Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig. Today, the Doctrine of Salvation,

Part 8. For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

We're going to continue today our discussion of the mystical union of Christ in his church

and examine a couple of New Testament metaphors that are used to express the union that we have with Christ.

The first of these is the relationship between a bride and a groom, or a husband and a wife. As they are united in marriage,

they are a symbol of the union of Christ and his church. Paul explains this in Ephesians chapter

5, verses 21 to 35. Ephesians 5, 21 to 35. Ephesians 5 21 to 35. Paul writes,

Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands

as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, his body,

and is himself its Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject

in everything to their husbands. 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, that he might present the church to himself in splendor,

without any spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Even so, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates

his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it as Christ does the church, 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, a quotation from Genesis.

Paul goes on to say, this mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers

to Christ and the church. However, let each of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see

that she respects her husband.

Now, this verse in the original context in Genesis

referred to the union of the man and his wife

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