Marriage is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately in our world many have done all they can do to try to undermine and redefine the sanctity of marriage. And sadly many couples who entered into marriage with honest intentions have bailed out when the going got tough, or ended up divorcing when one or both partners wanted to explore other options and broke the vows of love and faithfulness promised during the wedding ceremony.
For the record, marriage was established by God’s design from the very beginning. Jesus taught about God’s plan for marriage in Matthew 19, answering His critics by saying, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female…” (v. 4). It doesn’t matter what the courts or popular opinions of our day say, marriage has always been and always will be a sacred institution of one man and one woman designed to last a lifetime. God created it that way from the start.
Jesus noted this aspect of God’s design for marriage as the reason, He says, that “a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife…” (v. 5a). It’s the leave and cleave code. It means that when a couple enters into a marriage relationship, their primary responsibility and first priority and main loyalty and love should now be for their spouse, and not toward their parents. Marriage involves a total commitment and consecration of a husband and wife toward one another.
Then, Jesus added, “and the two shall become one flesh” (v. 5b). This means they are now inseparable in union. Only by death should the marriage relationship end. It’s like taking Gorilla Glue and fastening two things together until they cannot be torn apart. It’s meant to be unbreakable. Physically, the one flesh factor in marriage is God’s gracious gift to men and women designed to be experienced only within the bounds of the marriage relationship.
Jesus went on from there to declare, “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate” (v. 6b). He’s saying that God places His divine seal of approval upon the marriage relationship. When a man and a woman come together before God and the witnesses of their friends and family, it is a sacred joining by God meant to be inseparable.
Divorce is never desirable. God’s intention has always been and always will be that one man and one woman be joined together as one by God in an unbreakable bond of faithfulness and love. See, marriage also serves as a picture of the gospel, in the way that Christ loves His bride, the church, and remains forever faithful to her.
If you have been divorced or remarried outside of God’s will, I don’t mean to make you feel bad or leave you wondering if God will be angry with you forever. In fact I truly feel for those who have gone through the pain and hurt of a broken marriage. Perhaps you did everything in your power to hold things together, yet your spouse was unwilling. Maybe you loved and forgave beyond human abilities, and still your partner left.
I want you to know that for whatever reasons, or whatever’s happened, God is a gracious and compassionate God. He is full of mercy, rich in kindness and abounding in love. Unbiblical divorce or unbiblical remarriage are not unforgivable sins. He is able to take hurts and pains and wrongs, and remake them all into something good. He is able to restore those who come humbly before Him, seeking His face and devoting themselves to following in His ways.
So here’s to Tim and Tara, and to all married couples – may your God-joined marriage fill you with happiness and love all the days of your life and put the gospel of Christ Jesus on display for the world to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment