Essay Grade

Marriage in the Cosmic Plan of God
Tony Reinke
Content Strategist
Desiring God Ministries
Minneapolis, Minnesota
God invented marriage to display the power
of the gospel. He created marriage to broadcast
the love of his Son for his bride and to broadcast
the submission of the church to his beloved Son.
But like an unhatched chick inside a dark egg,
this Christ-revealing meaning behind marriage
was hidden inside a shell for thousands of years.
The mystery was conceived when Adam took Eve
as his bride, and the mystery was revealed when
Christ burst from the stone tomb and ascended
into heaven.
Because marriage figures prominently into
God’s plan, Christian husbands and Christian
wives play a unique role in the storyline God has
written. This storyline is majestically wrapped into
a massive cosmic vision of God’s ultimate purposes
in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. To see
marriage in this broader scope we must first see the
panorama of Paul’s theology in Ephesians.1
Overview
To that end, this article has a threefold purpose. First, I sketch out four important theological pillars in Ephesians that highlight the cosmic
importance of Christ’s death and resurrection. Second, I illustrate how those four theological themes
set up and sustain the marriage passage in 5:22–
33. Finally, I conclude by drawing the theology
and application together into one cohesive vision
statement about how Paul’s letter to the Ephesians
reveals to us the role of marriage within the cosmic
work of Christ.
Four Theological Pillars
In order to understand the marriage passage
in Eph 5:22–33, and ultimately in order to understand our own marriages, we must see four theo-
logical themes that Paul has interwoven through
the entire letter:
(1) Christ has defeated the cosmic powers of evil to become the focal point of
everything.
(2) Christ has inaugurated a new creation.
(3) Christ is now restoring first creation
patterns.
(4) Christ is now restoring the relational
harmony unraveled by the chaos and discord of sin.
This four-part cluster of Christology will set the
stage for understanding our own marriages later in
this article. Before we apply these theological
points to marriage, I first want to detail each theme
as they develop in Ephesians.
(1) Christ has defeated the comic powers of evil to
become the focal point of everything.
In his death and resurrection, Christ has triumphed over the cosmic forces of evil, and has
ascended to the place of Lord over all creation. He
has conquered and he is now bringing all the chaos
of this fallen creation into subjection to himself,
which is to say that Christ has become the focal
point of the universe. All things must now be measured in relation to Christ: either in and under
Christ, or separated from Christ. This is one of the
grand themes of Ephesians.
Ephesians begins and ends within a massive,
cosmic scope (1:9­­–10; 6:10–13). The context for
this book is larger than marriage and larger than
the local church. Ephesians encompasses the entire
creation. In his death, resurrection, and ascension,
Christ has become the nucleus of the cosmos.
Everything in heaven and earth must orient to him
JBMW | Fall 2012    17
and under him (1:9–­10). These two verses are essential for understanding the entire book and reveal
“God’s full plot” for the created universe.2 Christ
can begin the work of ordering, or re-creating, the
world because he has defeated the cosmic powers
of evil and broken sin’s tight grip.3 Therefore the
created cosmos, once only fallen and splintered and
chaotic because of sin, is now being put in order.
In part, this reordering is revealed as sinners are
reconciled to God through the blood of Christ (see
Col 1:20).
Paul frequently returns in his letter to the victory of Christ over evil (1:20–23; 2:5–6; 3:10; 6:12).
Christ’s victory over evil is the supreme example of
a long history of God’s victories over evil throughout the Old Testament. Paul quotes from Psalm 68
to make this connection (4:8). God’s miraculous
deliverance in the Exodus and his victory over the
Canaanites remind Paul of the decisive work of
Christ. “By his death on the cross, Christ has met
the big enemies of sin, Satan, and death and has
utterly routed them.”4 Christ has taken the victor’s
position over the cosmos. He came to defeat evil—
and he won decisively (3:10; 4:8–10).
Especially when 1:10 is read in light of these
passages, it becomes clear that God in the victory
of Christ has begun to eschatologically harness the
sin-twisted chaos in the cosmos. Christ is the terminating point of everything; it is by Christ that
everything else is now measured. Believers submit
to him willingly and are united into Christ, and
thus are properly oriented to him (1:11–18). The
church is oriented under him and over the cosmos
(1:19–23). And the church now gathers to stand in
awe of this cosmic plan of God that is revealed in
the death and resurrection of Christ (3:14–21).
At the same time, Christ’s victory speaks to
the end of evil. In the end, all chaos, all the wickedness of rebel sinners, all the angels, even death
itself, will be completely subject to Christ (willingly or unwillingly). When the entire cosmos has
been brought under Christ, and when order is once
again brought to creation, Christ will subject it
and himself to God (see 1 Cor 15:23–28). Paul’s
point in Ephesians is to demonstrate that Christ
has already won the victory over evil in his death
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and resurrection. Christ is now the nucleus of the
cosmos, and like the North Pole, all things must
now orient to him, including husbands and wives.
(2) Christ has inaugurated a new creation.
As we have already discovered, the Apostle
Paul does not limit the work of Christ in the gospel to bringing about individual salvation. For Paul,
the gospel comes to the world in cosmic proportions, the death and resurrection of Christ alter the
course of world history, and this cosmic unfolding
of the gospel affects everything Paul writes.
Paul views history in two very distinct periods
of time, or two orders of existence: (1) The old aeon,
the age “in Adam” that includes the beginning of sin
and the fall, and the curse on creation. This old aeon
continues into the present and finally ends when
Christ returns and all of creation is fully re-created.
(2) The new aeon, or the new creation “in Christ,”
is the age begun and inaugurated in Christ’s death
and resurrection. It marks the beginning of the recreation of the cosmos, a reality that has already
begun in the “new creation” believers in the church,
and an age that will come to full expression when
Christ returns (see Revelation 19–22).
By his finished work, and particularly his resurrection, Christ has ushered in a new aeon that
is set at odds against the old aeon of sin, rebellion,
and death. This new aeon is evidenced by the longawaited arrival of the Holy Spirit. To be in the old
aeon is to be spiritually dead and dominated by sin,
the world, the flesh, and the devil. To be in the new
aeon is to have justification, spiritual life, and freedom from sin (see Rom 6:1–14).
The dawning of the new aeon in Christ is at
the very heart of Paul’s entire theology.5 And at this
present time in redemptive history we find the old
aeon and the new aeon co-existing side-by-side in
ongoing tension. Everyone belongs to one aeon or
the other.
The tension between aeons hits close to home
for the Ephesians (and for all of us). All non-Jews
(Gentiles) were once among the walking dead of
the old aeon, futile in mind, blinded by sin, alienated to God, sons of disobedience, children of
wrath, blinded by Satan, and headed for judgment
along with the whole fallen realm (2:1–3; 4:17–19).
But God intervened. In Christ he saved us from
the old aeon. We were united to Christ, we were
raised with him, and we are now citizens of his
new aeon (2:4–6). Christians now belong to the
new aeon by the fact that we are “in Christ” (no
longer “in Adam”). In Christ, every Christian has
experienced a definitive breach with the old aeon.
We have laid aside our old man. We have put on
the new man of the new aeon (4:20–24). Or to use
stronger language, in Christ we are “new creation”
(2:10, 15; 4:23–24; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15).
Therefore, Christians are called to walk as
resurrected “children of the light,” not children of
the old aeon of darkness (5:7–10, 14). Spiritually,
we are citizens of the new aeon. But we find sin
within us, and we groan for the day when we shall
be physically raised from the dead and totally set
free from all sin (see Rom 8:18–25). Until that day
we are learning to act consistently with this new
self (4:17–24).6
So much of the new aeon is unconsummated
that we have much to look forward to when Christ
returns (1:14; 1:21; 2:7; 4:30; 5:5, 27; 6:8, 13). Yet
Paul assumes that the new aeon has begun already,
and Christians have been transferred from the old
aeon into the new aeon (see Col 1:13). The arrival
of the new aeon does not negate the need for
Christians to pursue maturity (4:23), nor does it
eliminate all our sin temptation. This “aeon transfer” helps to make sense of our temptations. In our
spiritual immaturity we are perpetually lured to live
as though we are citizens of the old aeon (see Rom
6:1–23)!
We find ourselves at a strange point in
redemptive history. The old aeon (that is passing
away), and the new aeon (that will be consummated at the return of Christ), now co-exist. We
who are in the new aeon remain tempted by the
empty allurements of the old aeon, and especially
toward discord-causing sins like racism and selfishness, sins that wreck relationships and split
churches and sink marriages.
(3) Christ is now restoring first creation patterns.
The new age inaugurated in Christ is nothing
less than God’s chosen means to restore the cosmos
to His original pre-fall design. Christ has come to
redeem the world from the fall, and in that way
the redemption of humanity and the redemption
of the cosmos go hand-in-hand (see Rom 8:22–
23). When Adam and Eve rebelled, Satan and
cosmic evil and humanity joined forces to destroy
the original intentions of the Creator. Redemption
in Christ is a return to Eden and a picking up of
God’s original plan in creation.7
In Ephesians, Paul returns to the language of
the Old Testament to show how Christ’s work is
nothing short of creation restoration.8 One of the
most prominent references connects back to Adam.
God created Adam, and therefore all humanity, to
have dominion over creation, a profound point
made by Psalm 8. Sin brought about the curse, and
the plan was disrupted from this original design
(see Gen 3:14–19). No longer could Adam control
the chaos of the sin-cursed creation. Then Christ
appeared. In his life and death and resurrection,
Christ assumed the Adamic role over creation. Paul
alludes to Ps 8:6 in Eph 1:22 to make the connection. Christ took his place over creation in a way
that God intended for Adam. In that sense Christ
became the Second Adam over creation, proving
once again that Christ has become the focal point
of the cosmos, but also revealing that the new aeon
is nothing short of a return to God’s original pattern for creation.
This restoration is made clear in other areas in
Ephesians, like in God’s design for unity to flourish
among all people and among all nations. This unity
was fractured even before the first couple could
reproduce. And God later instituted the Mosaic
Law as a means to separate his chosen people
(Israel) from the Gentile nations. In this way God
could expose sin for what it was, he could mark a
remnant of faith-filled believers in the Old Testament, and he could protect the Messianic seed
from the surrounding paganism until the time was
right for Christ to be born into the world. The Law,
for all its good and benefit, was needed because of
sin. But the Law also worked as a concrete barrier between the Jews and the alien Gentile nations.
It was a useful separation, but it also prevented
JBMW | Fall 2012    19
unity among the nations. One of the major themes
in Ephesians is that Christ fulfilled the Law, and by
this Christ abolishes the God-ordained separation
that was necessary (2:13–17).
Besides these passages, there are other cues
that Ephesians is given to a restoration of the
intention of the Creator, and especially that the
sanctification of a Christian’s life is the restoration of God’s design for Adam and Eve’s pre-fall
holiness and reflection of God’s purity (1:4; 2:10;
4:20–24; 5:1; see Col 3:10). By his death and resurrection, Christ seeks to restore the image of God
in mankind. The holiness that God expects to see
in the lives of his children is nothing short of the
holiness he intended to be reflected in the lives of
Adam and Eve before the fall. In this new aeon,
sin’s power is broken so God’s children can begin
to reflect the holiness of God that Adam and Eve
were intended to reflect.
Paul will return to this theme of redemption
in Christ, and describe it as nothing less than a
restoration of the first creation, when he speaks of
God’s design for marriage.
(4) Christ is now restoring the relational harmony
unraveled by the chaos and discord of sin.
The harmony between the nations laid out in
the Old Testament is beginning to be materialized
(see Isa 66:18–23). In Christ, God’s plan for this ethnic reconciliation is manifested in the church. The
church is the focal point in which Christ is reconciling, gathering, and orienting the nations to himself.
The perfect work of Christ restores this
relational harmony. Christ abolishes the law,
removing the barrier that separated Jews and Gentiles, thus forming together one new man from the
two, bringing peace between them and a holy God
(Eph 2:11–3:6). In this way Christ populates the
church, a church that proclaims in its unity the cosmic victory of Christ (3:7–13).
Or (as Ephesians 5 puts it) when sinners
repent, they are restored to God, they become
citizens of the new aeon, they are given the Holy
Spirit, and they willingly take their place in the
church (the Second Eve), which in turn is submitted to Christ (the Second Adam).
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A particular mark of the victory of Christ is
seen in church unity. For the sake of maturity in
unity, Christ gives a diversity of gifts to the church
(4:7–16). We need these gifts because Christians in
the church are still maturing. We are still tempted
by the sinful thinking of the old aeon, and as a result
we are called to wage warfare against the sins that
bring discord (4:11–16). This unity among God’s
people must be fought for, and the disunity of the
powers of the old aeon must be battled against
(6:10–20).
Our relationships must not conform to the
dark and splintering old aeon. We are not to steal
or lie, hold grudges, or speak to one another with
filthy jokes or corrupting speech. These things
destroy relational harmony and show one to be
outside of the new aeon (5:5). Rather, in Christ,
we are to build others up with our words, speak
the truth in love, voice thankfulness, forgive one
another, show tenderness and kindness, gather and
sing together, and grow the church together in
unity (4:15–5:21).
This relationship-restoring power of the gospel is the overarching theme of Ephesians. Christ
has come to address the fragmented nature of fallen
humanity and to heal the separation of Jew and Gentile. This gospel is so big it addresses all levels of fractured relationships—ethnic divisions, local church
divisions, and divisions and disharmony in marriage.9
Thirteen Proposed Implications For Our
Marriages
The plan of God in Christ that Paul builds in
Ephesians is breathtaking. But what does it have
to do with my marriage? Once we begin to get our
heads around this cosmic big-picture plan of God,
the place of marriage begins to make sense. What
follows are several implications from these theological trajectories that lay a foundation for what
Paul says about marriage in Eph 5:22–33.
(1) Marriage was originally created by God to
proclaim the mystery of Christ and the church.
In no other letter does Paul talk more about
the musph,rion—the “mystery.” He uses this term
six times (1:9; 3:3, 4, 9; 5:32; 6:19). So what is
this mystery? In short, the four points above are
part of the mystery. The mystery is the full scope
of Christ’s cosmic-shaping work for and in the
church. It also means the beginning of the new
creation has arrived. Marriage participates in the
mystery by illustrating the union of Christ and his
bride, a union so close it had never been put in such
one-flesh language before (5:32).
The union between Christ and the church is
the mystery, and marriage union between a man
and a woman is God’s chosen mechanism for
broadcasting the mystery to the world.10 But for
marriage to accurately broadcast this mystery, marriage must first be liberated from the twistedness
of the old aeon of sin; it must be redeemed to its
original design in creation. This liberation requires
marriages to be populated by new aeon Spirit-filled
men and women who are rightly oriented to Christ.
Christ inaugurated the new aeon to save husbands
and wives and to orient them to himself in order to
create marriages that broadcast this Christ-church
union to the world and to our neighborhoods. In
the end, Christ died for the church, and the church
submits to Christ, a beautiful picture God intended
to proclaim to the entire cosmos. Godly marriages
broadcast this mystery.
(2) The gospel aims to restore God’s original design
for marriage.
In the fall, God’s original design for social
harmony was broken. Man was created to submit
to God, woman was created to submit to and help
the man, and the animal world was created to submit to man and woman. In the fall this is all gets
twisted backwards. The woman yields to the creature, man yields to the woman, and nobody yields
to God.11 It is within this twisted distortion of
God’s original design that social harmony is shattered and the old aeon begins. But will God turn
his back on this cosmic mutiny?
As we have seen in Ephesians, the answer is
no. Christ, the Second Adam, gives up his life to
inaugurate the new aeon, which aims to restore
the original creation (and ultimately to usher in
a superior re-creation12). This restoration stands
in brilliance when Scripture brings us back into
the marriage context to see what a restored marriage should look like. Here the divinely instituted
hierarchy is restored. It took nothing less than the
inauguration of the new aeon for human history to
return to a pattern of marriage that God intended.
So if we find it hard to discover the meaning
and proper structuring of marriage when we look
at culture, that’s to be expected. Every culture in
the old aeon will find creative ways to distort the
covenant model of marriage. Right now the culture drifts towards so-called “same-sex marriage.”
This distortion and others like it are not new. But
however twisted marriage becomes in the old aeon
between the fall and the moment when marriage
was culturally defined for the Ephesians in popular
Greco-Roman household codes, and whatever has
happened to marriage for us in the past fifty years,
God’s intention is clear through Paul. The original
pattern for the first husband and wife matters. It
matters so much that Christ died to restore marriage.
Therefore, we are wise to distinguish between
marriage that is twisted in the old aeon and marriage that is redeemed in the new aeon. Spirit-filled
marriages can taste again what God intended for
Adam and Eve.13 Which means that the Romans
did not invent male headship in the home. American traditionalism did not institute a wife’s submission to her husband. And the fall did not create the
headship of the husband or submission of a wife.
God created complementarian marriage before sin,
and the Second Adam came to restore that original
design. “The redemption we anticipate at the coming of Christ is not the dismantling of the created
order of loving headship and willing submission,
but a recovery of it.”14
(3) Christ died, rose, disarmed cosmic evil, and
inaugurated the new aeon to restore relational
harmony to husbands and wives.
The original design of marriage was botched
by sin. Christ died and rose to defeat the twistedness of the old aeon and to restore relational harmony. What is true of this harmony in the church
is expected to be true between a Christian husband
and a Christian wife. There is no closer human
relationship than the one-flesh relationship of
JBMW | Fall 2012    21
a husband and wife in covenant union, and God
uses this unity to broadcast the closeness of the
church’s union with Christ.
If there is a cosmic defeat of the splintered
humanity, and if there is a Spirit-filling of redeemed
hearts, this will show itself in a harmonious complementarian marriage. This is not to condemn marriage conflict. Every Christian is learning to put off
the sin of the old aeon, and occasional marriage conflict plays an important role in the process of personal sanctification. Still, marital harmony reveals
the cosmic plan of God in bringing sinners together
in the new aeon. If there is any hope of a joy-filled
and harmonious marriage, if there is any protection
from self-focused and splintering divorce, it is to be
found in the Christ who inaugurates the new aeon
to restore marriage relationships to their proper
order by ordering them all under himself.
(4) The church in Ephesus was a household (2:19),
indicating that when Paul addresses marriage he
addresses the church in microcosm.
When Paul talks about the home in Eph
5:22–6:9 he is “laying out a manifesto for the New
Humanity, painting in broad strokes a vision for
how believers ought to conduct themselves in
new creation communities, thus epitomizing the
triumph of God in Christ.”15 The complementary
harmony in the home is nothing short of a picture of Christ’s cosmic victory. That is true because
marriage is a microcosm of the church. Paul moves
naturally from harmony in the church to harmony
in the home. I take this to mean the health of our
churches cannot be defined apart from the health
of our homes. Harmonious homes functioning
according to God’s design bring vital stability to
the local church. These marriages are a snapshot of
church unity, and thus also participate in the cosmic harnessing of all things in Christ yet to come.
(5) Role distinctions and hierarchy in the Christian
community are not erased in the new aeon.
However we define mutual submission (5:21),
we cannot ignore the next verse (5:22). In fact 5:21
may actually help us to protect headship and subordination among God’s people.16 Paul reveals that
22    JBMW | Fall 2012
life in the new aeon does not remove hierarchy or
role distinctions. Christ was raised in his defeat over
cosmic evil, and out of that victory he gives gifts to
the church (4:8–12). In this way there are speciallyselected men chosen to lead and direct the church,
men who are in some way distinguished from “the
saints” (4:12). This gift-defined authority does not
divide the church but rather builds unity among
the people of God, as the context shows. Elsewhere Paul returns to the created order to remind
the early churches that gender-based hierarchy is
rooted in God’s original marriage design (see 1 Cor
11:2–16 and 1 Tim 2:8–15). There is no reason to
think the complementary structure of the first marriage in Eden is somehow undone in the new aeon.
Quite the opposite. In the new aeon, the celebration of complementary marriage roles is a display
of the cosmic harmony brought in the gospel, and
a display of the cosmic victory of Christ over the
relationship splintering of the old aeon.
(6) New aeon complementarian marriage is a
micro-cosmic picture of Christ’s macro-cosmic work
in orienting all things to himself (1:10).
A husband who has repented and has trusted
in Christ is a Spirit-filled new creation and belongs
to the new aeon. As a result, he is to be committed
to selflessly lead and love his wife like Christ leads
and loves the church. By his loving leadership he
proves himself to be rightly oriented under Christ
in the new aeon. His task is not thwarted by the
immaturity and sin that he sees in himself. And he
is not thwarted by the immaturity and sin he sees
in his wife, but he uses those sins to be reminded
of the particular and patient care of Christ as he
washes and matures his own bride (5:22–28).
“A Christian husband loves his wife by offering
a lifetime of daily sacrifices, so that she might
become ever more radiant as a woman of God.”17
To this end he presses on. In this self-sacrifice the
husband shows that he is rightly aligned vertically under Christ in reverence, and so he seeks to
co-operate with his wife in the home for her
flourishing (1:9–10; 5:21).
On the other side of the bed, a wife who has
repented and trusted in Christ is a Spirit-filled
new creation and she now belongs to the new aeon.
As a result, she willingly submits herself to her husband’s leadership. Her role is not thwarted by the
failings she sees in her husband, but she helps him
grow and celebrates his leadership successes. It is
no stretch to say that a wife’s humble submission
to her husband reflects her own proper orientation
under Christ (5:22). Thus, it is out of her vertical
alignment under Christ in reverence that she seeks
to co-operate with her husband in the home (5:21).
It is worth addressing two points that emerge
from this connection between marriage roles (5:22–
33) and cosmic order in Christ (1:9–10). First,
I fear too few men and too few women make this
connection between the cosmic work of Christ in
orienting all things to himself and to their faithfulness to our Creator-given, Christ-revived, Spiritempowered roles in marriage.18 More on that later.
Second, I fear complementarian marriage is
too frequently built from a horizontal, rather than
a vertical, starting point. We are tempted to root
complementarian marriage roles in the responsiveness of our spouses. We suggest that if/when my
wife is submissive to me, then I will lovingly lead
her. Or, if/when my husband starts leading me well,
then I will submit to him. For the wife this thinking is twisted because even wives of unbelieving
husbands are called to submit as a powerful way
of winning their husbands (see 1 Pet 3:1–2). For
the husband this thinking is profoundly irrational
because it clouds the gospel in which Christ died
for his bride at the very point that she was an awful,
unsubmissive rebel of a wretch (see Rom 5:8)! But
even more foundational on both counts, this thinking is wrong because it fails to root the leading of
the husband and the submissiveness of the wife
in the vertical plane. The posture of the husband
to lead and the posture of the wife to submit are
postures that find their proper basis in Christians
who are properly oriented under Christ (1:9–10)
and who live relationally out of reverence to Christ
(5:21). Paul makes this point especially clear for the
wife in 5:22. The vertical order is the only proper
basis for fulfilling our marriage roles in the home,
and this vertical orientation will protect the wife
when her husband asks her to follow him into sin.
She will at that point not follow because she is first
and foremost properly ordered under Christ, and to
follow her husband into sin would be to dislocate
her vertical orientation of reverence under Christ.
(7) A husband’s self-centered laziness and harshness
toward his wife is part of the defeated old aeon.
Whatever causes a husband to mishandle
his authority is rooted in the old aeon. Men often
abuse marriage as either a place for personal ease or
as a place for manipulative control. In the old aeon,
husbands view marriage as a place to be served, not to
serve. Likewise, in the old aeon men domineer over
women through pornography and human trafficking and in a myriad of self-centered ways that twist
women into objects of lust. This behavior reflects
the old aeon that is twisted by the sinful domineering patterns of cosmic evil. In Christ, that cosmic
evil has been defeated. In Ephesians, Paul pens for
husbands a counter-cultural new creation lifestyle
that uses authority in the home as the basis of the
self-giving model of Christ. In the old aeon, men
use headship as a way to justify selfishness. In the
new aeon, God intends headship as a way to exemplify selflessness. In the new aeon—as was God’s
intent in the original design of creation—men are
called to serve and feed and wash and protect their
wives. Christian husbands will feel the perpetual
magnetic pull of the old aeon tugging at their marriages, even from their own still-sinful hearts. And
that tug must be resisted. Distortions to manhood
and husbandhood will remain; temptations will
rise up in a man’s heart, but those ways of thinking
must be seen for what they are: part of the old aeon
that is passing away and is to be “put off ” by Spiritfilled men of God.
(8) A wife’s self-centered independence toward her
husband is part of the defeated old aeon.
God created the marriage context for a wife to
submit to the leadership of her husband. This was
true before sin entered the picture. In Ephesians
we behold the work of Christ, the Second Adam,
and the Holy Spirit in restoring the wife’s proper
role. Therefore, whatever causes a wife to de facto
reject her husband’s headship can only be thinkJBMW | Fall 2012    23
ing rooted in the twisted rebellion of the old aeon.
In fact, any thinking that rejects the wife’s role to
submit to her husband in marriage can only arise
from the old aeon. Because the Second Adam has
defeated evil to restore the proper exercise of marriage roles in the new aeon, because the Holy Spirit
empowers a wife’s submission, the voice of feminism can speak only from the old aeon—it cannot speak from the new.19 All of the various forms
of distorted thinking that suggest submission has
been done away with for Christian wives is to be
seen for what it is—thinking that finds its origin in
the old and fallen aeon of the world. It is thinking
that is passing away. It is thinking that is to be “put
off ” by Spirit-filled women of God.
(9) Complementarian marriage fits into the Spiritfilled community of the new aeon people of God.
A common assumption is that it does not.
Some say that male headship in the home and
female submission is overridden in the new aeon,
and the common argument is taken from Galatians
3:28. But there is little need (nor room) to discuss Galatians here. We can see in Ephesians that
Christ’s re-orientation of the cosmos and the inauguration of the new aeon do not erase roles, hierarchy, or headship in the Spirit-filled community of
believers. This is obvious in the natural flow of the
book and of Christ’s distribution of leadership gifts
in the church. Within the home there remain distinct roles for the husband and wife, roles defined
by the Creator, and roles redeemed by the victory of
the Second Adam. Christ does not expunge human
hierarchy in the new aeon; he rather purifies and
redeems it from the twisted evil of the old aeon.
Now, it is true that marriage will be done
away with in heaven (which is the new aeon in
full splendor and full manifestation).20 But there
is strong evidence to suggest that gender is eternal. And this point combined with the prominence of marriage in the new aeon, should caution
us from assuming that eternity will be egalitarian.
In fact, the final and eternal submission of Christ
to the Father that we read about in 1 Cor 15:27–28
(the final and full fulfillment of Eph 1:10) seems
to prove otherwise. That some form of comple24    JBMW | Fall 2012
mentary relationship between men and women
will exist in eternity, however changed and transformed and improved and perfected, fits well in
a trajectory that flows from Eden to the church
and into the new aeon.
So there is no tension between either idea
that the new aeon redeems God’s original created
marriage pattern, and that at some point in history marriage will be finally and fully ended. The
principle of continuity behind both marriage harmony and church harmony is the continuity of cooperation of God’s people. Likely we will forever
fulfill some form of gender-based complementary
in our co-operation and harmonious relationships
in eternity, and every man and woman will flourish
as a result.
(10) A harmonious, complementary, interracial
marriage between a believing husband and a
believing wife is nearly a perfect microcosm of God’s
cosmic purpose for the church.
Paul does not explicitly make this connection,
but in following his logic it seems to be a beautiful
implication of his thinking. The nations are brought
together in Christ, and in Christ