Desire To Live

Ephesians 5:25-28
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 with 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.

How does a wife get sanctified by her husband?

Well, from this passage we can see a few things:
1) The husband must lay down his life for his wife.
2) The husband must show her from Scripture how to cleanse herself from all impurity
3) The husband must aim to make her perfect, and therefore, like Jesus, in every way.
4) Husbands must love their wives as much as anything in this world, including themselves.

It is not weird to claim that a righteous man of God may in fact sanctify his wife. It requires him to step up as a husband and a man and take on the responsibilities of manhood. If he can lay claim to these things, and the woman in fact is a holy woman and can submit to his authority, then she can be sanctified.

Likewise, a man's sanctification depends on him submitting to the authority of Christ and being led by God's moral will, aka the Scriptures. A woman that cannot submit to a holy man of God, therefore cannot be sanctified, just as a man cannot be sanctified if he is not submissive to Christ. Now how could this be accomplished? Well, we know that when two get into a marriage covenant, the two become one(Gen. 2:24). Likewise, God has made a covenant with his wife Israel (and Christ to the church) to never leave her and to join with her into an everlasting covenant. The only requirement is to follow God's leadership, not just in belief, but also in keeping the precepts of the law. What does it matter if you believe you have a husband if you are not following him?

So, therefore, through a wife's submission to her husband, she is following his leadership, and through the man's leadership to Christ, he is following His leadership, and through Christ's submission to God, He is fulfilling the law and the covenant. This is why Jesus states that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Mat. 5:17-19). Therefore, we are sanctified through our submission and saved through following his commands.