This post is a follow-up message from Pastor Ben's sermon entitled "The Mystery of Marriage". [Watch video]

My wife and I love a good whodunit. We often watch British mysteries online or on TV. The thing about mysteries is this, someone has to die. Yup, someone dies just for our entertainment! Of course, it’s fiction, so that should assuage my conscience a little. I’m not really being entertained at the expense of someone’s untimely death, but a mystery wouldn’t be a mystery without someone dying.

Enter marriage and the mystery of Christ and the church. Any connection? No, and yes. The biblical word for mystery doesn’t mean someone must die, it simply means something hidden is now revealed. But someone does die in the Gospel story, which is the mystery of Christ and the church. We would not have a relationship with Christ without His death on our behalf. His death and resurrection makes possible the mystery of our union with Him, which is pictured in earthly marriage as two people become one flesh. And the whodunit is: us! We are the guilty ones, yet set free by His death. Not your average mystery!

The principles of the Gospel are otherworldly and mysterious in themselves. They are completely upside-down from how we naturally think and act. The way up is down. If you want to be first, you must be last. If you want to become great, you must become a servant. If you want to live, you must die. That's mysterious in itself. But it’s not a whodunit as if we don’t know who is responsible and how the story turns out. We know the outcome, that God’s purpose for us is joy and fulfillment.

Christ’s death is not only the means of our union with Him, it is also the model by which we live out the Gospel in marriage. Just as Christ died for us, husbands and wives must both die to self to love and respect one another. This is how marriage daily portrays the reality of Christ and His Bride.

Yes, in the mysteries of marriage and Christ and the church, someone dies. Christ dies, yet He lives, not for our entertainment but for our redemption. Husbands and wives also die, not once for all, but daily to demonstrate the humble and unselfish nature of biblical love.

Here’s the rub. Death is a one-time event, but not in marriage. It is daily living through faith and obedience to the principles of the Gospel that bring life to marriage, the life of Christ. So, view your marriage as a mysterious love story, where principles that are beyond this world reveal the story of Christ and His Bride. The ultimate ending is this, and a happy one it is: God’s glory!