Marriage On The Edge Of Eternity Series

How this speaks to those who are married…or may enter a marriage relationship one day…

It may sound like Jesus is denouncing marriage.

Far from it. Jesus embraced marriage as a sacred part of creation…. A gift to be honored.

Through marriage… we become those who share in covenant. The nature of marriage is that of entering a covenant… not a contract based on merits..but a covenant in which one chooses to unite themselves to another… a reflection of what God extends to us. Jesus understands that as covenant partners – marriage is “a signpost of God’s nature” in this temporal world. But it is a temporal world…and one day that covenant will be fully fulfilled and the signpost will come to an end.

And Jesus knows that God designed that marriage relationship with the sacred potential to create life… we become co-creators. But in the age to come…this too will come to an end.

What Jesus brings forth…is that: Marriage is a means …not an end.

We need to keep the ends in mind… in fact…at the forefront of how we live.

This is what the apostle Paul calls us into as well.

In the Book of Ephesians, he says… marriage is a reflection of Christ’s love for the church. He says…“Husbands, love your wives…as Christ loves the church…,”

But in would 1 Corinthians 7 Paul speaks of how marriage has the potential of distracting us from this undistracted devotion to the Lord. He tells the married couples, “Hey, those who are married, live as though you are not” (see 1 Corinthians 7:29).

Marriage is a means that can serve God…but it is not the ends that we are making it.

There is something bigger than you just enjoying each other. The time is short, and that is why he says: “Those who are married, live as though you are not.” There is something bigger than the two of you.

He places marriage in the light of eternity… that which we are living on the edge of.

His point is not about marriage…it’s about eternity.

“Marriage is great, but it's not forever. It's until death do us part. Then come eternal rewards or regrets depending on how we spent our lives.” – Francis Chan

Our bodies and affections have become more attached to what is temporary.

So we think of heaven as simply an extension of all that is good here… those we love… what we enjoy.

I can’t imagine not being bound to my wife… my children in the same way I am now. But that may be the point.

We are small minded.

Jesus doesn’t suggest that we won’t remain intimate…or bound by the earthly lives we shared…it will just be different… the fulfillment of what we enjoy but never fully satisfy in this age.

For those who hesitate at this remark because their marriage has been so good … just remember…. heaven will be even better.

We need to expand our realization for the changes between this age and the age to come.

Marriage will not be the only human institution that we find on earth will also not be in heaven. There will be no social classes, no slavery… no inequality between genders.

Women will be equal to men. Slaves will be equal to their former owners. Poor will be equal to rich.