Glory as of the Only Begotten
by Jonathan Daugherty

Friends and family around here will sometimes hear me saying that we need to live our lives like the stories we will want to tell our children and grandchildren. What I mean by this, as an example, is that it is more important for a husband and father to repent and let the family see him do it than it is for him to rhetorically articulate the importance of genuine repentance, with proper footnoting. But it is ever more true that we need to live like the Story we have already been given. In the created order, we repeatedly find the pattern of things having like designs in larger forms and smaller and into their parts. We also find the pattern of the lesser reflecting the glory of the greater. We find this pattern in the story of the created order because it is true of the offices of the Godhead. It is even true of the redemption story. This does not necessarily mean that we ought to live like we casually see the world. What this does mean is that we will find that when we obey God's commandments, we see that we are truthfully reflecting the glory of our Lord and His created pattern.

We, as Christians, are not called to cognitively affirm the Truth only. Rather, we are to live it. We are to live it fully, too. Not only are we to hear the word but be doers. So, we logically defend the Gospel, but we also are to logically live out the Gospel. And so, husbands are called to incarnate the truth of our Lord Jesus, who himself is the incarnate Word and Truth. And affirm the Truth in the flesh in our own lives as we embody that Truth.

Husbands are called to be creators under the Creator, lords under the Lord, and recreators under the Recreator. Husbands have the high calling to incarnate Jesus in the home. And, honestly or dishonestly, we do incarnate Him. We husbands embody either truth or lies about the person and work of the Bridegroom and His relationship to His church. When we are negligent in our responsibilities to our own wives, we lie about Christ's faithfulness to his Church. We are to embody the truth of the True Bridegroom.

We who are men are called to be men. We who are married men are called to be husbands. To be a husband really means nothing less than to be a cultivator. As creators under the Creator, we are to raise up families and order them according to God's commandments.

Peter tells us that Sarah called her husband lord. What we husbands need to keep often in mind from this is that Sarah was not pushing the envelope of poetic license, she was rightly and honestly and truthfully stating fact. That Sarah called her husband lord means that Abraham was indeed his own wife's lord. As lords under the Lord of Lords we are commanded to take command. As kings under the King of Kings, we are covenantally responsible for our kingdom. As covenant keepers, we are to obey all that He has commanded as a reflection of the truth of Jesus Christ who fully and perfectly has kept the covenant. We are to be covenant keepers and reflect to the glory of the one and only true Keeper of the Covenant.

Son, this is what we do when we obey God's commandments to teach our wives. As teacher and sanctifier in our own home, we say that Christ is a faithful Teacher and Sanctifier to His bride, the church. As sanctifer we are playing the part of recreator under the Recreator. We are making disciples in the shadow of the Great Commissioner.

When the Word says that Christ is the Head to His Body and the Bridegroom to His Church, he is not saying two very different things. He has bought her. He owns her. Her body is His. She, and all that is her, is his. Son, love your wife as Christ loved the church. Love her with heart, soul, mind and strength. Take care of her. Nourish and cherish her with a love uncorrupted. She and no other. This is the way of our Lord who has commanded us so, who, with His own physical frame loved His church and gave His own flesh up for her.

With our own flesh too, we must protect and provide for our families and in doing so we love them with body and strength. We are to protect our household from physical harm as well as invasion from worldliness just as Christ the Protector of the church takes care of His body, protecting her from harm. He is her defender and deliverer and so are we to our own. We also use our bodies as we work to till the ground and raise livestock or bring home the bacon. Which is how we put daily bread on the table.

After you have loved your dear wife, be in love with her. A wise and obedient husband delights in his bride. Take lawful and genuine pleasure in your wife. Delight in her. Cleave to her with all strength and body. Her body is your own. Embody joy with her, which is to say enjoy her. Her beauty is yours, also. Her physical beauty and diligent obedience are honors to you, as the holy church's glory belongs to Him. She shares in all the riches of her Christ, the Bridegroom, as does your own wife in the rich blessings bestowed upon your household. Are we getting this yet? How much do we really believe in the whole person of Jesus Christ until we believe with our bodies too?

As we live our daily routine lives, we must remember that it is no small calling to reflect the glory of our Lord and Savior. Let us to do it with all of our being. This is indeed a worthy and honorable calling. Let us live a story to be included in the greatest of all stories.