Marriage at Work 3. Jesus and the Church

Review

In God’s original design work existed primarily as a site where the excellencies of marriage could be revealed. Thus the first couple had a holy vocation to tend and guard the Garden of Eden for the glory of God. They sinned, and the intimate connection between a relationship with God, marriage and work was severed (Gen 3:15-19; Rom 3:23). Employment became a means of survival stripped of the presence of God. The divine plan moved ahead with Israel, called as the covenant wife of Yahweh to illuminate the spheres of work and culture as places of divine wisdom (Ex 19:4-6). The nation however turned away from the LORD became adulterous and failed her marriage calling (Deut 31:6).  The glory of God departed once more. Prophetic hope for a consummated revelation of the husbandly gifts and graces of God in the realm of life and work turned to the coming of Messiah (Ps 72). His maturity would impart to the people of God as a renewed Bride the glorious radiance of the divine presence (Isa 62:1-5). This is the story of Jesus.

Jesus Restores the Presence

John the Baptist was the first to proclaim Jesus as the Bridegroom who had come to claim his Bride; “The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.” (John 3:29cf. Matt 9:14-15). Christ alone was able to secure the marital fidelity of the covenant people by intimately and indestructibly binding them to God through his own flesh. The declaration ““This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”” (Luke 22:20) proclaims that the marriage between Jesus and the Church is sealed with the blood of the cross.

The death of Jesus is not an impersonal legal transaction; the crucifixion is a Husband taking into himself all the sins of his Wife; for it is the Bride of God who kills her Bridegroom on the cross. In this way the ever faithful God takes away in himself all the curses of covenantal betrayal and adultery (Deut 21:23; Gal 3:13). The partnership of those in the new covenant with the LORD is now as indissoluble as marriage was always intended to be. The divine presence in Christ is here to stay; ““I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Heb 13:5). This is a marriage promise from God whose presence is not limited to our inner world.

Jesus spoke of his ministry as a divine work, ““My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”” (John 4:34 cf. 17:4), and at death proclaimed this work achieved, ““It’s done . . . complete.”  (John 19:30). In marital language so familiar to us the consummated work of Christ has secured reconciliation. “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Cor 5:19 ESV); “through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.” (Col 1:20). Like all else, the sphere of work has become a place where the reality of reconciliation with God is to be revealed. Work is no longer merely a means of physical survival or personal enjoyment; it is a realm where the glory of the Bridegroom can be revealed through his Bride, the Church.

Working for the Man

Whether you are a housewife, pastor or executive, you do not work for “the family/boss /church/company”; your call is to work for Jesus. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,” (Colossians 3:23 ESV). Christ is working in you and through you (2 Cor 6:1; Col 1:29). To work “for the Man” is to work for your lovely Husband (2 Cor 11:2). This vocational call is intensely intimate. Let me use an illustration to explain.

Paul says to the Corinthians about their gatherings, “For though absent in body…my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 5:3-4 ESV). As a husband who prays for his wife, I believe that when Donna is in the classroom my spirit is present in the Spirit of Jesus working with God’s grace to impart to her life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3). In the workplace she is enclosed in a marital relationship of love and unity with Christ and in a secondary way by me. Ultimately work is all about the manifestation of the love of the Bridegroom for the world.

The call of the Christian at work is to bring to light the various dimensions of what a reconciled home, factory, art studio, office, shop, farm, school etc. is meant to look like in the purposes of God (Eph 3:9 – 10). Work is a place where Jesus wills to reveals himself, not only as Saviour and Lord but as our eternal loving Husband.  Through the faithfulness of the saints in the workplace a revelation comes to blinded humanity of what an earth fully  reconciled earth to God will look like; this is heaven. Our eternal destiny is to reign with Christ in the city of God as a loving married couple outworking the ageless purposes of God (Rev 19-22). In the End it will be revealed that God’s plan was always to have the universe as one vast bridal chamber. This is a tremendous vision, but it has terrible enemies.

The Other Woman

The incessant catch cry of modern life, “busy, busy, busy”, points to enslavement by a hostile spiritual power (Cf. Gal 4:3, 9 Col 2:8, 20). This power is the other woman, ““Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.”… drunk with the blood of the saints” (Rev 17:5-6). Babylon is a world economic system who makes endless promises of material prosperity and saps the spiritual energy of the people of God through ceaseless compromise. It is possible to be joined to the prostitute of the world economic system and the Lord at the same time (cf. 1 Cor 6:16-17). The result however is always the loss of the intimate sense of the presence of Christ as Husband in all the affairs of life. “You cannot serve God and money”” (Luke 16:3) are words familiar to us, but the Spirit speaks more intimately in charging us to be “pure virgins” for Christ alone (2 Cor 11:2, Rev 14:4). Such a level of holy fidelity comes to pass only as we sense our beloved Husband with us in the workplace more really than our spouse is with us in the bedroom. This is the depths of the reality of matrimonial union with God/reconciliation for which Christ died and rose again.

Conclusion

As reconciled people of God we “belong to another”, to Jesus as not merely Saviour and Lord but as our betrothed (Rom 7:1-4). Our vocation as people joined to the Lord is to manifest the reconciling power of this spiritual union in all the realms of life, and particularly in the workplace. Work is far far more than a means of survival and personal prosperity; it is all about the sweetest presence of Bridegroom Jesus. That the ultimate purpose of work is a medium for the sharing of marital wisdom and fellowship is a notion that has become foreign to the Church. The time is coming soon when God’s Spirit will be poured out in the marketplace to reveal such truths, this will be nothing less than a new reformation.  May this be something for which we all long and pray.