Ephesians 5:25: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water by the word.

We’ve been talking this morning about the permanence of marriage and about divorce, and this is quite relevant to what we are doing here. Throughout the New Testament, the relationship of the church to Christ is compared to marriage. Here in Ephesians 5, Paul constructs his exhortations to husbands and wives on the basis of this parallel.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul says that just as a man and woman become one flesh, so those who are joined to Christ are “one spirit” with Him. And in the climactic scenes of Revelation, the city that is also a temple and also a bride descends from heaven to consummate the wedding feast of the lamb.

From this perspective, baptism can be seen as analogous to marriage. Paul may in fact be referring to baptism in Ephesians 5, when he speaks of Christ washing His bride with “water by the word.” Through water, the bride is cleansed from all stain and wrinkle, prepared for the consummation and for a wedding feast.

Thinking about baptism in terms of a marriage helps us to see the power of baptism. A wedding is a creative moment. A man is made into a husband, a woman into a bride, and the two of them are changes from two individuals into a dual, a “we,” a collective. This actually happens through the words and actions of the wedding.

Similarly, baptism actually effects a union between this member of the bride and the husband. Through baptism, your daughter is becoming a part of the bride of Christ, which is His body, one flesh with Him. Through baptism, she is being joined in covenant union. Through baptism, she is being installed in the status of “bride,” and is called to perform all the duties of a bride.

This analogy also helps us to see what happens when someone turns from her baptism. It’s not that she was never baptized at all, never joined in marriage to her divine Husband. Rather, apostasy is a kind of divorce, an abandonment of a marriage that has in fact taken place. A wayward Christian is not a non-bride; she is an unfaithful bride.

Baptism orients the way you treat your daughter, what you teach her, what you teach her about herself. Remind her regularly that she is united to her husband, Jesus Christ. Teach her that He is an utterly faithful husband. Teach her to be a faithful bride, submitting to her Lord in everything. Tell her about the privileges of being at her husband’s table in His kingdom. And teach her that “What God has joined together, let not man separate.”