Marriage: A Reflection of Christ’s Love
In the grand tapestry of human relationships, marriage stands out as a unique and sacred institution. Created by God to reflect the love between Christ and his bride, the church, marriage is a divine revelation that holds eternal significance. Though our earthly relationships are marred by sin, they can still point us toward this ultimate reality, giving us hope and encouragement.
A Cosmic Vision of Marriage
Ray Ortlund’s book, “Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel,” lays out a breathtaking vision of marriage as taught in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. This volume honors and exalts marriage as a grand display of the gospel, offering hope for our marriages today. As Ortlund writes, “Marriage is not a human invention; it is a divine revelation. Its design never was our own made-up arrangement of infinite malleability.”
Rediscovering Scripture
To truly understand marriage, we must return to biblical teachings. Ortlund yearns for a recovery of joyful confidence in marriage as God originally gave it to us. This requires a humble, thoughtful return to Scripture as the consensus of our culture. Only then can we see human sexuality restored and marriage flourish.
The Relational Quality of Marriage
The Bible reveals that we live in a universe where ultimate reality is relational. Marriage is a reflection of this reality, and when we trust God enough to accept his account of manhood and womanhood, the relational quality of our marriages can open up to deeper possibilities than we could ever create on our own.
Facing Our Failures
The first step in every marriage toward an imperfect but real taste of Eden is not to cover our anguish with self-approval but to face our failures, deceits, and sins with utter honesty before God and each other. Without peace with God, we inevitably shatter the peace we desire with one another.
A Remnant of Eden
Despite our sinful nature, God has allowed us to keep the gift of marriage, a remnant of Eden. Every marriage is worth working at, worth fighting for, because it has the potential to bring redemption into the broken world we live in. Our imperfect marriages are worth celebrating because they are a reflection of the eternal marriage between Christ and his bride.
A Prophetic Whisper
Human marriage has always been intended by God to serve as a prophetic whisper of the eternal marriage. The whole of cosmic reality exists as the venue for the eternal honeymoon of the perfect husband with his perfect bride in marital bliss forever and ever. This is the breathtaking claim of the Bible.
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