He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.
[Proverbs 18:22]
We are living in a generation that is confused, ignorant, and deluded about so many things — the covenant of marriage being among them. When a minority of oligarchs in the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to “legalize” same-sex marriage in 2015, they attempted to redefine the oldest and most sacred of human relationships and social institutions.
Marriage will forever be the most intimate, important, and influential interpersonal relationship in life, and yet there is an entire generation now growing up and being intentionally indoctrinated by a culture that prides itself in the perversion and distortion of the true meaning of marriage.
So what does the Bible say about marriage?
Marriage is God’s Creation
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” … Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man … That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and the two become one flesh.
[Genesis 2:18, 22, 24 — NIV]
God is the Creator of all things and therefore the great Father of all invention. As Creator, God alone has the right and authority to determine the purpose and function of His creation. Marriage is God’s idea — His design — which means that He alone gets to say what it is and how it is defined.
God — in His infinite wisdom and knowledge — embedded purpose and established fixed parameters within the created order. There are natural laws built within creation that are designed by God to accomplish His will and purposes. Marriage is no exception.
God created marriage to be the most intrinsically intimate and binding relationship on earth. Nothing is more beautiful and sacred than the marriage relationship, as God uniquely designed the husband and wife to become united as one physically, emotionally, and spiritually [see Malachi 2:14-16].
Man has neither the right nor ability to redefine or repurpose anything in God’s creation, especially marriage.
Marriage exclusively is Reserved for one Man and one Woman for Life
So God created man in his own image,
[Genesis 1:27]
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Transgenderism and gender dysphoria represent yet another perverted delusion of our depraved culture, where the fixed, biological, binary realities of sex and gender are being replaced with some sick form of cognitive dissonance. Although I will save this topic for another day, it is impossible to discuss God’s design for marriage without addressing the biological laws of nature that manifest in two genders — male and female.
Biblical marriage from the beginning always has been reserved for one man and one woman for life. Although many of the patriarchs and kings violated God’s original design by taking multiple wives, this was never God’s will or intention. Just because God allowed polygamy and divorce and regulated them in a patriarchal society does not mean that God blessed or endorsed it.
Jesus Christ speaks authoritatively about God’s original intention for marriage.
He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
[Matthew 19:4-6]
Marriage is complementary in so many ways — the most obvious of which is physically. God brilliantly designed unique genetic and physiological differences between men and women that are harmoniously expressed within the consummation of the marriage bond. Hence the Scriptures remind us … “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” [Hebrews 13:4].
Marriage is the Foundation of the Family
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
[Genesis 1:28]
One of the primary purposes of God’s design for marriage is the amazing gift of procreation and the blessing of the nuclear family. From the beginning, God’s desire for all children born into the world is for them to be raised by both a mother and father in a safe, loving, and God-honoring home. The family is the foundation of society.
God has given mankind the mandate to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth as His image bearers and witnesses to the world. Every child born in a God-fearing home is raised in the love and admonition of the Lord and then sent out to make an impact for the Kingdom of God for the glory of God.
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
4Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
5Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
[Pslam 127:3-5]
Without Biblical marriage, the family disintegrates and society suffers. Nearly every problem facing our culture today begins with the erosion of the nuclear family and the disintegration of the home.
Marriage is a Living Display of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
[Ephesians 5:31-33]
Perhaps beyond all else, the greatest purpose of marriage is found at the very heart of Jesus Christ. God’s word tells us that when a husband and wife love and cherish one another in a faithful marriage relationship, they become living witnesses by putting the gospel on display.
When a husband sacrificially loves his wife and nurtures and protects and provides for her, he is demonstrating the very same sacrificial love and provision that Jesus Christ has for His bride — the church. When a wife faithfully trusts and willingly submits to the protective leadership of her husband, she is demonstrating the very same trust and dependency that the church should have in Jesus Christ.
It has been said that one of the greatest gifts parents can give their children is simply to love and honor one another well. The actions of a faithful and loving marriage often speak the gospel truer and louder than our words ever could.
By implication this also means that when we misrepresent and mar the image of marriage in our culture, we mar the message of the gospel and miss a powerful opportunity to be a witness to the world.
More than ever, our generation needs to reclaim a higher view of marriage, respect the sacredness of marriage, and recapture the eternal significance of one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind.
Days of Noah 