We’re all familiar with the scriptural admonition that is
often repeated at weddings, “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What
therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6 ESV).
The Apostle Paul repeated part of this verse in Ephesians 5:31 and then adds, “This
mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” Sam
Andreades points out in his book enGendered
that we tend to get this backward—it’s not that Christ and the church is like
marriage, but that marriage is like Christ and the church. Marriage is a
metaphor for the reality of union with Christ.
There are many Scriptures that talk about our union with
Christ both as individuals and as a Body. Here are a few:
“For if we have been united with
Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a
resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him… So you
also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”
(Romans 6:5-6, 11).
“I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live
in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself
for me” (Galatians 2:20).
“There is one body and one Spirit—just
as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all
and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-5).
“So we, though many, are one body
in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Romans 12:5).
“…We are to grow up
in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body,
joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each
part if working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in
love” (Ephesians 4:15-16).
So if we are united as one body with Christ, what God has
joined together let no man put asunder. I think this has many applications for
us individually and collectively.
1) If we have indeed been crucified with Christ and are dead
to sin, then we have the ability to resist temptation, but even if we do sin we
are not torn away from union with Christ. We may lose some of the intimacy of
that union for a time, but we are not permanently separated.
2) If we in the local church are united with Christ, we
should also be united with one another in worship, fellowship, and work. Those
who choose not to participate are either not members of the body to begin with,
or they are malfunctioning members who hinder the unity of the church. If they
are indeed members of the body, then the body is responsible for bringing them
back into fellowship and equipping them to work properly.
3) If the Body of Christ is the universal Church, united
across time and distance, then some of the nonsense that divides us needs to be
set aside. That’s not to say that we won’t have differing opinions on some
interpretations of Scripture, or that there won’t be heretics in sheep’s
clothing, but the true Body should be united in the essentials of faith. We
have more in common with one another than we should have with those outside the
Church.
Unity with Christ and in Christ is not just the ideal state,
but it is the reality. God has indeed joined two into one flesh, and man cannot
separate them. We may not really understand or know how to live in that reality
now, but one day we will see the full consummation of it when Christ returns.
“For I am sure that
neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to
come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will
be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans
8:38-39).
