Past, Present and Future (Ephesians 5:25-27)

 As we know, Paul in this section of his letter is encouraging husbands to care for their wives in a wholehearted and sacrificial manner. Their example is Jesus and what he does for his people. No doubt, many details of Jesus’ involvement could be given. Paul provides a past, present and future perspective of that commitment by Jesus.

The past (v. 25)

Paul describes what Jesus did for the church in the past. He mentions both the attitude and the action of the Saviour. Regarding his attitude, he loved the church; regarding his action, he gave himself up for her.

What does it mean that Christ loved the church? He loved her eternally as the divine Son of God in heaven. This eternal aspect is described as his response to the gift his Father gave to him. In love, the Father gave him an elect people to save and, in love, Jesus accepted them and loved them even although they were sinful. Since the gift was eternal, it means that he always has loved them.

Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her when he was on earth. He loved being with his disciples, not just the eleven who followed him but also all the others who came to him in faith. Whenever, each of them came to believe in him, he revealed his love for them to them. They were precious to him, even as all his people are, and he would have spent many hours in prayer for them.

Jesus showed the great degree of his love for each of them by giving himself as a sacrifice on the cross when he paid the penalty due by them to God for their sins. He gave himself willingly even although he knew that the price required would be devastating for himself because instead of enjoying the peaceful presence of God he would undergo the awful anger of God against sin. He did not suffer merely as a martyr for a cause or as a soldier fighting against an enemy, both of which can be expressions of love. Rather his suffering was penal. He took the place of his people and experienced divine wrath that they should have paid and would have paid if he had not taken their place. 

Love by definition gives. Those whom we love the most receive costly evidences of that love. A husband who loves his wife will die for her if necessary. A father who loves his child will jump into a raging river to try and rescue them or run into a blazing building for the same purpose. A patriot who loves his country will give his life as a soldier on the battlefield if necessary. Yet in each of these examples, there is the possibility of avoiding the ultimate sacrifice, that they may not have to die. But that was not the case with Jesus. Because he loved them, his death on the cross as their substitute was unavoidable because there was no other way for them to be forgiven. 

They could not be rescued from perishing eternally unless he died for them on the cross. They would remain captives in an eternal prison if he would not pay their debts. If he avoided the cross, they would never avoid hell. The choice before him was straightforward, but the experience that followed was unknown because he had to enter into a situation so intense and never known by another. Yet he went into it and paid the price.

The present (v. 26)

We were absent when Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. Even the believers who were near to Jesus when he suffered on the cross were not present with him as he entered the unknown country where he paid the penalty to the inflexible Judge. The women from Galilee who stood nearby could have sympathy for Jesus, but they could not give him a helping hand. The criminal on the cross who asked Jesus to remember him could do nothing to ensure that Jesus would be able to remember him – all he could do was hope that Jesus would do so. All the women could do was express their love and gratitude and all the criminal could do was reveal his trust in Jesus. But he had to suffer alone.

Yet because he died for their sins, paid the penalty they should have paid, and was raised again, it is possible for them to have the same relationship with him. The women, the criminal, the disciples and every person who believes in Jesus experience the same overall spiritual blessing. Jesus sanctifies them and works in them to conform them to his image.

How does he do this? He does it through his offices of prophet, priest and king, and he does it through the Holy Spirit blessing the consequences of Jesus’ activity to them. We should remember that Jesus fulfils those roles constantly and simultaneously while they are here on earth, and he will continue to fulfil them in different ways in the eternal world. But Paul here is concerned about what happens in this life.

Jesus’ focus is on the sanctification of his people. In his high-priestly prayer, recorded in John 17, he set himself apart for this role and he remains faithful to it and will be so for each of his people. This means that his teaching as a prophet brings about sanctification, his consolations as a priest bring about sanctification, and his deliverances as a king bring about sanctification. But how do we know what he does?

The answer to that question is found in the Word of God. As we read it, we discover that it is the means of cleansing us. It does this in many ways. Think about the information it contains that purifies our minds. We read about his great plan of salvation to take sinners from the bottom of the valley and elevate them to the top of the mountain. Or we can read about the details it conveys to us about the death that he went through, in such passages as Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. It points out to us the way of spiritual recovery as we reflect on passages such as Psalm 51 and Romans 7. Jesus cleanses us by the washing of the word as he teaches us about its meaning.

The Word also informs us about what he does for us as our priest. His intercession is not merely about our needs but also about the remedy for our needs. One of the most effective ways of appreciating the intercession of Christ is to consider the promises of the Bible because they tell us what his intentions are and what he will do for us. Many things happen to us in providence and we have not got a clue about how to assess them. No so with his promises. His promises are not like the manifestos of political parties, filled with so much detail that no-one can understand them. Often his promises are one-liners, verses that can easily be remembered, and which point out what we can expect from him, and which he is arranging to provide as our Intercessor. He does this day after day, year after year. It is important for us to search the scriptures in this regard because they cleanse us as we meditate on his promises which are yes and amen in him.

The Word also details what he does as our King in protecting us from spiritual attack and how he deals with the sin that remains within our souls. We are under attack often whether by the world, the flesh and the devil, with the flesh being our constant problem. Do these attacks happen because Jesus has become slack in his role? Of course not. Each of them is an occasion when he comes to our defence. But the information concerning how he does it is found in the Word of God, and as we remind ourselves of his activity on our behalf we are cleansed by the Word of God, and are sanctified.

Christians progress in holiness because Jesus is their prophet, priest and king. Every aspect of likeness to him comes about because he is at work within them through his Word and according to his Word. It is a living book, able to change us and purify us along life’s journey. A sanctified person is a believer who experiences the cleansing power of Christ through the efficacy of his Word. This does not mean that it replaces the benefits of the blood of Christ because both are needed. But it is the Word of God that Paul highlights here in this passage.

The future (v. 27)

In this verse, Paul looks ahead to the great day when Jesus returns. He does not think about in individual terms here. I think usually he describes it in individual terms when he describes the deaths of his people. As when he said about himself, that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But the resurrection and the transformation into his likeness is a communal event that will involve all the Lord’s people together.

On that day, all of them will be marked by splendour, which is another way of speaking about glorification. The experience of ongoing glorification is connected to the presence of Jesus because, as John says, when we shall see him we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. It is a poor illustration, but glorification can be compared to us getting tanned by the sun. Or we can think of Moses whose face shone because he had been in the presence of the Lord. Yet both our experience of getting tanned or Moses’ experience of glory both fade, ours because the sun goes down and Moses because he did not remain in God’s presence. But in the eternal world, the church will never be away from the presence of Christ. Each one of the number that no one can count will be close to Jesus permanently.

Sometimes we are reminded of the benefits of thinking about personal glorification, to remind ourselves of what we will be in the state of perfection. We are also reminded to think about what the church will be then, without the spots and wrinkles that marked it here. We can think of the problems in the church in Corinth but they will be gone; or the doctrinal confusion in the churches of Galatia but it will be gone; or the wrong doctrines affecting the church in Colosse but they will be gone; or the trials encountered by the church to which the book of Hebrews was written but they will be gone; or the problems detailed in the seven churches of Asia but they will be gone; and the issues that marked the churches down the centuries but they will be gone; and the sinful things that you and I contributed to the churches we were in will be gone.

The point being made by Paul is that the church does not make herself ready by her own ideas or efforts. In marriages there is usually a gap between the betrothal and the wedding. During that period the bride usually will make herself ready for the marriage. In contrast to that normal practice, the church does not make herself ready. Rather Jesus prepares her for that great day. The betrothal occurred when each trusted in him through the gospel. Both he and they are waiting for the wedding and in the meantime he sanctifies them so that they will be beautiful on that great day when he presents his people to himself.