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!

Back to Blogging

It's been almost 3 months since I've blogged on here, and in the meantime, a lot has happened.  I got married on July 25th (hurray!), I started a very challenging job at the end of August, and I have been struggling to keep all my commitments and priorities straight in the face of an entirely new season of life.

Marriage is, second to salvation, the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me.  My wife is a servant and a blessing, more than I deserve.  I thank God daily for her.  "He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD."  ~Proverbs 18:22

But I've also discovered that what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7 is true.  "The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.  But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided."  How painfully true this is!  My most desperate prayer has become, "Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name!"

The constraints of serving a wife, working a full-time job, teaching Sunday school, attending new members' class, and (soon) beginning to be a part of a leadership group at my church, all have left the Daily Verse Online in limbo.  I'm still not sure where God wants me to go with this.  He has blessed me with that ministry, and the opportunity to serve the Word of God to thousands each day, for nearly 7 years.  I don't know yet if He's calling me to other things, or if He's putting the DVO on hold for a season, or if it is my own selfishness that is keeping me from that ministry.  Until He shows me where to go, the site will remain up but no Daily Verses will be sent.  To those of you who miss receiving daily verses: I'm sorry.  I'm thinking of you, and when God lifts the curtain, you'll know.

But I want to come back to blogging.  I need an outlet for musings on the Word that doesn't have the same demands as the DVO.  I hope those of you who read this will be blessed by this blog as I strive to please God by honoring and cherishing His Word here.

The Date

Since I proposed to Sarah in August, we've been trying to figure out when to get married.  We're both graduating in May, but there were a lot of extraneous things to figure out.  It was really hard for me to try to walk through that process without stressing about it and with the eternal perspective of 1 Corinthians 7:29-31.  But God has been very good to us.

The long and short of it is: we have a date.  July 25, 2009!  Which is, like, 8 months from now.  That's really exciting.

Please pray for us for the next 8 months, that both the way we plan our wedding and the way we conduct our relationship will be carried out in a way that shows that Christ is infinitely more valuable than any other relationship, even a life-long one.