Happily Ever After - Salvation

On Sunday, Pastor Matt kicked off a new series titled “Happily Ever After,” a five-week series on marriage. He set the stage with a study over Ephesians 5:25-33, a very often studied and discussed passage because Paul speaks specifically regarding marriage.
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also 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 to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,  because we are parts of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.  This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, as for you individually, each husband is to love his own wife the same as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband."
An often-overlooked part of this passage is verse 32, where Paul makes the connection to marriage and the mystery of Christ. The mystery of Christ is that at Salvation, we are placed in Christ and Christ in us. Paul writes in Colossians 1:27-28 that “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”
If marriage was created to be a representation of Christ in us and us in Christ, we must first understand what that means.
You IN Christ.
By Grace through faith, Christ spiritually seated us in heavenly places where we receive all his blessings, inheritance, and power. We are in the body of Christ, placed there by the Spirit in fellowship forever with Him. This is our position! Everything we do is from this position.
Christ IN you.
By Grace through faith, Christ crucified your sin nature and poured his spirit into your heart, making you dead to sin. Having Christ in us allows us to be the vessels He uses to perform through us and in us. This is what drives our wants and desires. This is life change in the here and now!
Growing in our understanding of who we are in Christ and ministering that knowledge and truth are how we have love, peace, and happiness in our marriage. Men, we can’t love our wives as Christ loved the church if we do not fully understand how He showed His love towards the Church. Men, we can’t love our wives as our own body if we do not have a thorough understanding of what it means to be in the body of Christ, what it means to be IN Christ and have Christ IN us. The teachings of Paul throughout his thirteen letters are packed full of life-changing truths about this, and every bit of it is applicable to our marriages. Want to work on your marriage? Dig deeper into who we now are in Christ, grow in that understanding, minister that understanding to your wife, and let Christ provide the increase.