Question
7. Is marriage permanent and eternal?
Answer:
Marriage is a permanent union in this life but not an eternal union. After this life, there is no giving and
taking in marriage.
Comment: Marriage
is permanent in this life, but it is not eternal. (On the permanence of marriage, see also the
discussion of divorce in question 10.)
1.
Temporal
Institution: As a procreational institution, marriage
does not apply after death in the time of the resurrection and age to come. Both sex and marriage are discontinued when the
creation mandate to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1.28) is fulfilled.
Matthew
19:6 So
they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together,
let not man separate." [The permanence
of marriage in this life.]
1
Corinthians 7:10-11 To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should
not separate from her husband 11
(but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her
husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife. [Paul shows that he is
aware of the Lord’s teaching on the permanence of marriage and its application
to divorce and remarriage.]
Matthew 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given
in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
[Marriage is not eternal.]
2. Heterosexuality: This
fact implies that marriage is designed for a male and female, not homosexual,
union (which is sinful in any case). It
is an institution ordained by God in the present age and not in the age to come
so that, in this age, we might fulfill the creation mandate to be fruitful and
multiply. Close friendship does not
constitute marriage.
Genesis 1:27-28 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. 28
And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and
fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the
earth."
3. Procreation: The
proper instruments (male and female reproductive
organs; cf. Romans 1:26-27), the proper act
(sex in marriage), and the proper institution
(holy matrimony) go together even if the primary purpose and result
(child-bearing) is not forthcoming. Marriage
is a procreational institution for a male and a female, even if sex within the
marriage is not always procreational. If
this were not so, then unfruitful marriages in Scripture would be dissolved,
but they are not. Also, if this were not
so, then Paul would not have encouraged married couples to have sex to deal
with sexual appetite to avoid temptation but rather have insisted that all
sexual acts in marriage would only be for procreating (1 Corinthians 7:2-5).
4. Remarriage: Because
marriage is not eternal, a widow or widower may remarry another Christian after
the death of the spouse.
1 Corinthians 7:39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But
if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the
Lord.
Romans 7:2-3 Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while
he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of
marriage. 3 Accordingly, she
will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is
alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries
another man she is not an adulteress.
1
Timothy 5:14 So I
would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and
give the adversary no occasion for slander.
5.
Sex,
Gender, and Identity: Since marriage is not eternal, sex
(which, according to the Bible, belongs only in marriage) cannot be a defining
part of one’s identity; its role is relativized with respect to the purpose of
procreation. One’s biological sex is an
expression of one’s gender, not separable from it. Celibate men and women are still male and
female and still reflect the image of God even though they do not undertake the
creation mandate to be fruitful and multiply.
There is no indication that gender will disappear in eternity when the
giving and taking in marriage will end.
On
being created in the image of God, see: Genesis 1:26-27; 5:3; 9:6; Psalm
8:6; Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 11:7; 15:49; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:4;
Colossians 1:15; 3:10-11; Galatians 3:27-28.
[The Old Testament states that men and women, whose gender corresponds
to their biological sex, are created in the image of God. The New Testament introduces the notion of a
new creation in Christ, with Christ as the image of God and believers being
formed in him into the image of God.
This notion of representing another’s image—e.g., 1 Cor. 11:7—does not
preclude both males and females being created in God’s image and equally formed
in Christ, the image of God.]
No comments:
Post a Comment