There is a change in the ubderstanding of marriage with the coming of Christ. Humanity has a new being in Christ . Marriage which is close ly linked to humanity, as we have seen earlier, will have to be u nderstood in a new way. Paul expresses it by saying that Christians should marry "in the Lord" ( 1 Cor. 7,39). Through Baptism an ontological change or a deep personal transformation takes place in the Christians. They are united with Christ not merely on an ideological plane, but on a personal level. In marriage the relationship between husband and wife is grafted into the personal relationship between Christ and the Church established by Christ (Eph. 5, 25). When Christians enter into marriage relationship the following take place:
The key to unity between husband and wife is in the fact that are integrated into the self- gift of Christ. The subjection of the wife to the husband should not be understood in a juridical sense, but in a personal and organic sense; in the ssssssame way the self-gift of the husbamd to the wifeshould also be understood. Their roles as husband and wife acquire a mystical dimension through Christian marriage. There is no superiority or inferiority, but only complementarity of function. This is expressed very beautifully in 1 Cor. 7, 4. "For the wife does not have authorityover her own .body, but the husband does;likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife has". Thus a new kind of marriage takes place when Christians enter into marriage in Christ. It is not merely a marriage of creation, but a marriage of the new creation which integrates them into the self-giving of Christ.
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