Ephesians 5:22-33

Wives, be subject (be submissive and adapt yourselves) to your own husbands as [a service] to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the Head of the church, Himself the Savior of [His] body. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, That He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things [that she might be holy and faultless]. Even so husbands should love their wives as [being in a sense] their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and carefully protects and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, Because we are members (parts) of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is very great, but I speak concerning [the relation of] Christ and the church. However, let each man of you [without exception] love his wife as [being in a sense] his very own self; and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly]. Ephesians 5:22-33

Look at all of the fabulous things that we are shown in these verses, and the greatest one is that it is Christ Who saves us. We do not save ourselves, Jesus saves us. We weren't just given a set of rules to keep so that we could be saved, our peace is that Jesus keeps us in spite of ourselves. He saves us from the cares of this world and from the deceitfulness of riches, which are the things that hinder the production of fruit. He delivers us from all evil and He meets all of our needs according to the riches of His glory and we are saved to the uttermost. Jesus sanctifies us, which means that He sets us apart for Holy use. Jesus cleanses us. He presents us without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. Jesus makes sure that we are faultless and He does it even though that we don’t deserve any of it. Jesus, Who is our Husband, loves us so much, that our shortcomings make absolutely no difference to Him at all. Our marriage to Jesus is forever, it will never be withdrawn from us.  

We are members of Jesus’ body. We are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones. There is nothing that He is that we are not part of. Everything that He possesses so do we. Look at what we are told in Ephesians: we are one flesh with Jesus. We are not just one spirit with Him, but one flesh with Him. How great is that, even our flesh is brought into the perfection of Christ.

And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God]; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah). 1 Thessalonians 5:23

The only way that we can ever love our spouses and serve them as we are told to is when we are empowered to realize that it is Christ in us causing us to love and serve them. He never leaves us to do this on our own, Jesus is always being greater in us. Grace will always triumph in our marriages because Jesus will always cause it to triumph. We so often want to place the burden of a successful marriage on ourselves. We all way to often believe that we must on our own serve, love, and forgive our spouses when our victory is that it is Christ Who is the power causing these things to happen. We need to hear the Truth, because it is the Truth that will allow our marriages to flourish.