Page 79 - The Marriage Covenant

engaged, the hour is to arrive when the man will give himself fully to the woman. The two
will become one flesh. The members of his body will become her members, and vice versa.
Everything he possesses will belong to the woman.
(This reveals the error of those men and women who enter into pre-nuptial
agreements. They are refusing to give themselves fully and without any reservations to the
one to whom they are entering into a marriage covenant.)
Christ has given His betrothed a pledge in the form of the indwelling Holy Spirit. This
present limited experience of the Spirit, as precious as it is, will one day give way to the
glorious fullness of union with Christ. The Spirit will be given without measure.
If we would understand the holiness of sexual intercourse, we must perceive how God
has designed the physical union of the man and the woman to serve as a parable of the
spiritual union between Christ and His people. Repeatedly, the Scriptures reveal that these
two forms of union are given as types and shadows of one another.

I Corinthians 6:16-17
Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her?
For He says, "The two will become one flesh." But the one who joins himself to the
Lord is one spirit with Him.

Ephesians 5:31-32
For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave 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.

Every detail of the physical union of the man and woman is given as a parable of the
spiritual union that is to be experienced by the Bride of Christ. God designed the physical
union so that it is accompanied by tremendous physical sensations of pleasure and joy. This
is a foreshadowing of that glorious spiritual union to be experienced in Christ.

Psalms 16:11
In Your presence is fulness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

In the act of sexual union the man and woman are brought face to face. The King
James Bible often speaks of sexual union as “the man KNEW his wife.” We see the same
language employed when describing the fullness of spiritual union that is yet to appear
between Christ and His church.

I Corinthians 13:12-13
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but
then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.

In the act of physical intercourse the man enters the woman. This is with purpose and
design, for Christ is to enter His people and fill them. The result will be a rapturous bliss of
which the physical union provides only a small foretaste. Paul never writes with such
rapture and prophetic joy as he does when he describes the glorious union of Christ and His
church.