through war and atomic explosions that modernism and all the wickedness of the human world-systems will come to an end. In Chapter 19, we see the heavens rejoicing over the vengeance against the “great whore.” This name “great whore” could not refer to a world system, but to a religious system which corrupted the whole earth. Some Bible students say that this is referring to Moslem Islamic religion, but it could not, since it was Roman Catholic Christianity which created Islam, and Islam does not have influence over the whole earth and never will. The destruction of the great whore must be the destruction of the false religion of the churches, led by the Roman Church. Of course, between here and there, we must receive our “white robes,” which speaks of the “righteousness of the saints.” To get this we must undergo great tribulation and persecution, and we must overcome.
The great event will appear silently as a “thief in the night.” The marriage of the Lamb is the infilling of that part of the Body that is ready with the fulness of Christ. In the Day of Atonement, the High Priest will rend the veil between the soul and the spirit of man, and enter into the mansions of his mind, emotions, will, and desires. In that moment we will become like Him, and like Him, our ministry on earth will begin. Then shall the Gospel be preached throughout the whole earth. The forbidden places of the earth will no longer be a barrier to us. Our passports will be stamped “anywhere” so that no government or religion will be able to bar us from preaching the Gospel in their back yards.
The marriage of the lamb must come to us while we are in flesh and blood. The promises of God, that He will walk in us and talk in us have only been fulfilled in Christ Jesus, and only for three and a half years. But God’s promises must surely come to pass, so we must be activated by Himself. We will have three and one half years to complete the second half of Daniel’s 70th week, and surely it is now about to come to pass.
For further study on this subject, look at Matthew 22 which gives the parable of the marriage of the King’s son, and Matthew 25 concerning the five wise and the five foolish virgins. Not all Christians will we included in this marriage. It is only for the elect (the overcomers), and God alone keeps the tab.
We pray that this message has been a blessing to you, that it will drive you to look at your marriage in a different light, and that it will draw you closer to Christ and to God.
Sonlight Devotional 