Characteristics of a Godly wife pt. 2-Why Submit?

“…as the church submits to Christ.”- Ephesians 5:

In continuing on our request to find what Biblical marriage is all about, we were left to wrestle with the question that applies to every Christian on the face of this earth, how much will you submit your life to Jesus Christ?

The answer that can only please God is 100%.
Not 20%
Not 65%,
Not even 99%.

God Wants All of Us

“love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your should and with ALL your strength and with ALL your mind.”- Luke 10:27 (sense a pattern here?)

Anything else is sub-par, against God, mediocre, and watered-down Christianity.

But why must we submit to Christ? And how does this pertain to women in regards to their husband? As we continue down this road, these questions will be answered. As for now, let’s focus on why Christ is worthy of our submission and adoration.
Get Low

To submit is originally a military term coming from the Greek word hypotasso- meaning to arrange under, subordinate, to subject one’s self, obey.

In military, submission to authority is a vital training exercise that is routinely drilled into the young cadets as they train for war. Without this discipline, there is chaos. When they battle is raging, emotions are flaring, and thoughts are scattered, the submission of those young cadets to a leader that is experienced and removed from the fray is something that has overcome many foes
The question arises, “Does Christ deserve the radical submission that He calls the church to?”

Let’s look at some characteristics of Jesus Christ:

Who is Christ?

1. He is God

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”- John 1:1
“they shall call his name Immanuel (which means God with us)”- Matthew 1:23
“He is the true God and eternal life.”- 1 John 5:20

2. He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the great “I AM”, He is God in the flesh. There is no one like Him.

“On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of Lords.” – Revelation 19:16
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”- Revelation 22:13

3. He is the Faithful Groom.

“if we are faithless, he remains faithful-for he cannot deny himself.”- 2 Tim. 2:13
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself…”- John 14::4
“For the husband is the head of the wife and Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.”

4. He is the Rescuer of the Lost, the Great Overcomer.

“looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
“But take heart; I have overcome the world.”- John 16:33
“Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”- 1 John 5:5

5. He is the Creator of All Things, Including Us.
“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities- all things were created through him and for him.”- Colossians 1:16

6. He is our Only Hope.

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”- Hebrews 10:23
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

The Point:
Jesus is worthy of all of our adoration and praise. Can a mere human attain any of the things listed above? Of course not.


This is the Jesus we submit and give our lives to, not the sissy Jesus that is portrayed in so many movies and places today.

Ladies, here me on this, you can not properly submit to your husband until you have properly submitted to Jesus Christ. The Gospel has the power to transform marriages, strengthen them, and make them work. Without the Gospel at the core, and submission to Christ, a marriage will fail. This failure does not always come in the form of a divorce. A failed marriage consists of one that does not give God the glory He deserves.

It is my prayer that in my marriage, as well as marriages across the world, that we would all submit to our spiritual head, Jesus Christ, and glorify His name!

In Christ,

Phillip

A Godly Wife pt. 1

This is a post from Phillip, taken from his personal blog

It has been about 8 months since my last update..
Epic Fail.

Not much has happened these past 8 months...wait,that is not entirely correct.

That girl I talked about, Casey Sharp, well we are no longer dating.

We're married.

If anything, that is enough change and newness to warrant a blog post. We were engaged over Thanksgiving and we were married on March 10th in Lewiston, ID. Marriage is a wonderful, refining, exciting, difficult, and enlightening adventure that I am privileged to be on ,and you can be sure that there will be numerous blog posts in the future of lessons learned, refining moments, and hilarious stories. I am so blessed to call such a beautiful Godly woman my wife.

The blog posts for the next couple of days will focus on some Biblical truths I am learning about marriage, taken from Ephesians 5.

Marriage, in it's original design, is meant for one main thing. 

 To Glorify God

1.Marriage glorifies God because it points us to the Gospel.

"Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands."

• the wife is compared to the church
• the church submits to  Jesus Christ, who is the culmination and lifeblood of the Gospel.
• a woman's relationship with her husband is to be a direct response from her response to Christ.

A couple of clarifications:

• Biblical marriage is not politically correct. Neither is the Gospel.
• Homosexual marriage cannot hold to the tenants of God's design and intent for marriage,because the Scripture clearly demonstrates two different sexes in a marriage relationship (husband and wife)
• I don't write the mail, I just deliver it.

-The question to wrestle with today:

• How much of your life do you submit to Christ and how does it impact you?

As, I think on this, I see the need to figure out who this Jesus is that we must all submit to. We will look at those characteristics of Christ in the next blog.
**************************************************************************

Goodness. I started this blog with no idea of what I was going to say, let alone with no intent to start a mini-series.

However, Biblical marriage is under attack, and there is a great need to understand marriage in light of the Gospel, especially with the age group I interact with

Teaching on marriage is not just constrained to married couples who are having difficulties, newlyweds, r premarital counseling. If you are single or dating, having a Biblical view of marriage right now is essential to having a Godly marriage in the future.

As a BCM, we are praying about starting a young married's Bible study, so  I am hopeful that this miniseries will feed into that!