Ephesians 5:25-33 ESV
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
This is not a doctrine of control, but a teaching about the relationship of Christ and His church. He gave Himself up that He might wash her clean in His word, in the cleansing blood poured out from His veins that she might be sanctified. Immersing in this river of life, we become holy and without blemish.
We are told that husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies, for that is what happens. If rightly done, the two become one flesh. This foreshadows the mystery of Christ and the church. We become one with Him as we enter His body. We become the flesh of that union. There we are neither man or woman, but sons of God. No longer to marry in the worldly sense, but married in the spiritual sense. Heaven and earth become one.
We leave the world as we step into the kingdom of God. We are still in the world, but we see beyond the boundaries of the natural with the eyes of our hearts opened and made alive by the Holy Spirit.
It is a profound mystery and a joyous state we have only begun to experience.
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