You (Church) as Christ’s Symbolic Wife (part 2)

You (Church) as Christ’s Symbolic Wife

Part 2 of 2 by Jeffrey Bushman April 2014

In my last blog I tried to show how the House of Israel or the Church is symbolic of being Christ’s wife.

What I would like to do now is compare a temple marriage in our day that may have many similarities with the marriage of Christ to the church.

1) Both types of marriages are entered into by covenant with the Lord.  Baptism covenant for marriage to Christ and Temple sealing with our mortal spouse.

2) The wife takes the name of her husband. -At baptism we take the name of Christ upon us.

3)  Both marriages require man and wife to become one. -When we get to know the Lord we will gain Eternal life. (John 17:3)  In mortality we need to strive to become one with our mortal spouse and to overcome contention and petty jealousies.  The Lord in His intercessory prayer, prayed for His followers that they may be one as he and the Father are one.  Read John 17:21-25.  He also stated that if ye are not one ye are not mine. D&C 38:27

4)  Intimacy is a sacrament. –Elder Holland talked about intimacy between a man and women as being very sacred and holy, he called it a sacrament. For both to be good marriages the partners need to reveal themselves to each other in all aspects of their life.  Another is their being naked and not ashamed.  Here the Lord knows our sins and when we follow him, through the atonement, he covers our sins and we can be totally exposed to him and not be ashamed or embarrassed because of the spirit he gives as we try our best.  In our Temple marriage we need to do the same, which allow both to become united in all aspects of their relationship.

5)  We learn to see each other as we really are in both relationships.  See 1 John 3:2 to see how we can see the Lord as he is.

6) Both marriages requires both parties to bring all that they have to this relationship.  They should not hold back anything but become partners with a desire to make their relationship eternal.  It is not a 50%/50% relationship, but a 100%/100%.  If it were not so Christ is getting ripped off being married to us, since He is bringing much more than we are to the relationship, even if we were able to bring 100% of our own ability, which we can’t.

7) To gain the blessing based on the law of marriages, faithfulness is required of both parties until their end at death. They will not fall away after death.

8) The husband has power over the wife’s body to bring offspring into the family.  In the marriage to Christ (church), since the church is the female she is given, through her husband, the ability to bring forth children.  Women can accomplish this naturally through the bearing and rearing of children.  And as they do this they become more like their husband (Christ) in developing a righteous nature. Since men cannot bear children, I find it interesting that the Lord gives them the priesthood which has the responsibility to minister the gospel (D&C84:19-20).  With this priesthood power they are given authority and spend time going out into their field of labor, then labor 2 years (mission) in order to bring some individuals to the birth (Baptism) to become children of Christ.  This kind of birth still requires the husband to plant the seed through the Holy Ghost for this kind of birth to be possible.  By doing this men learn to give of themselves for others and develop the ability to love others as well as their symbolic husband.  After their missions they are to give service the rest of their lives in bringing others to a knowledge of their Savior and Redeemer. Maybe priesthood puts men on the same level as women,  so they can accomplish the same mission women do in the bearing and raising of their children.  Once women have raised their families they can turn their primary focus along with the brethren in helping nurturing the church and help bring others an experience of rebirth and growth in the knowledge of the Lord.

9)  The husbands of both types of marriage have the ability to produce seed their entire adult life.  The wife seems to have a set window of opportunity in which to become one with her husband that will let her produce offspring.  However, both marriages are promised that if they keep their covenants, in the next life they can enjoy a continuation of the seeds forever. (D&C 132:19)  Also see verse 24 that states: "This is eternal lives-to know the only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent.”  See also D&C 131:1-4

10) Both marriages require the husband to love his wife as his own body, and to be willing to give himself for his wife. They are truly to become one body.  The word helpmeet is to find your equal opposite who has the power to make you whole or complete.  He can’t injure her without bringing harm to himself.

11) Wife is to nourish her children by providing the milk and the husband is to provide the meat.  We have been taught that you can’t give a baby meat before milk or they could choke and die.  This applies to both marriages.  The woman in both marriages needs to nourish her babes, providing them life sustaining milk.  I have always liked the imagery I see in Alma 32 where the people are encouraged to experiment upon the word.  If they do this, desiring to believe they will feel the word begin to swell within their breasts, verse 28.  Once they have become converted they will, of necessity, feel after all others and have a desire to share what they have (milk) with them.  Many times I have felt that teenagers think the gospel is boring.  They manifest this as, oh no!, not another lesson on such and such a topic.  The one thing they do not understand is that the Father is responsible for the meat and if they seek understanding from the Holy Spirit, they will start to taste some of the meat of the gospel.  Many times when missionaries go out on their mission and serve the Lord they start to look at scriptures differently and get excited about what they are now learning.  To them “squished bananas” (Baby food), so to speak taste much better than just plain milk.  Here on their missions they seek out the Lord and serve, that allows the spirit of the Lord to enlighten their souls.  In Isaiah 28:9-10  the Lord puts it this way,  “Whom shall he (The lord or husband) teach knowledge?  and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts”.  “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little.”  In the JST of John 6:27 Christ states; “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man hath power to give unto you.”  In verse 55 he continues; “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.”

12) Husband to preside over the wife.  This only makes sense when the husband chooses to preside, according to the conditions necessary for him to have priesthood power.  This gives him power to minister to the church, even if it is only his family in the church.  Remember he is building a kingdom for both him and his wife.  The wife knows her husband is symbolic of the Lord and she should reverence the position.  To see what conditions are necessary in  men giving them the right to preside, please read D&C 121:41-46.  If men refuse to preside with these characteristics, the woman is free to disregard his directions if she knows they are wrong.

13) Husband is responsible to provide guidance, maintenance and protection for his wife and family.  This is always his responsibility, she does not have to qualify in his eye to be worthy of these blessings based only because of what she does for him.  He has his responsibility and she has hers to him and the children.  Many marriages are saved by the faithfulness of one spouse caring for the other until they have learned their responsibilities.  They should back up each other and assist when circumstances require or ability and needs provide opportunities.  Remember he should be willing to lay down his life for her.  The Lord has always looked out for His family (us) and he tells us of all the blessings He would love to give us if we exercise our agency and witness that we have chosen Him with all of our hearts and will follow His counsel.

14) Family is central to the Father’s plan for the eternal welfare and destiny of His children.   Remember, “neither is the man without the woman neither the woman without the man, in the Lord” 1 Cor. 11:11, and “Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as heirs together of the grace of life…..”  1 Peter 3:7.  Exaltation requires both.  Most husbands need to know to give honor to the wife is to place her in her rightful place and know that to be worthy of her you need to learn to function as the Lord himself does.  Then as the Lord says in Romans 8:17 that if we are righteous we will be heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.  Even Christ is willing to help us, who are weak, and share equally as we get to know Him and become like Him with His help.  We need this same kind of help from our eternal spouse here in mortality.

Now for our responsibility, if the Lord is willing to have us as His symbolic wife and give us all He has or will have, what is our responsibility.   Certainly it is to do the best we can with our marriage covenants that we recommit each week as we take the sacrament.  If we do our best, He will bless us with the spirit of the Holy Ghost, which if we possess when we die, will qualify us for a place in Paradise and eventually in the Celestial Kingdom to dwell with Him and our heavenly parents forever.

When Moses received the 10 commandments the first three had to do with how we think and act about God. (Christ)  He said not to have any other gods before me, not to make any graven images to worship and don’t take the name of the Lord in vain.  Taking this in family imagery he is saying: put me as your husband first and don’t worship things made by man’s hands (things of this world) and don’t break the covenants you made we me by taking my name in vain, which is making covenants you know you are going to break.  If we are guilty of any of these sins we are guilty of the sin of idolatry, which is really the sin of adultery.

One very important thing the Lord has given us that helps us fulfill our responsibility to Christ as our husband is to pray and read the scriptures.  If you went to a wedding and after the ceremony the wife stated to you that she didn’t care for her husband and was not going to talk to him again or listen to what he says, how long will that marriage last?  It is already over.  The only way to build a relationship with our symbolic husband is through pondering and praying to express our cares and concerns and thankfulness of having him as our husband.  As we reveal ourselves to him in this manner we become closer to him and trust his care and concern for us.  As we read the scriptures, Nephi said, ( 2 Nephi 32:3) that as we feast on the word, (read the scriptures) that the words of Christ will tell us all things that we should do.  This is mostly how he will talk to us if he chooses not to answer directly by voice or dream or in some other way.  When we need His help we go to Him with our problem and as we read the scriptures with our problem in mind we will get direction at some point from our reading and pondering.  Then in verse 5, He says the Holy Ghost will then show us what we should do.  If we continue faithful then we may get to the point where He may choose to visit with us personally.

If we won’t read and pray we may find that we have put something before our husband and we may be guilty of adultery.  Here are a few references that may help give us the desire to read and pray.  Helaman 3:29  it talks about anyone can take hold of the word of God.  2 Nephi 31: 20  the blessing of feasting on the word and never giving up the habit.  One or two others: Alma 17:2-3, 2 Timothy 3:15-17,  Alma 31:5,  and I will conclude this list with Alma 37:8-9 talking about the importance of scripture study “…They have enlarged the memory of the people, convinced many of the errors of their ways, brought them to the knowledge of their God unto the salvation of their souls….”

If you are a single adult

If you are single and it is because you have never had the opportunity to be married to a good person, or your former spouse broke their covenants and you are left alone, if you are single for about any reason, but have been and still are faithful to your baptismal covenant and have a desire to enjoy the blessings of marriage but aren’t being given the opportunity at this time, please remember the following:

You are currently married symbolically to the Lord!!!  He loves you and will grant all blessings He has in store for you if you remain faithful.  You are in a marriage relationship with Him and you can develop the ability and characteristics that will guarantee you a spouse forever if you continue to draw close to the Lord and fulfill your marriage covenant to Him.  You will develop all the marriage skills that are necessary for you to have a wonderful marriage relationship with another of God’s children whether it is here in mortality or after you go to the spirit world.  I know that you will look back some day and thank the Lord for the spouse you have received.  No matter when you received them.  You will not feel cheated or left out, for your symbolic husband will give you peace, love and direction that will prepare you for later experiences and make your life here a life of joy, peace and happiness knowing you are following Christ on the way to eternal life.