Monday, April 28, 2014

Marriage Sacred?

There's been a lot of attention on marriage the last few years. What it is, what it isn't and who has the rights to define such things.  So these are some of the random thoughts I have had lately on marriage from a biblical perspective (a little deeper than normal):  

From God came man.  From man came a woman by God's hand, and out of woman comes all men and women by the creative breath of God upon the union of seed from man and egg from woman. God is the originator and creator.  He is the one who continues to create and He is the One who holds it all together.  

When man and woman come together in marriage they are uniting two parts of a whole and God is the Witness and the bond that brings those things together and in Him they are made complete. Man and woman in themselves are not whole for they did not have their beginning in themselves, but God.  Two people coming together in their own power, design and bond are but shadows of what God has intended and walk in disobedience.  God cannot bless disobedience

The marriage ceremony in church honors what God has created.  It recognizes the sacredness of the creation of this institution and both submits to His authority as well as invites His blessing upon the union.  It invites witnesses who also honor God to share in the joy, to bless the new union and to hold this new couple accountable to their vows to one another and to God.  For their union is not about themselves only.  

Marriage reveals God's Triune nature.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Three are One.  Husband, Wife and God united make a whole.  From this unity comes creation and new life.  From this new life God's plan is revealed, fulfilled and carried on to future generations.  

This is God's plan.  We also live in a broken world of our own design and have made a mess of His creation.  Certainly there is grace to cover and re-cover because of the cross of Christ. However, grace is not license to redesign. Grace does not put us on the throne.  Marriage is not ours to do with as we please.  We are to orbit  around God's designs for He is the center of all things, not demand that He orbit around our designs as if we were.  The blood of Christ and the accompanying grace allow us to break free from the destruction of serving self and instead start building our lives upon God's plan that brings new life and blessing.  

So the problem we face as a society is who gets to define what marriage is?  Is it about us? Our feelings? Our attractions? Our design?  Or is it about the One who made us and the design of man and woman coming together in empowered unity with God Himself.

Marriage is the fundamental building blocks of a society...the family unit. It is the main intersection of the sacred and the secular within a society.  It is the wellspring from which all things will be determined.  Sacred? Yes.  Important? Absolutely.