See this index.
In my previous post, “The Meaning of Hell,” I objected to the blasphemous claim that “The Cross did not buy our entrance into Eternity.” I cited 1 Corinthians 1:17-18, which says that cross of Christ is the power to save, the power of God himself. I cited Colossians 2:11-14, where in our [marital] union with Christ, he has wiped clean the certificate of our sins and taken our sins away by nailing it to the cross. Lastly, I cited Romans 6:23, which says that the wages of sin is death, but that the free gift of God is eternal life in the age to come. I summarized:
Do not listen to fools who tell you that the cross did not purchase our freedom from sin and eternal life. By nailing our sin-debt to the cross, we receive the free gift of eternal life in the age to come, for the canceling of that sin by way of the cross is the very thing takes away death.
In a comment at Spawny’s Space, I said that when a husband marries his wife,
“From that moment forward she is his responsibility, and anything she does for good/evil is credited/debited to his account because they are one.”
A commenter responded:
By that logic, Jesus Christ is then responsible for the sinning of His bride. LOL Even God becomes irresponsible under your concept of husbanding. Your one-sided concept of marriage puts men into an untenable position where even Jesus Christ apparently fails to do the job blamelessly whenever his bride chooses to stray into sin.
Yes, that logic is correct, but it is no laughing matter. That is precisely how Christ’s authority to save works. The means by which Jesus Christ saved us was by taking full responsibility for the sins of his bride, taking them upon himself and nailing them to the cross by his sacrifice and death. In doing so, he cleansed us from all our sins, past, present, and future. Christ is our husband, our master, and we his bride, his servants. He took 100% of the responsibility for our sin by his authority as our Lord and master. Were it not for his authority as our head, we could not have been saved and would have been lost to sin. As Acts 4:12 says of Christ’s authority:
“And in no one else is there salvation, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among people by which we must be saved.”
As Radix Fidem likes to say, Christ is our Feudal Lord and master. We are in a covenental relationship with Christ (marriage too is a covenant). Whatever sins we commit, he bears the cost on our behalf. Whatever good we do, he is elevated to a greater position of honor. We are his vassals and he our Lord. He is our husband, our father, our Lord, and our master.
In the worldview of Christian patriarchy—which I’ve written about and against at length—a man has authority over his wife in the same way that Christ has authority over the church. Just as Christ is held responsible by the cross for the deeds of his bride, whether they be blessings or curses, so too is a man responsible for the words and deeds of his wife. For Christ is the head of the church and husbands are the head of his wife. No husband can blame his wife for her deeds when God has placed him in a place of authority over her. He was given authority over her, and needs no permission from other women or the State.
When Hosea’s wife—a prostitute—was unfaithful, he redeemed her. He paid her debts and took her back. Christ did the same for his church.
For a man to refuse to take responsibility for his wife when God has placed him in that position is to emasculate him and disrespect his authority. It is to undermine the very basis of patriarchy, for what good is having authority over a domain if one is not responsible for what goes in within that domain, for good or for evil? Authority, including the right to rule, without responsibility utterly declaws patriarchy.
Once, due to the hardness of man’s heart, the law of Moses allowed a man the authority to divorce his wife. If she displeased him or did not obey, he had the right to send her away. But the New Covenant changed that. By the authority of Christ, Jesus does not send us—his bride—away when we sin against him: we remain redeemed by his blood. So too it is impossible for a Christian man to send away his bride when she fails. It would be like sending himself away, for they are one flesh. No act of man (or woman) can sever a marriage. No one but God himself can break that bond.