Paul on Christ as the Church’s Divine Husband
The blessed Paul identifies Jesus as the spiritual Husband of the Church, which is his spiritual Body. The Apostle then takes this imagery in order to use Christ as the supreme example and model for how husbands should treat their own wives:
“For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another,” Romans 12:4-5
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
“All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.’ But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-20
“For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For also by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For also the body is not one member, but many... Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.” 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27
“I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you are bearing with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be corrupted from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:1-3
“and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of the might of His strength, which He worked in Christ, by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, FAR ABOVE ALL rule and authority and power and dominion, AND EVERY NAME THAT IS NAMED, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put ALL THINGS in subjection under His feet, and gave Him AS HEAD OVER ALL THINGS to the church (te ekklesia), which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Ephesians 1:19-23
“and being subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church (tes ekklesias), He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church (he ekklesia) is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church (ten ekklesian) 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 (ten ekklesian) in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also 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 (ten ekklesian), because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and 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, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.” Ephesians 5:21-33
“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, And in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church (tes ekklesias); Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything... Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and I fill up what is lacking of Christ’s afflictions in my flesh, on behalf of His body, which is the church (he ekklesia),” Colossians 1:15-18, 24
What makes this proclamation so remarkable is that the Hebrew Bible teaches that YHWH is THE spiritual Husband to his people:
“For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is Yahweh of hosts; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth.” Isaiah 54:5
“It will no longer be said to you, ‘Forsaken,’ Nor to your land will it any longer be said, ‘Desolate’; But you will be called, ‘My delight is in her,’ And your land, ‘Married’; For Yahweh takes pleasure in you, And to Him your land will be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, So your sons will marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So your God will rejoice over you.” Isaiah 62:4-5
“‘And it will be in that day,’ declares Yahweh, ‘That you will call Me Ishi (“my husband”) And will no longer call Me Baali (“my husband”). So I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth So that they will be remembered by their names no more. And in that day I will cut a covenant for them With the beasts of the field, The birds of the sky, And the creeping things of the ground. And I will break the bow, the sword, and war from the land, And I will make them lie down in security. And I will betroth you to Me forever; Indeed, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, In lovingkindness and in compassion, And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know Yahweh.’” Hosea 2:16-20
“‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares Yahweh, ‘when I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I cut with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, but I was a husband to them,’ declares Yahweh. ‘But this is the covenant which I will cut with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares Yahweh: ‘I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, “Know Yahweh,” for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ declares Yahweh, ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.’” Jeremiah 31:31-34
In fact, the NT even applies the term “Church” for the OT people of God:
“He was Moses, the man who said to the sons of Israel, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’ In that church (te ekklesia) in the desert this was the man who was the mediator between the angel who used to talk with him on Mount Sinai and our fathers. This was the man who received words, living words, which were to be given to you;” Acts 7:37-38 J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)
Seeing how well-versed Paul was in respect to the theology of the OT, he would have definitely known what he was doing at this point.
The beloved Apostle would certainly know that he was identifying the risen Jesus as YHWH God Almighty, a fact that is further substantiated by what he further wrote to the Ephesians:
“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says,
‘When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men.’
“(Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, so that we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ, from whom the whole body, being joined and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the properly measured working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” Ephesians 4:7-16
Paul ascribes to Jesus the words of the following Psalm, which speaks of YHWH ascending on high:
“You have ascended on high, You have led captive Your captives; You have received gifts among men, Even among the rebellious also, that Yah—God—may dwell there.” Psalm 68:18
The blessed Apostle also describes Jesus similarly to the manner that Jeremiah speaks of YHWH:
“‘Am I a God who is near,’ declares Yahweh, ‘And not a God far off? Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?’ declares Yahweh. ‘Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?’ declares Yahweh.” Jeremiah 23:23-24
Jesus is the YHWH who fills the heavens and earth with his fulness.
This leaves no doubt that Paul is identifying the risen Christ as the human incarnation and physical embodiment of YHWH God Almighty.
Unless stated otherwise, scriptural citations taken from the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB).
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