No. 20. >> If marriage is, indeed, the foundation for everything in the civil realm, doesn't it still have some strong connections to the right hand realm of the Gospel? Can you help me to understand what Paul is doing in Ephesians 5, for example? >>DR. JOEL D. BIERMANN: What we learn from Ephesians 5 I think is a really clear lesson that the distinction between the realms is never meant to be a division. And even though marriage is primarily a left hand thing where God is working through the institution of marriage and through husband and wife and mothers and fathers raising the children to accomplish his purposes in the world for the sake of the world and for the sake of the creation, there's also this incredible connection to what marriage means in relation to how God works in the world and how he works with us. And we see in Ephesians 5 this remarkable move that Saint Paul makes where he's talking to husbands and wives about their responsibilities. And how those are different. And how husbands are to love their wives. And how wives are to respect their husbands. And he's talking all about how a husband sacrifices for the sake of his wife like Christ sacrifices for the church. And he says: I'm talking about a profound mystery. But I'm talking about Christ in the church. I always want to say much. No, you're not. You're talking about marriage. How did you get to Christ in the church? But for Paul there's such an intimate connection between the picture we get in marriage and the picture of God interacting with us, his people, that there's -- you can't really pull them apart. And I think that's instructive that in the Old Testament one of the images for the relationship between God and his people that was used again and again and again was precisely that of marriage. God being a husband to his people Israel. And when Israel was faithless, they were being accused not just of idolatry but of adultery. That's the image that gets used. They are not being faithful. They are out running around. Playing the prostitute. And the prophets really came down hard on them for that faithlessness. And so the relationship between a husband and a wife mirrors in a remarkable way the relationship of God to his people. And Christ to his church. And Saint Paul saw it. And saw the intimacy of the bond. Which says something else to us again about why divorce is so abhorrent to God. Because the idea of a break in the marriage between God and his people is impossible. And the idea of a break in a human institution, it should grieve us. It causes this sense of -- this should not be. And while God, you know, allows concessions for these things, this is not the intention. So marriage is this beautiful picture of God interacting with us, the church. So clearly, yeah, there are strong right hand elements. And the big thing I think we need to see is there's this beautiful integration between the two realms as God plans it. All the way back at the beginning when I first kind of laid this thing out, I said: Think of it almost like two columns. You have the left hand column of God at work in the world in his creation. And the right hand column of God at work redeeming us and making things right. You see, ultimately the intention is these two columns are resolved into one big beautiful picture called the Kingdom of Christ. When Christ comes in glory, there won't be a left and right anymore. There will simply be God who rules over all of his people. And what God does in the right hand and the left hand is simply God's activity in the whole thing. And together again the two realms are reunited together in Christ in his reign, in his perfect reign. So even as we think about left-right stuff, we need to remember that ultimately it all comes together in God. And it all finds a unity in his plan. And we see the fulfillment of this in Christ when it all comes together again. It's a lot to think about. But it puts a different perspective on everything when you see it in an eschatological way. Looking toward the end. And then looking back at what that means for us now. So our faithfulness in marriage is now -- in a very real way reflects God's love for us. And helps to I think in a sense witness to God's plan for the whole world.