Marriage and Justification

In my ponderings and strugglings over the doctrine of justification, I think I've come up with a really good way of describing what goes on in the "great exchange" whereby Christ takes all my sin and gives me His perfect righteousness.

I've noticed that all the talk of justification in the Bible hinges on our union with Christ. For example, Philippians 3:9- "and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith." Or Romans 5:19, where Paul has been contrasting union with Adam versus union with Christ- "For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous."

So here's my analogy: justification is like marriage. In marriage, a husband and wife are united and become one flesh, and suddenly everything that was his is also hers, and everything that was hers is also his. The wife’s credit card debts are now the husband’s credit card debts, and everything that was in the husband’s bank account now jointly belongs to the wife. God has decreed that our union with Christ means that everything that was ours (namely, our sin, shame, rebellion, and death) is His, and everything that was His (namely, His perfect obedience, death on the cross, resurrection life, and eternal inheritance) are ours.

No wonder He is described as the Bridegroom and the church is described as the Bride!