Marriage Mirrors the Gospel

In last week’s Sunday Seminar, I said the Bible presents marriage as a metaphor of the gospel:  “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church…” (Ephesians 5:25).  And I noted that several authors point this out and draw out its significance.  For example:

Trevin Wax, The Thrill of Orthodoxy, “Marriage is not a one-off doctrine disconnected from the rest of Christian teaching.  The Bible begins and ends with a marriage ceremony, the first in a garden between a man and a woman, and the last in a garden city when the church is united to Christ the bridegroom, and heaven and earth are reunited forever” (p. 83).

Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage:  “Marriage was designed to be a reflection of the saving love of God for us in Christ” (p. 8).

Rebecca McLaughlin, The Secular Creed:  marriage involves male and female:  “Like Christ and the church, it’s love across differ­ence.  Like Christ and the church, it’s love built on sacrifice.  Like Christ and the church, it’s a … life-creating, never-ending, exclusive love.  Marriage is meant to point us to Christ” (p. 31).

Sam Allberry, Is God Anti-Gay?:  marriage is “meant to reflect the grace that God shows to his people in Christ…. Human marriage is a reflection of this supreme heavenly marriage between Christ and his people” (pp. 22-23, first edn.).

Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way:  “A marriage cannot rightly depict God’s relationship with his people if it lacks faithfulness, or pleasure, or fruitfulness—or sex difference.  The metaphor demands it” (p. 38).

And so, redefining marriage (e.g., by including same-sex unions) distorts the gospel!  We’re not surprised that non-believers feel free to do this, but the Christ-follower is called to uphold the Bible-based, gospel-magnifying model.  Marriage is a “major” for the Christian—not a “minor” on which we can agree to disagree.