Marriage is a covenant commitment between one man and one woman for one lifetime that is to be marked by vulnerability, transparency, and intimacy...

This week we have been asking the question “What is marriage?”  In other words, is the nature of marriage simply a legal contract between two parties? Is marriage simply about a sexual relationship between two people? Is marriage simply about a personal relationship between two people who are in love? Or is the nature of marriage something more than these definitions of marriage?

To answer this question, I would like for us to spend our time together looking at a section of the very first letter that is recorded for us in the Bible called the book of Genesis. We discovered that we have been divinely designed to live in relationship with God and one another and have been given responsibility over the earth as His representative here on earth. In addition, in God’s design, men and women have equal value and worth as being created in God’s relational image. However, there is a distinctiveness between men and women: male and female He created them”.

Then, in Genesis chapter 2 we read that God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. God then gave Adam a job to tend the garden and name the animals and just one command to follow; don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We discovered that God created humanity for work and gave humanity amazing freedom and responsibility.

However, God saw something that was not good. And what is not good, God explains is for the man to be alone. Adam was unique as an image bearer of God. And as God looked at Adam and his uniqueness, God immediately saw that was not good. God responded to the uniqueness of Adam and the lack of an equal that would complement Adam and that could connect and correspond to him by creating women.

And as Adam woke up; and as God brought Eve into Adam’s presence, we see Adam’s response revealed for us in Genesis 2:23. And it is here that we are given a front row seat to the very first marriage. So, let’s take that front row seat together in Genesis 2:23:

The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man."

Now, can you imagine what that must have been like? Can you imagine what was going through Adam’s mind as he first saw Eve? Now while we were not there, for many of us here this morning, we can totally imagine what was going through Adam’s mind, can’t we? We can totally relate to what was going through Adam’s mind because many of us have been there haven’t we?

Whether male or female, we have been there when that person enters into our lives that compliments us and connects and corresponds to us like no one else can. Men, we have been at that place in our lives where there has been a woman enters into our lives and we respond “wo-man!” Ladies, we have been at a place in our lives where that man enters into our lives and we respond “wow, there is a man!” And even if you have not experienced that yet, you are looking forward to that day and longing for that day, aren’t you? And there is a reason why that is the case. Moses reveals for us that reason in Genesis 2:24:

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

For this reason; in other words, because it is not good for man to be alone in his uniqueness; because it is not good for a woman to be alone in her uniqueness; a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh. And it is here that we see revealed for us the timeless answer to the question “What is marriage?” And that timeless answer is this: Marriage is a covenant commitment between one man and one woman for one lifetime that is to be marked by vulnerability, transparency, and intimacy.

God created the institution of marriage and has a divine design for marriage. And that divine design for marriage is that a man and woman cut the cord, so to speak, from their parents and join together in a covenant commitment that involves one man and one woman for one lifetime and become one flesh. Now this phrase “one flesh” is not just talking about the physical aspect of sex. You see, marriage was designed by God to be a relationship that is marked by vulnerability, transparency and intimacy.

You see, marriage is not a contract where two parties agree to do certain things for each other and make promises about how they will conduct your life together that can be dissolved at any time. Instead, marriage is a covenant commitment that can only be revoked through death of one of the parties or by one of the parties entering into another covenant agreement. Marriage is not just legal in nature. Marriage was designed by God to involve more than simply “cutting the cord” to get out of the house.

And marriage is not just sexual in nature.  Marriage was designed by God to involve more than sex. Just because you have had sexual intercourse with someone, that does not constitute marriage in the eyes of God. And marriage is not just personal in nature. Marriage was designed by God to involve more than just being “in love”.  You see, marriage is not about love. Instead marriage is about commitment. People who are in love get married, but at the end of the day, marriage is about making a covenant commitment to one another before God.

Marriage, according to God’s design, is not simply about love, or sex, or a legal piece of paper. Instead marriage, according to God’s design, is about all of these aspects combined in a covenant commitment between one man and one woman for the entirety of one’s lifetime. Marriage, according to God’s design, is about bringing the distinctiveness of a man and a woman together to compliment one another by uniting them together in a covenant commitment for their lifetime.

Any other definition of marriage that does not line up with this definition of marriage is not marriage as God designed it. And while countries and societies can choose to define marriage different than God designed for legal purposes in terms of a contract, that does not change how God designed and defines marriage.

Now a natural question that could arise here is “Well Dave how does this definition of marriage line up with what Jesus had to say about marriage? Does marriage matter to Jesus?” Next week, we will spend our time together asking and answering that question...