*The inspiration for this post comes from reading a philosophical theology essay on the atonement by Dave Worsley, a Masters student (MA in Philosophy, Theology and Ethics) at the University of York.*
Marriage is not primarily about husbands and wives. Marriage is primarily about Christ and the church. More precisely, marriage is primarily about Christ (the groom) imputing His righteousness to the church (His bride).
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." - Ephesians 5:25-27 (NIV)
The question is not whether Christ imputes His righteousness to us. He does. The question is when Christ imputes His righteousness to us. To answer this question, we must recover the Jewish roots of Christianity.
Proposal, Pledge, Engagement and Consummation
In the Jewish tradition, the groom approaches the father of his (willing) bride to seek her hand in marriage, redeems his bride by paying the bride price, departs to prepare a place for his bride, and returns one day to marry and become one flesh with his bride.
Life, Death on the Cross, Resurrection/Ascension and Second Coming
In Christianity, Christ approaches God our Heavenly Father to seek us, 'redeem[s] us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us' (Galatians 3:13, NIV), departs to prepare a place for us (John 14:1-4), and returns one day to marry and become one flesh with us.
""For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church." - Ephesians 5:31-32 (NIV)
Marriage is primarily about Christ (the groom) imputing His righteousness to the church (His bride), in - and only in - becoming one flesh with her. After all, 'righteousness is not an object, a substance or a gas which can be passed across the courtroom' (N. T. Wright in What Saint Paul Really Said, 1997: 98).
The Point of Imputation
When does Christ impute His righteousness to us?
To say that Christ imputes His righteousness to us in His life is to say that the groom becomes one flesh with his bride in his proposal. This is way too early.
To say that Christ imputes His righteousness to us in His death on the cross is to say that the groom becomes one flesh with his bride in his pledge. This is still too early.
To say that Christ imputes His righteousness to us in His resurrection/ascension is to say that the groom becomes one flesh with his bride during the engagement period. This is just a bit too early.
To say that Christ imputes His righteousness to us in His second coming is to say that the groom becomes one flesh with his bride in consummating the marriage. This is the right thing at the right time, literally making us right with God!
Of course, we are NOW counted righteous in Christ. At the same time, we have NOT YET been conformed to the righteousness of Christ.
The point of imputation is the second coming, when Christ returns one day to consummate our marriage and become one flesh with us!
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."" - Revelation 21:1-4 (NIV)
Links: The Point of Justification (26 Feb 10), The Power and Point of Touch (27 Feb 10)
Abraham believed God, and God will have counted it to him as righteousness?
ReplyDeleteSo it means that when Christ returns, we would be righteous ourselves instead of our current status of "counted as righteous"?
ReplyDeleteThe other thing I thought of (thanks for your email: I'll try to find time to read the paper) is that typically, it has not been the act of consummation but the signing of the contract which has been thought of as the moment at which a couple is married. Consummation followed very shortly after in traditional Jewish custom, but nevertheless it was the public contract, not the private intimacy, which made a couple married.
ReplyDeleteWell, where are the vows here? Are they not declared to us in the gospel? made tangible in baptism? repeated in the Supper?
Aurelia: Yup that's the idea, at least according to the theory. At the moment, we are being counted righteous in Christ; when Christ returns, we will be righteous in our union with Him. In other words, the church is now betrothed but not yet married to Christ.
ReplyDeletePhil: Good point - the theory is indeed related to how you view marriage in the Jewish tradition. More work has to be done in this regard. Maybe we could say that the vows are declared/made tangible/repeated in the present, but only reach their completion in the future...
Phil: With regard to the Jewish Marriage, you're right that a marriage becomes legally binding upon the signing of the Ketubah and the completion of the Erusin, however it was understood that whilst now a legal entity, the marriage wasn't at that point completed.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your point about the timing of consummation: how does your understanding of the ancient Jewish marriage explain, for instance, the status of Mary and Joseph? From Mary's introduction as being pledged in marriage to Joseph there is at least 9 months that passes with her remaining merely pledged (they still wern't married when they turned up in Bethlehem. Luke 1:27 and Luke 2:5).
Every respectable book on the ancient Hebrew marriage I've come accross (some 40 odd) holds that traditionally there was an indefinite (but rarely more than a year to two years) gap between the Erusin and Nesuin. The only time its recorded that this betrothal period took longer than the aforementioned time frame was (albeit occasionally) in the case of an immature bride, when the gap was basically until the bride matured, at which point the husband would make notice of his intent to complete the marriage within the year.
In the intervening period the bride was to make herself beautiful, useful (so as to work towards the proverbs 31 lady) and adorn herself with good works, whilst the husband went off to prepare a place for his bride, usually in his fathers house.
Joining the dots and bringing this back to Abraham: The 'preparing a place in his fathers house' is pretty much verbatim John 14:1-4. Interestingly that place is suggestively the New Jesursalem of Rev 21:2, which in turn is the same city Abraham was looking for in Hebrews 11:10.