Recently, I have made the statement: “How a church invests in marriage determines its Gospel impact in the community.” More precisely, how a church models and teaches biblical marriage and parenting determines its usefulness in the community. Now let me say it this way: When a church gives up on biblical marriage, it loses its purpose and thus its right to exist.
How can I be so bold? Why would anyone make marriage the “line in the sand” on the future of the church? Am I just a backward traditionalist? Am I afraid of diversity? Or am I a judgmental hypocrite? Any of that would make this an easier issue altogether. How hard is it to find support for an ole fashioned hypocrite stoning?
But biblical marriage is not on the margins of God’s redeeming purpose. It is not a secondary issue at all. How we dress, how we manage our money, what music we enjoy, how we educate our kids, or how we navigate friendships are important issues to people of faith. Opinions on those issues are varied, but they are not central to how the church advances the Gospel. That is simply not the case with marriage.
Here are four reasons marriage is central to the identity and usefulness of the church.
God ordained marriage.
In Genesis 1 & 2, we see God take the initiative and create Adam and Eve, and establish the first marital union. He defined marriage as between a man and woman, and called them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. God, not humans, created marriage as a foundational institution in society. So the church does not look to the state to define marriage. We look to God, and then we promote and honor marriage as He defined it.
God ordained marriage to produce children.
In addition to the wonderful companionship marriage gives to a husband and wife, God created marriage to produce a godly offspring. Children are not only a blessing from the Lord, but children are a gift from a husband and wife to the Lord. They are intended to promote the glory of God in all the earth. Therefore, God designed man and woman for a one-flesh union that is the necessary biological act that produces children. Same-sex relations cannot do that. Instead, same sex relations, like many heterosexual relationships, are celebrated primarily for the selfish interests or self-actualization of the participants. While God intends a husband and wife to enjoy one another, the biblical marriage was created to advance the glory of God through the next generation.
God ordained marriage to proclaim the Gospel.
The prophet Hosea loved his adulterous wife Gomer with an enduring love. Their covenant marriage was a picture of God’s pursuing love for His people. Even when we fail Him, He never leaves us. But that is not all Hosea and Gomer’s marriage teaches us. When we rebelled against God and found ourselves enslaved by sin, Jesus purchased us, redeemed us, by His blood. Before there was John 3:16, there was the covenant marriage relationship between a man and woman announcing the redeeming love of Jesus. The Gospel is muted when marriage is marginalized.
God ordained marriage to picture Jesus’ perfections.
A husband and wife compliment one another so that two become one flesh. The two fit together in a natural way both physically and emotionally. In Ephesians 5, Paul instructed husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church and for wives to submit to their husbands as to the Lord. The complimentary relationship between a husband and wife demonstrate the perfect character of Jesus and His love for the church. On the other hand, a same-sex relationship is unnatural and unrighteous (Romans 1). Any sex act, for that matter, outside of the marriage relationship between a man and woman is sin and falls short of the glory of God.
So the church that denies or even marginalizes biblical marriage denies the Gospel, teaches false doctrine, and leads people away from Jesus not Him. We cannot affirm what the Bible condemns and still be on mission with Jesus. But wonderfully, the church that promotes biblical marriage promotes the power of the Cross to reconcile lost sinners to a holy God. That church reaches out with truth, grace, forgiveness, and hope for every one of us who will trust in Jesus. That is the church on mission. And that is the church Jesus has promised to build.
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