Marriage and The Gospel
Matthew 19
When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went down to the region of Judea east of the Jordan River.
2 Large crowds followed him there, and he healed their sick.
3 Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for just any reason?”
4 “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’(Gen. 1.27; 5.2)”
5 And he said, “‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’(Gen. 2.24)
6 Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.”
7 “Then why did Moses say in the law that a man could give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away?” they asked.
8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended.
9 And I tell you this, whoever divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery—unless his wife has been unfaithful.(Matt. 5.32)”
10 Jesus’ disciples then said to him, “If this is the case, it is better not to marry!”
11 “Not everyone can accept this statement,” Jesus said. “Only those whom God helps.
12 Some are born as eunuchs, some have been made eunuchs by others, and some choose not to marry for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.”
- God Has Everything to say about marriage, but people ignore and do the opposite.
- People in their free-will mimic a god like power of invention that goes against God.
- In Jeremiah 7, 19, and 32 the Lord says about the inventive evil from man’s free will:
“The people of Judah have sinned before my very eyes,” says the Lord. “They have set up their abominable idols right in the Temple that bears my name, defiling it.
31 They have built pagan shrines at Topheth, the garbage dump in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and there they burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing!
1 John 1.5
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth
Malachi 2.15-17
15 Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth.
16 “For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.
“How have we wearied him?” you ask.
- You have wearied him by saying that all who do evil are good in the Lord’s sight, and he is pleased with them.
You have wearied him by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”
Now let’s look at the goodness that God intended:
Genesis 1.26-28
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings[b] in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
27 So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
Psalm 128.1-4
1 How joyful are those who fear the Lord— all who follow his ways!
2 You will enjoy the fruit of your labor. How joyful and prosperous you will be!
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine, flourishing within your home.
Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table.
4 That is the Lord’s blessing for those who fear him.
Ephesians 5
31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”
32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.
33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
1 Corinthians 7
12 Now, I will speak to the rest of you, though I do not have a direct command from the Lord. If a fellow believer has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to continue living with him, he must not leave her.
13 And if a believing woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to continue living with her, she must not leave him.
14 For the believing wife brings holiness to her marriage, and the believing husband brings holiness to his marriage. Otherwise, your children would not be holy, but now they are holy.
15 (But if the husband or wife who isn’t a believer insists on leaving, let them go. In such cases the believing husband or wife is no longer bound to the other, for God has called you to live in peace.)
16 Don’t you wives realize that your husbands might be saved because of you? And don’t you husbands realize that your wives might be saved because of you?
- The Gospel isn’t just told by marriage, it is a means of holiness for people in this life - sons, daughters, husbands and wives are set apart for God’s affectionate attention.
- Why are our marriages so contentious, even inside the church?
- Why are our lives full of restlessness, and seemingly without remedy: more money, not more rest. More stuff, not more rest. More activities, not more rest.
- Whenever we have a goal of ‘other than God’s holiness’, we’re misrepresenting God design, God’s purpose, plan and provision.
- Moses can tell us all about misrepresenting God.
- Numbers 20:1-12
Deuteronomy 32.48-52
… in the wilderness … You failed to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel there.
52 So you will see the land from a distance, but you may not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”
- Moses misrepresented God. The church, in its failure to regard marriage with the holiness God intended, is misrepresenting God.
- Our lack of rest in marriage is because we’re not living in obedience to God’s structure for marriage.
Romans 5.6-11
6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.
7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.
8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.
10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.
11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
