Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The standards and values of Christian marriage are higher than any other standards ever given.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
The mystery goes back to the Garden of Eden – what the first Adam lost in the Garden at the fall, the last Adam, TLJC, restored.
Adam or the original man possessed an absolute righteousness, lived in perfect environment, and was given the gift of a relationship of intimacy with the woman.
Man received the natural provisions first; now through the Last Adam, TLJC, man receives the greater provisions, which are spiritual.
The laws of evidence, found throughout the Bible, say that there must always be two or more witnesses in any trial.
TLJC was interrogated separately concerning being the Son of God and possessing perfect righteousness,
MAT 4:1-11, LUK 4:1-13.
The second witness needed against Satan and the fallen angels is the invisible hero of the Church-age who will be interrogated regarding their environment. Will they stay inside the perfect environment of the PPOG or will they leave?
Three witnesses in the Church-age = TLJC, the invisible hero, and the third and final witness given but not necessarily needed, Christian marriage.
Christian marriage, based on the supernatural power of living the spiritual life within marriage, restores the third area that Satan destroyed in the Garden of Eden, the gift of a relationship of intimacy between the man and the woman.
Just like TLJC and the winner believer are tested and interrogated separately, so marriage will be tested and interrogated separately as well.
What you need to concentrate upon in this series is not marriage but you personally preparing yourself to become an invisible hero and letting God handle the rest.
The invisible hero of the Church-age is the second most important witness in the appeal trial of Satan, not Christian marriage.
The formal trial or Satan’s presentation of his appeal was presented between the creation of the first Adam and the incarnation of the second Adam, or the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ.
TLJC was the first witness.
Any believer who becomes an invisible hero of the Church-age becomes a part of the second category of witnesses.
The third and final category of witnesses belongs to two believers in Christian marriage.
Summary
The fulfillment of the standards and the values of Christian marriage, EPH 5:22-33, are higher than any standards that have ever been communicated to mankind, through the Moses law or otherwise.
The predominant problem with the woman toward the man is lack of respect.
Hai [the] gunaikes [wives] tois [to the] idios [your own] andrasin [husbands] hupotasses [submit] hos [as] to [to the] kurio [Lord.]
COL 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter against them.
He loved her with an impersonal unconditional love, but it was not a non-aggressive passive love.
When a marriage fulfills the spiritual life corporately, that marriage becomes a corporate or collective witness for the prosecution of Satan, and that marriage receives the very highest and best from God, beyond calculation.
MAT 6:19 where moth and rust cannot destroy, and where thieves cannot break in and steal.
That is part of the food which endures forever and not the food which perishes, JOH 6:27.
The first is the star witness, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself from the hypostatic union – between about 4 BC and 30 AD, in which Jesus Christ pioneered this great spiritual life.
He passed every kind of testing, including evidence testing,
MAT 4:1-10.
He went to the cross without sin, 2CO 5:21, 1PE 2:22-24.
On the cross He offered Himself without spot to God by means of the Holy Spirit, HEB 9:14.
He is called “ho martus” – the witness, and “the faithful and the true one” = He was the star witness.
Between this star, the offspring of David, and this witness, TLJC, we have the star witness for the prosecution of Satan in human history.
The invisible heroes of the Church-age receive, REV 2:28, the order of the morning star.
In Gen 6, Satan’s genetic infiltration to pervert true humanity was smashed to pieces by God through the deliverance of eight people who were not infected by that mutation.
Any believer who becomes an invisible hero in the Church-age becomes a part of the second category of witnesses in this dispensation.
Invisible heroes can come from anywhere in any dispensation, HEB 11:2-12:1, where we have a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us from the Old Testament.
The third witness is the corporate witness – Christian marriage in the Church-age only, between October of 30 AD to the Rapture of the Church, the termination of the Church-age.
Elect angels observe human history while fallen angels are designed to oppose human history.
In the C.A., mature believers and those dedicated and devoted the plan of God are on the front lines, and Satan is against these believers with all his principalities and powers in all areas of life – including Christian marriage.
The concentration and the focus of the elect and fallen angels was greater at the point of the hypostatic union than at any other time.
In the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, angels observed every part of the first advent and incarnation of our Lord –
1TI 3:16 – He was “Beheld by angels”
In the dispensation of the Church-age, angels observe members of the royal family of God in their failure or success to execute and fulfill the PPOG, 1CO 4:9; EPH 3:10; 1TI 5:21; 1PE 1:12.
EPH 3:10 in order that the multi-faceted or many-sides of the wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
The humanity of Jesus Christ pioneering four spiritual mechanics which became the operational spiritual life of the Church.
1. The filling of the Holy Spirit.
2. Metabolized Bible doctrine circulating in the soul.
3. The ten problem solving devices.
4. The power for the execution of the PPOG.
Marriage of two believers is the proving ground for the mandates and duties which demand the highest form of virtue that has ever existed.
When the woman starts to react to her husband, the solution to her problem is responding to the Lord Jesus Christ with personal love for God and responding to her husband with impersonal love.
The husband is mandated to love his wife with a leadership or virtue love as Christ loved the Church.
EPH 5:32 “This is a great mystery; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.”
When Christian marriage was extrapolated to become part of the rebuttal phase of Satan’s appeal trial, it became a Christian institution derived from a divine institution.
The divine institution of marriage which began at the creation of mankind is perpetuated through the entire history of mankind on earth.
The divine institution of marriage is ordained by God for both believers and unbelievers in every historical dispensation.
The sin of Adam and the woman in the garden of Eden resulted in several modifications of the divine institution of marriage.
The purpose of sex in the Garden was for recreation only. Recreation = refreshment by means of sexual intercourse of a husband and wife in marriage only.
After the fall of man and subsequent spiritual death, a second purpose was added to sex in marriage -procreation for the perpetuation of the human race.
The word “mystery” refers to the unique doctrines of the Church Age which were never before revealed in history.