Ephesians 5:30-32

Eph. 5:30-32. "For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church." Christ did as it were leave his Father in order to obtain and be joined to the church; he came down from heaven, and did as it were leave the bosom of his Father, he left the sweet and joyful manifestations of his Father's love, and became subject to the hidings of his Father's face, and even to the expressions of his wrath, and gave himself to his church that he might be joined to his church, and that he might present it to himself a glorious church, etc., as Ephesians 5:25-27. So he also left his mother, which was the church of the Jews, to cleave to the New Testament church. Christ was born of the Jews, and the ordinances, and legal observances of the Jewish church. Christ was hid as the infant is hid in its mother's womb. All God's dispensations towards that church, his calling of them by Moses, his giving them such ordinances, and his so ordering their state from age to age, was in order to bring forth Christ into the world. This Old Testament church is represented by Sarah, Isaac's mother, and the New Testament church by Rebekah, whom Isaac loved, and in whom he was comforted after his mother's death. (Vide Genesis 24:67. Notes.)

The Old Testament church was as Christ's mother, but the New Testament church is as his wife, whom he treats with far greater affection and intimacy. He forsook his mother also in this respect, viz. as he made a sacrifice of that flesh and blood, and laid down that mortal life, which he had from his mother, the Virgin Mary; that which is born of the flesh is flesh; though he did not derive flesh from his mother in the sense in which it is spoken of, John 3:6, viz. corrupt, sinful nature; and therefore, did not forsake his mother for the church, in the same sense wherein the church is advised to forsake her father's house for Christ's sake, viz. to forsake sin, and lusts derived from parents, by crucifying the flesh, with the affections and lusts. Yet Christ derived flesh from his mother, viz. the animal nature, and human nature, with that frailty and mortality that is the fruit of sin; this Christ forsook, and yielded to be crucified for the sake of the church.