True
Marriage
Different things
come under threat in our nation at different
times. Supremely, at the present time, it is
marriage which is threatened. As we are aware, the
coalition government has published proposals to
‘redefine’ marriage and to legislate in favour of
what it terms ‘same-sex marriages’, so that two
men or two women could ‘marry’ one another. Not so
very long ago it would have been inconceivable
(for all the moral downgrade in society) that such
a proposal would be made. It is a most solemn
indication to us of how things have changed in our
society, and that for the worse.
Marriage is defined at present in English law in
these terms: ‘the voluntary union for life of one
man and one woman, to the exclusion of all
others’. This is absolutely right – and the truth
it expresses derives, of course, not from man but
from God. Marriage goes right back to creation
itself – that is why we refer to it as a creation
ordinance. God instituted it for all of mankind
for all time – not just for Christians. It is his
purpose and his pleasure for all, whether they
acknowledge him or not. It is of divine design,
and so for that reason alone it is not the place
of any governments, societies or individuals to
alter it. Man cannot ‘redefine’ what God himself
has ‘defined’. Marriage is not open to
‘redefinition’. ‘Therefore a man shall leave his
father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and
they shall become one flesh’ (Genesis 2:24). That
could not be clearer: ‘a man’ and ‘his wife’.
The first marriage which ever took place was
between Adam and Eve. It was God who made them for
one another, brought them together, and married
them. That is the abiding pattern. Nothing has
changed, because God and his design have not
changed. A man and a woman enter into a solemn,
binding and blessed covenant with one another, in
the presence of God and of other witnesses. This
is so whether the marriage takes place in a church
building or elsewhere. Its purpose is first and
foremost the glory of God, and it provides the
only divinely provided and sanctioned setting both
for sexual intimacy and the procreation and
upbringing of children.
There is something else about marriage which
should never be forgotten and which sets it off
with a peculiar lustre. It speaks of and reflects
something of the very special union, through
grace, of the Lord Jesus Christ (the Bridegroom)
and the church (his bride). This is evident in
many Scriptures, both of Old and New Testaments
(it is what the Song of Songs is all about); but
perhaps it is worked out with particular emphasis
in the latter part of Ephesians 5. Here, the
apostle Paul, having set out the varied and mutual
duties of husband and wife, focused in the two
commands of wifely submission and husbandly love,
builds up to this amazing and glorious statement:
‘This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it
refers to Christ and the church’ (Ephesians 5:32).
To return to our present predicament in the
nation, what should we do? We should pray, pray
and pray again that God will have mercy upon us
and preserve marriage only and precisely as he has
intended from the start. We should make whatever
representations we can in the cause of upholding
true marriage, whether by writing letters, signing
petitions, speaking with MPs, and so on. In
addition to all of this, however, may the Spirit
of God so inhabit our own marriages, those of us
who are married, that the glory and wisdom of God,
the beauty and loveliness of Christ, and the truth
and force of Scripture will be so evident and so
commended that the true nature of true marriage
cannot be gainsaid.
