NN

To comment on Elaine’s words and answer Cheryl’s question:

Elaine said ~ “The problem with NN’s view is that he has it backwards. Christ and the church are being held up as the example for everyone of what marriage is supposed to look like – not the other way around. There is nothing in Scripture that says human marriages are supposed to be the example to the world. The relationship of Christ and the church is the example.”

But realize the logical consequences of your statement – if the relationship of Christ and the church is to be an example of marriage then our human marriages ought to reflect this example. Therefore a rightly conducted human marriage is a reflection of a deeper truth lived on display before the world. On the other hand a human marriage conducted wrongly is in effect an enacted parable of a lie lived before the world. This is true throughout our lives, as we live rightly in any aspect of our lives we declare the gospel before the world and, conversely, failures in our lives misrepresent the gospel in our living examples.
And hopefully this will elaborate on Cheryl’s question – A shorthand expression which has stuck with me describing this is “Man cannot shut up about the gospel – He may be telling the truth about Jesus or telling a lie about Jesus but he is always, always talking about Jesus.”