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A Great Mystery
(Ephesians 5:30-32 KJV)For we are members of is body, of his flesh, and of his bones. {31} For this cause shall a man
leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. {32} This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Although we are unable to fully comprehend the mystical union that believers share in Christ, the apostle Paul uses Adam and Eve, by way of comparison, to help our understanding.
| 1. In the beginning God created the first man and woman.
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him;
male and female created He them" (Gen 1:27)
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1. We are a new creation in Christ. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature
[creation]; old things are passed away, behold, all things are become
new" (2 Cor 5:17).
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| 2. Eve received her life from Adam. "And the LORD God caused
a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs,
and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which God has taken
from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. (Gen 2:21-22).
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2. As members of the Body of Christ we receive our life from
Christ. "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye
also appear with Him in glory."
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ liveth
in me" (Col 3:4; Gal 2:20)
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| 3. Since Adam was first formed then Eve, the head of the woman is
the man. "But I would have you know that the ... head of the woman
is the man" (1 Cor 11:3).
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3. Christ is the head of the Church, which is His Body. "And
He is the head of the Body, the Church-that in all things He might have
the preeminence (Col 1:18)
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| 4. God called their name Adam. "This
is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man,
in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created He
them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they
were created" (Gen 5:1,2). Thus, we have Adam (him) without Eve
called Adam and both Adam and Eve called Adam.
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4. According to the determinate counsel of God, we are called the Church, the Body of Christ. "For as the body is one, and hath many
members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body,
so also is Christ" (1 Cor 12:12). As one mighty warrior of the faith has
expressed it: "We have Christ without the Church, and Christ and the
Church as Christ. |
| 5. When God brought Adam and Eve together the two became one flesh "And Adam said, This is
now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shell cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Gen 2:23-24).
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5. The members of the Body of Christ are said to be of one flesh with Him.. " For we are members of
His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." "So we, being many, are one Body in Christ ,and every one members one of another" (Eph 5:30; Rom 12:5)
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While Adam and Eve had no knowledge of what God has planned and purposed before the foundation of the world with regard to the Body of Christ, they nevertheless are used as a divine illustration of a wonderful truth. Namely, "the two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church."
Excerpt from:
Commentary on Ephesians: The University of Life (pp 297- 299)
By Paul Sadler
Published by the Berean Bible Society
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