God’s Design for Marriage: A Theology of Marriage From Genesis to Revelation
By John Stemberger

Introduction:
Ravi Zacharias has said that “if there is one clue to the meaning of life, it can be found in relationships.”

And one of the most central and important of all human relationships is marriage.

But talking about marriage as a topic is really an un-common thing. Marriage itself is a common thing– but talking about marriage as an institution, is kind of like talking about the oxygen we breathe. And marriage is a little bit like the air we breathe. Oxygen is everywhere and all around us. Yet we don’t really think about Oxygen because we can’t see it, we
can’t touch it and it’s not tangible. And so we can often take air for granted. But it is only when our air is altered at the essence of what it is at a molecular level or is severely polluted, do we suddenly realize how important this stuff is and we realize we need it immediately to survive!

Marriage is like that also. Marriage is all around us and everywhere. Yet we can’t really see it, or touch it. And we really don’t have conversations about marriage as a human institution. And so we can easily take marriage for granted.

But I would submit to you that it is only when marriage is altered in the essence of what it is, as the union of one man and one woman, do we suddenly realize how important this stuff is and we need it immediately to survive for the next generation!

So much of what we believe is really just made up of ideas and assumptions that we soak up from the world– which may or may not line up with God’s word and his design for human relationships. And things are changing in our world. And changing really fast. Our values, our standards and our beliefs are changing so quickly as a society that we have to ask ourselves…

How does God feel about all these changes?

Now you would certainly not go out and buy a new Harley Davidson or a new Lexus SC and then just guess about what the owner’s manual has to say about the type of gas and intervals of maintenance the car should have. The beauty of the Bible is that it is like the owner’s manual –or the operational manual for the human experience. The more we can align our beliefs, our values, our passions and our actions to God’s design for the greatest product he has ever created, the healthier, happier and most optimal fulfillment we will have in life.

The framers had this beautiful saying they placed into the Declaration that says this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” But we are living in a day and in an age where there is no self-evident truth at all. Even the most basic pre-suppositions of life are up for grabs. What is a man? What is a woman? What is a life? What is a marriage?

And we live in a world where we are seeing cataclysmic social change that is unprecedented in the history of human affairs. And while much social change has been good in our country’s history, the changes we are seeing today are being directed at radically redefining human institutions that serve civilization since the beginning of time.

Things that were unthinkable, just 15, 20 years ago, are now not only thinkable, but they are being promoted as virtuous and have been afforded the full force of legal protection and in some cases have been smuggled into the constitution illegitimately.

As the Bible says, we as a society now call “evil good and good evil.” But do we have the discernment to know the difference between good and bad, virtue and vice and know how to respond?  Again, how does God feel about these changes?

So let’s look into God’s word and look at His design for the most intimate and ultimate of all human relationships — marriage.

Read the full article here: https://www.flfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/A-Theology-of-Marriage-From-Genesis-to-Revelation.pdf

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