The Purpose of Marriage

The Purpose of marriage

God established marriage for several reasons. One was to provide Adam and Eve with everything they needed to receive their blessing and complete their task as his vice-regents over creation.

They could receive their blessing as two complementary but different individuals coming together emotionally and sexually as one. Working together they could begin the task of subduing the earth and ruling over its creatures. Implicit in God’s appointment of Adam and Eve as his vice-regents was the understanding that it couldn’t be accomplished apart from him. Adam and Eve couldn’t fulfill their charge unless they obeyed God–their earthly task was linked to the requirement of obedience.

They weren’t up to the task. They broke the link and forfeited their role as his vice-regents when they sinned and fell from grace. This left ultimate fulfillment of God’s commission to Jesus Christ. As the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45) he succeeded where the first Adam failed. Jesus has taken his rightful place through his work on the cross. He defeated death (1 Cor. 15:21-22) and sits at the right hand of the Father (Ps. 110:1) awaiting the time when he will return for his church and establish his thousand year reign on earth.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed they tarnished the blessing as well. God’s blessing to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth,” involved more than the one thing man’s been successful at, procreation. It included harmony and love between husbands and wives.

Though tarnished, the blessing wasn’t completely lost. In spite of the Fall, faithful marriage remains a great blessing emotionally, sexually and practically. Children are blessed by being in a loving, stable home and in turn are a blessing to their parents. These blessings spill over to society in general. Stable marriages are the basis of stable families and a stable society.

To a degree these blessings flow to both believers and unbelievers. They are part of God’s common blessings, like the rain he sends for both those who love him and those who hate him (Matt. 5:25). But the fullness of God’s blessings attend only to Christian marriages, for God had more than common blessings in view when he created marriage.

For Christian marriages God adds spiritual blessings, possible through the Holy Spirit’s indwelling. Such blessings still fall short of the full significance of marriage in God’s eyes. He didn’t establish marriage solely as a means to bless us and prepare us to fulfill his commission to serve him by subduing the earth and ruling over its creatures. He also embodied marriage with deep spiritual significance in two ways. One is as a reflection of the relationship between the three Persons of the Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The other is as a reflection of the relationship of Christ and the church, something Paul calls a great mystery. We’ll look at both, beginning with marriage as a reflection of the Trinty.

Though the full nature of the Trinity, one God in three persons, is beyond human understanding, we can briefly state the theological truth. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are three separate Persons, but one God. The three persons are a unity. They are of the same essence, eternally coexistent, and share the same purpose.

We may think of them as co-equal persons in the Godhead. The term “equal” isn’t a fully accurate qualifier regarding the Father, Son and Holy Spirit–inequality can’t exist within unity–it’s just the best we can do to describe the relationship in human terms.

Though the three Persons are one God, there is an element of difference between them. This is part of the mystery of God. For one, there is a hierarchy of authority and a differentiation of roles within the Trinity. John 3:16-17 tells us that God the Father “gave” and “sent” God the Son:

For  God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16–17)

Jesus came to us under the authority of the Father for the purpose of providing a means for us to be reconciled to God. Similarly, God the Holy Spirit, who indwells all Christians, was sent by the Father, at the request of and in the name of the Son, for the purpose of helping us and convicting the world concerning sin, righteous and judgement (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:6-8).

John 3:16-17 is one of many examples of the truth that there is both oneness and differentiation relative to the three persons of the Trinity. They’re of one essence, in perfect harmony, but have different authority and roles. Though we can’t understand the mystery, the truth of it isn’t in question–the Bible reveals it plainly.

Christian marriage is meant to reflect that relationship by analogy. God laid the foundation in the Garden of Eden. Two persons who are both the same and different unite as one. They’re equal in value, divided in authority and roles, and share the same purpose. As I illustrate these analogies in turn remember that marriage is a “reflection” of the relationship within the Trinity, not a precise duplication of it–God is unique.

First, God created man and woman as the same and yet different and made them one. They were the same in that both were created in the image of God. But they were also different.

The manner and timing of their creation was different. God created Adam first, in his own image. He formed him from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into him (Gen. 1:7). Eve was created second and differently. God fashioned her out of one of Adam’s ribs (Gen. 2:22). She too was made in the image of God, but her image came through Adam.

They were also physically different. He was male and she was female. They likely looked much like average males and females today. He was probably larger, more muscular, and more angular of frame than her. She probably had a smaller, softer, less muscular and more rounded body. He had a beard, but not her.

No doubt they were similar, but different emotionally as well, like men and women today. Their emotions were complementary, because God created them as a blessed couple. When they looked in each others eyes, held each other in their arms, and went about their daily lives they felt a deep connection. Apart each was missing something, but together they were one. They were the same, but different. Together, in marriage, they became one, a reflection of the Trinity.