Marriage was instituted in the Garden of Eden, and it vividly displays the nearness of relationship into which believers are to be brought to Christ as His Church and bride. Moreover, the familiarity of our minds with the marriage relationship makes us understand better the place to which we are brought in the gracious affections of Christ.
Many of the blessed and substantial revelations of God we cannot understand so clearly. For example, the reign of Christ in glory, and our association with Him in that reign, however blessed it may be, can hardly be definitely familiarized to the mind. But everything around the Christian, in this world, serves to illustrate what this blessed relationship is between Christ and the Church.
Eve was to Adam the companion of his home, and the object of his affections. So Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it. The fact that she becomes the object and witness of His affections is more deeply touching than all the glory which will be her endowment as allied to Christ.
The purpose of Christ's ministry toward His Church is "that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." The end of that ministry is "that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." Just as Eve was for Adam himself, so is the Church to be for Christ Himself.
G. V. Wigram