“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.…” (Revelation 22:17a)
“Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death…Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.” (Song of Solomon 8:6, 7)
I would like to emphasize three major thoughts about the sacredness of a Christian wedding, and all have to do with what the institution of marriage represents.
1. Marriage is a sacred bond that pictures the unique and special relationship between God and the believer in Jesus Christ. When a person accepts Jesus as his Saviour, he becomes, in a sense, married to Christ, Who promises in turn that He will “…never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” At that moment, that person becomes a part of the bride of Christ. The bride of Christ is that body of believers who, when Jesus returns, will be caught up in the air with Him to rule and reign forever. When Jesus comes for His bride, the Bible says that He will return as a bridegroom for her. There will be rejoicing in Heaven on that day. That is why we are supposed to be preparing ourselves for His coming even as a bride prepares for her wedding day. We are to anticipate it, look forward to it, and watch for His appearing. Until that day arrives, God has left us a visible reminder of His undying love for us. The intimate bond of marriage between a husband and wife on earth is a picture of the glorious union we will have someday with Jesus in Heaven. Our marital relationship is to reflect the same kind of love that God has for us as outlined in I Corinthians 13. When it does, the world sits up and takes notice. God gets the glory as mankind reaches out to know and embrace the One Who is the Teacher of such love. Each part of the triune nature of God, represented by the three persons of the Godhead (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit), is also reflected in the union of the man and the woman. Man represents God the Father; the woman represents God the Holy Spirit, and the child (a product of their relationship) represents God the Son. Even as Jesus said in John 10:30, “I and my Father are one,” so the union of man and woman in marriage makes them one flesh. “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)
2. Marriage as ordained by God is being perverted by wicked, evil men. Notice in the above passage that the verse says a “man” shall cleave unto his “wife.” The relationship is to be a male/female one, not male/male or female/female or adult/beast. The world, under the influence of Satan, seeks to pervert the institution of marriage. They pervert it because they just want to do be able to do what they want to do. Satan influences them to pervert it because it pictures the union of God with mankind. Satan despises God and all that God loves, so he seeks to pervert anything that is a reflection of Who God is or which would point a person to Jesus. He has succeeded in perverting many relationships between husband and wife through the sinful practices of adultery, idolatry, fornication and all manner of sexual sins. It is Satan’s plan to distort, destroy, or diminish any representation of God, especially if it represents purity or holiness in any form. Even as Satan tries to keep a person from becoming a believer in Christ through false doctrines and humanistic ideology, so Satan tries to keep people from knowing the joy and happiness that a marriage can bring through a distortion of the truth. He knows that if he can destroy a marriage, he will destroy potential future generations as well. This is one of many reasons why gay and lesbian marriages are so wrong. Not only is reproduction an impossibility, but it makes a mockery of God’s love, His holiness, and His design. By perverting what God sanctioned to be a picture of self- less, sacrificial, and fruitful love, Satan was able to substitute selfish, prideful, lustful, perverted lust in its place. God calls same-sex marriages an abomination. It is a strong word that means it makes God puke. It is an abomination to a holy God to promote, encourage, accept, or justify same-sex marriages.
3. Wedding symbols are a reflection of the values in which we believe. Heterosexual marriages have greatly changed in the last number of years to exclude parts of the wedding ceremony that do not reflect the couple’s values. One of these is in the saying of the vows. Many brides are deleting from their vows the promises to, “love, cherish, and obey.” In addition, women are not only wearing wedding gowns that flaunt a provocative display of flesh, but impurity at the altar has become an accepted practice that requires no display of remorse even when white is worn. Virgins are laughed at and made fun of even by teachers at school. The moral code of ethics has sadly eroded. If we are not careful to preserve our morals, our integrity, our ethics, or our values and beliefs, we will lose them.
A wedding is sacred because it is a visible representation of our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. If we are unfaithful to our spouse, then we portray our God as being unfaithful to us. If we divorce, we portray that our God is not big enough to have the solutions to our problems. If we do not love our spouse as God loves us, then the world gets an erroneous picture of God’s love for mankind. Everything we do or don’t do in our relationship with our spouse is a reflection on our wonderful Saviour. That is why it is imperative that we must keep our vows. It is imperative that we love our spouse. It is imperative that we reflect godliness in our lives and toward one another or the very Word of God is blasphemed and ridiculed as useless by the world. Someone is watching you. Please have a cause higher than yourself! “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” (I Timothy 4:12)
This series is an excerpt from Mrs. Hooker’s book Your Body Is Not Your Own Volume 1.
