What is the point of marriage? Is it a celebration of present
love? Is it the pragmatic end of romance? And whose idea is marriage? Is it a cultural
construct? Is it a societal structure? These are all questions the church would
do well to consider, even more so in the context of the current cultural and
legal dialogues on marriage. And these are all questions the Bible is gracious
and faithful to answer.
The Bible makes it clear that marriage is not merely a
cultural construct whose parameters are nebulous in order to accommodate the
prevailing ideals of the day. Marriage does not belong to humanity in the sense
that we are free to alter or redefine it. Marriage belongs to God. It was God
who created the first man and who formed a helper suitable and fit to
compliment him, a woman, Eve, who God himself walked to meet Adam. Then the Bible
makes a profound statement: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother
and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2.24). The
one man, Adam, and the one woman who was fashioned out of his own flesh, are to
unite again in the covenantal union of marriage. One flesh (Adam) becomes two (Adam
and Eve) who become one anew in marriage. This is the beautiful design of the
Divine. God is the architect of marriage. Like the occupants of a building do
not own the design of the building’s architect and are thus unauthorized to
revise it, so too are we unauthorized and unable to redefine the design of the
Architect of marriage. The only role the State or culture at large has in
marriage is to recognize and affirm that which God has ordained. Any attempt to
revise that which God has created is nothing short of a blasphemous rejection
of God himself who has given us marriage for our joy and the flourishing of our
world. Any discussion or debate about marriage is not a legal or cultural
issue, it is an obedience issue.
So the church must hold unwavering to the biblical truth
that marriage belongs to God. And if marriage belongs to God, the question
arises—what is marriage for? To what end has God ordained marriage be directed?
The Bible offers a far deeper and richer and higher picture of marriage than
the one painted by our culture. Often marriage is reduced to the pragmatic end
of a present love. In other words, most people think marriage is the logical
culmination of their present romance. There is rightly a celebration of the
present love, but there lacks any real promise of future love. There is rightly
a recognition of the present and tangible, but there is no recognition of a reality
that lies beyond. Biblically, marriage points beyond the present and even
beyond itself. The apostle Paul, reflecting on Genesis 2.24 writes, “This
mystery is profound, and I am saying it refers to Christ and the church”
(Ephesians 5.32). This is profound indeed! The covenantal union of a man and
woman in marriage, therefore, is less a celebration of present love but a
promise of future love.[1]
As such, marriage itself is but a shadow the substance of the gospel. Marriage
points beyond itself to the great reality of Christ and His bride. The marital covenant
between a man and a woman pictures the covenant God has made with His people in
Christ. This is truly profound!
Think of the shadow cast by a tree. Unaltered and uninterrupted,
the shadow on the ground is an exact outline of the tree itself. Even the individual
leaves can be seen dancing in the wind. The shadow on the ground, while dark
and two-dimensional, reveals the tree. Yet the shadow is not the tree. So it is
with marriage. Marriage is not the gospel, but marriage is to serve as a glimpse,
a foretaste of the reality of the gospel. This has far reaching implications,
but the point to be made for now is that to alter the shadow of marriage in any
extra-biblical or unbiblical way, including but certainly not limited to
same-sex “marriage”, will ultimately veil and obscure the reality of the gospel
to which the marriage of a man and a woman is to point. Man and woman were made
for each other. They complement one another. And these realities find their
fullest expression in the covenant of marriage that ultimately points to the fittedness
of Christ and the church and Christ’s eternally enduring love for her. Think
again of a tree and its shadow. If it were possible to erase the shadow of some
of the branches or to add new shadows of branches, the shadow on the ground
would fail to accurately depict the reality of the tree. Though it may still
depict a tree, it will no longer
depict the tree from which it is
cast. And if alterations to the shadow were indeed possible, the tree’s shadow
could morph and evolve into the shape of a man at which point there is lost any
connection to the reality of the tree. Seeing the shadow of a man on the
ground, one would look up surprised and confused to find the presence of a
tree. So too will the gospel be lost if the shadow of marriage is freed from
its natural constraints to evolve and morph based on cultural whims and
societal fancies.
May the church be faithful and zealous to preserve the biblically
defined shadow of marriage, not only in her own life but also in the world at
large, so that the substance of the gospel of grace and joy and life will be
pictured in the world.
[1] I
am indebted to Tim Keller for this insight.
No comments:
Post a Comment