Submit to the Lord

Ephesians 5:22-33

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 16)

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen.  The sermon text for the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost is the epistle reading Ephesians 5.   Submit to each other.  Submit to authority.  Submit to God.  Wives submit to your husbands.  What do you think about when you hear the word submit?  Does the word, submit create great joy in your heart?  Wonderful I get to submit!  Does the word submit cause you to have a bad taste in your mouth?  I am not going to submit to anyone!  If we are honest we will have to admit that we don’t really like the word submit.  We don’t like the idea of submitting to anyone.  We like to think of ourselves as our own boss.  We like to live life on our own terms.  Our pride hates the idea of submitting.  Yet when we look at God’s Word it tells us to submit. God’s Word tells us to submit to the Lord and to submit to each other.

Our sinful nature wants to rebel against any form of submitting.  We don’t want to submit to anyone.  But this idea about not submitting to anyone or anything is a lie and a deception.  The truth is this.  We are always submitting to someone.  We are either submitting to God or we are submitting to Satan.  To think that we are completely autonomous is just not true. Every person submits.  The question is not about submitting it is who are you submitting too?  You are either submitting to God or you are submitting to Satan.  You are either a servant of the Lord or you are a slave of the devil.

In our text for today, Paul talks about marriage so that we can better understand what it means to submit.  When we live a life of selfishness only looking to our own needs and not the needs of others, we are not free, but we are a slave to our sins.  When we look at our marriage as a power struggle using every means to get our way by lording over our spouse or trying to manipulate our spouse or cutting down our spouse with words, we are not free, but we are a slave to our sins.  When we try to live life on our own terms, when we refuse to forgive, when we refuse to serve, when we refuse to communicate with each other we are not free, but we are slaves to our own sins.  We are submitting to Satan.  A life of submitting to Satan is a life of darkness and hopelessness.  It is a life that leads to eternal death.

That is why Jesus Christ came into the world.  Jesus came into the world to free us from sin and death.  Jesus came into the world to free us from a life of submitting to Satan. He came to save us and to restore us. He came to sanctify us.  He came to bring us into His kingdom so that we could submit to God.  How did He do this?  He saved us by submitting.  Indeed the Lord Jesus submitted to the will of the heavenly Father.  He followed the will of the Father to perfection.  He lived a perfect life in our place, and He willingly went to the cross to atone for our sins.  Jesus sacrificed Himself for us according to the will of the Father. Jesus then rose from the dead defeating death for us. 

Jesus has won the victory over sin, death and Satan and He now reigns over all things.  Indeed the One who submitted now has headship.  It is the Lord Jesus who reigns over heaven and the earth.  It is Jesus who is the head of the church.  Jesus is our King.  He is a good King who gives us His righteousness.  It is now the Lord who sustains our faith and blesses us.  It is the Lord who gives us eternal life.        

Jesus has also restored us. The Lord has renewed our heart, and He is making us holy.  It is the grace of God that frees us from Satan and moves us to submit in all humility to the Lord.  In our text for today, Paul uses marriage to demonstrate what godly submission is all about. Recall what he said.  “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands”.  Notice that the wife is to submit to Christ first.  The Christian wife does indeed submit to the Lord for she is grateful for what Christ has done for her.  The Christian wife understands that Jesus is the head of the church.  By submitting to the Lord, Christian wives are submitting to His Word.  God has established an order of creation.  He has placed the husband as the head of the house.  Christian wives understand this and thus they submit to their husbands, as to the Lord.  Through the power of Jesus they are able to encourage their husband, speak well of him, pray for him and respect him.  Christian wives get their strength to do this by looking to Christ their Lord and Savior. For they know that Jesus is one who has been gracious to them and they know that it is Christ who has been gracious to their husband.

Paul then speaks about the husband. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water and the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.  In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself.” 

Husbands are to submit to Christ first.  The Christian husband does indeed submit to the Lord for he is grateful for what Christ has done for him.  Christian husbands submit to Christ and in doing so submit to His word by recognizing that they are called by God to be the head of the house.  To be the head of the house does not mean that the husband gets to lord over their wife.  To be the head of the house means that the Christian husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the church.  Jesus put our needs above His own.  The Lord calls every husband to put the needs of his wife and his family above his own. The Christian husband understands that he is to be an example to the rest of the family.  Through the power of Jesus they are able to connect with their wife, talk to her and get her input.  It is the head of the house who will, if necessary, sacrifice his own life in order to save hers.  The Christian husband understands that he is to love his wife like Christ loves the church. Christian husbands get their strength to do this by looking to Jesus their Lord and Savior.  For they know that Christ has been gracious to them, and they know that Jesus has been gracious to their wife.

We now see how the Bible defines headship.  It is sacrificial love.  This headship continues if husband and wife are blessed with children.  Both have headship over the children.  That means they are to raise their children in the faith. That is what is most important. They are also called upon to care for them and protect them.  Headship for parents means changing diapers, cleaning up puke, and guiding teenagers. 

We have been talking about marriage for the last several minutes, but we must understand that God has not forgotten those who are single.  The single Christian also submits to Christ for they are grateful for what the Lord has done for them.  They pray that God would give them a content heart in the station that He has put them in.  The Lord has given the single Christian opportunity for sacrificial love in their service to the church, their family, and the community.  Their strength to do this comes from the Lord.   

Jesus submitted to the will of the Father and He is the head of the church.  A Christian life is one of submitting and headship.   We submit to the Lord and each other.  If we are given headship it is done in love for those around us.  In love, Jesus laid down His life for us so that we could live.  It is our Lord who gives us salvation and He is the One who restores us. It is by God’s grace that we are freed from Satan and moved to submit in all humility to the Lord for He is the One who has cleansed us, renewed us and made us right with God.  Amen