A Theology Of Marriage

Life-Sharing Lesson 3 Marriage—What’s The Purpose Of It All

Genesis 2:24-25 (NIV) 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

We actually have two places in the bible that speaks of the creation of men and women. There is the very short of it in Genesis Genesis 1:26-28 (NIV)

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

We can see from this passage, when God created humanity, God created them male and female. It is the image of male and female that we are created in God’s image. The first instruction that God gave to them was to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. God created them with the idea of sex being part of his commandment and will for their lives. Sex was God’s idea right in the first words that came from God to them. This idea of sex and marriage was going to imitate God’s relationship in how he was going to relate to humanity.

Then we have another version of the creation of humankind taking place which goes into more detail. We have in Genesis 2:7 Genesis 2:7 (NIV)

7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Then a little later we have Adam in the Garden of Eden and God saying it was not good for the man to be alone and that God would make a helper suitable for him. We pick up the story again in Genesis 2:20-25 (NIV)

20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh.

22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ’woman,’ for she was taken out of man."

24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

In this second reading we get a clearer picture of the man and the woman being distinct from each other, yet have been created in a way in which they are able to express a oneness unlike any other thing in creation. God specifically created a woman to deal with the problem of isolation that Adam was experiencing. It’s not that Adam was saying, it would be nice to have a girlfriend, because he never knew what a girlfriend was. He was not sitting around on a Friday night saying he wished he had a date. You cannot miss what you never had. Have any of you sat around missing a million dollars. Since you never had it, you could not miss it.

It was not that kind of a aloneness that God was speaking when God said it’s not good for the man to be alone. It was God who recognized that Adam would not be able to understand what it was to be one as God was one in the Trinity. Remember God had said, “Let us make man in our image.” God had a unity in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but Adam had nothing to come close to compare that feeling of oneness to.

When God creates this idea of marriage, God already has in mind that the marriage relationship, would be the primary relationship of us as a people understanding our relationship to God. He lets them know that three things must happen for this relationship to take hold. Look at verse 24 again Genesis 2:24 (NIV) 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. A successful marriage is going to involve 3 specific acts.