Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. Ephesians 5:25
God’s plan and design for the Christian family is beautiful, as described by Scriptures such as today’s text. God brings before us the way in which He would have the husband and wife treat each other: love on the part of the husband and submission on the part of the wife. Despite all the rhetoric of the feminist rights activists, there is no woman who could ever complain about a husband whose attitude toward her was as Ephesians 5:25 dictates. And yet, God has something more precious to show than His purpose for the Christian family. He desires to have us see, in the Christian husband, a display of Christ’s sacrifice, devotion, and care for His own.
We treasure our Saviour’s devotion and care for us. That He loves us is evident in Scripture. As God, He loves unconditionally and His life on earth was a display of the outpouring of God’s love to us. As a Christian husband’s greatest devotion is to His wife and family, so Christ’s devotion to us is one of the wonders that thrill and delight us. All that He does for us is for our very best, and for that we are daily deeply thankful. The greatest evidence of the depths of Christ’s love for us is the sacrifice He made for us. The words ‘gave himself’ contain far more meaning that we can ever grasp.
We look today on bread and a cup that tell of the Lord Jesus and His giving Himself for us. These emblems remind us afresh that He gave His body and shed His blood because He loved us. They tell us that He gave Himself despite cruel and wicked mistreatment by ourselves, despite the horrible shame and agony of crucifixion, despite the rejection of His own people and the complicity of the Gentiles (that’s us) in His death, despite the weight of all judgment against sin being heaped upon Him, despite being plunged into the very depths of the holy and just wrath of God against us.
As individuals and as Assemblies of His own, we recognize in but a small way the extent of His outpouring of love at Calvary, and respond in worship and adoration. How can we do aught but love Him in return? -Jim MacIntosh