Our Anniversary - Heirs Together

 

“You are joint heirs of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7).

 

Peter writes that husbands ought to honor their wives, with whom they are joint heirs of the grace of life, “so that your prayers may not be hindered.” There is an alternate reading in the TR for “hindered” which can mean, “cut off” or “cut down” (such as “if your hand offends you, cut it off”) and I find this interesting, for even if our current best manuscripts heavily support the idea of prayers being “hindered,” at some point there were copyists who conveyed the violent image of a husband and wife’s prayers being cutoff or cutdown. Both senses ought to get our attention (the two words are closely related in Greek).

 

1 Peter 3:7 is a picture of Christ and the Church, just as is Ephesians 5:22 – 33 (and just as is Proverbs 31:10 – 31). We are joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17, 32; Gal. 4:7; Rev. 21:7) and this is particularly true of us as His Bride – for there is a “unity of person” in marriage…the two become one. This idea of “unity of person” was embedded in English common law and was recognized, at least until recently, in many state laws in the United States. As a real estate broker in Maryland and Virginia this was a critical legal concept when transferring title to real estate, husbands and wives took title as “tenants by the entirety," they took title as “one person.”

 

The Bride becomes one with the Groom in Scripture, this is our calling in Jesus Christ, our destiny is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and a glorious unfolding of His love for us in eternity.

 

Our marriages in Christ are to participate in this glory, in this sacramental union. So much so that husbands and wives receive the grace of God as joint heirs – as one person in Christ. So much so that should there be a breach in the marriage, in communion, in mutually caring for one another, in mutual deference and submission (Eph. 5:21), in forgiveness and forbearance and patience; that the prayers of the spouses will be hindered and possibly cutoff, chopped down, castoff.

 

While all marriages have their particular DNA, if you will, in Christ they have His DNA…whatever else they may bring into the marriage. One of the questions married couples can always ask is, “Where is the Lordship of Jesus in this?”

 

I once asked this question, and only this question, of a couple in a crisis marital situation; they were on the precipice of separating. Our Father gave me a sense that I should do this since they were professing Christians. When they left our home after about two hours, they still had work to do in Jesus, but the threat was over and the direction was sure. No matter what one said about the other, no matter what issue they wanted to bring before me, I kept asking, “Where is the Lordship of Jesus Christ in this?”

 

Many years ago my friend Steve Allsbrook shared the following poem with me, saying, “When I read this I thought of you and Vickie.”

 

The poem has become more precious over the years, as has my wife, as has our marriage, as has our dear Lord Jesus.

 

 

 

The Word

 By John Masefield

 

My friend, my bonny friend, when we are old,

And hand in hand go tottering down the hill,

May we be rich in love's refined gold,

May love's gold coin be current with us still.

 

May love be sweeter for the vanished days,

And your most perfect beauty still as dear

As when your troubled finger stood at gaze

In the dear March of a most sacred year.

 

May what we are be all we might have been,

And that potential, perfect, oh my friend,

And may there still be many sheafs to glean

In our love's acre, comrade, till the end.

 

And may we find, when ended is the page

Death but a tavern on our pilgrimage.