In this message, we move from Mark’s account of this story, to seeing what Matthew recorded about the same event (Matthew 19:10-12). We see that as the story unfolds, we journey into the realm of what we can call single living.
If singles and married couples are to build a Christ-centered marriage, it is mandatory for them to 1st: see God’s Marriage Picture of Jesus Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:32), 2nd: copy God’s examples, and then 3rd: build these things into their lives.
God is relentlessly trying to get us to submit to His will for our lives. As our example, Jesus, the Son of God, submitted to the Heavenly Father. Jesus submitted all the way to the cross, as it was the Father’s will for the Son to die for our sins. The Apostle John wrote, “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.” (1 John 4:14)
In our Eternal Marriage to Jesus Christ, Christians will be joined with Jesus for all eternity. In our earthly marriages, this picture is copied and seen when a man and a woman leave other relationships and cleave to one another. Jesus referred to this in Mark 10:6-9, “But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
When we understand God’s Marriage Picture, it informs and answers many things for us. God’s Marriage Picture is Jesus Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:22-33). When a marriage is done God’s way, it preaches John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
In today’s church, Christians seem to know more about divorce than about what God teaches on marriage. Yet, to better understand divorce from God’s perspective, we need to know what God says about marriage. Then, in knowing what God says about married life, a person can then better steer their course in life for single living. For us as Christians, to study our relationship with God, is to study the eternal marriage between Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Church. God’s eternal picture of marriage is: Jesus Christ and the Church inseparable for eternity. God’s earthly picture of marriage is: 1 husband and 1 wife inseparable for life. God’s eternal picture of marriage informs our earthly picture of marriage. This message is a brief overview of this teaching series on what the Bible has to say about married life and single life.