By Nancy Eskijian
Nancy Eskijian is Senior Pastor of Bread of Life Foursquare
Gospel Church in Los Angeles, California, and author of Restoration NOW!, nominated
for 2012 Christian Small Publisher Book of the Year. Her latest book, Everything You Ever
Wanted to Know About Sex and Gender and the Bible, What’s Hot and What’s Not
According to Scripture, deals with the issues of same-sex attraction,
abortion, gay marriage and other issues affecting today’s culture. Along with being a pastor in an inner city
church, Nancy worked for several years as a lawyer in the position of Vice
President and Senior Counsel for a major Southern California corporation. Visit www.RestorationNowMinistry.com
for more information.
Much has been written about the
Supreme Court of the United States opening the door for same sex couples to
marry. While any nation may pass civil laws and call same sex unions “marriage,”
enabling rights and privileges under the law, such unions have little in common
with the Biblical significance, intention and definition of marriage. For those
of us who believe in the God of the Bible as the originator and Creator of
life, then we accept that everything flows from Him, and all relationships have
a spiritual dimension, especially marriage. In the beginning God created man in
His image. Genesis 1:27 - 28
(NKJV) states: “27So God created man in His own
image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28Then God blessed them, and God
said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply.”
Let’s
ponder that statement for a moment: gender is part of the very image of God,
and that is why it is so important and non-negotiable. We also see that God
blessed them, male and female, as individuals and as a unit, with the charge to
be fruitful and multiply. There are many things we can have and be in this
life, but not everything is blessed. In the scripture, we see God blessed their
individual identity and unity, releasing them to multiply and exercise dominion,
as the rest of the scripture goes.
In
Genesis 2:23, the creation of woman and the origin of marriage are described
further and merged together. God put
Adam into a deep sleep and took a rib out of Adam’s side. Genesis
2:23—“23And Adam said, This is now bone of my
bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken
out of Man 24Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
That’s why husbands are to love their
wives for no man hates his own flesh. The
oneness means that she is physically part of him. It’s now personal—the woman
is taken out of his side.
Jesus Himself reiterated the Genesis scriptures in Mark
10:6 - 9 (NKJV) “6But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ 7‘For this reason a man shall leave his
father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh’;
so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God
has joined together, let not man separate.”
Here
are a few important points that express God’s order, intent and revelation in marriage
from a Biblical perspective:
1. From the beginning of creation, God created
male and female, and He physically designed them to be joined together and they
reflect His image. He blessed their gender and unity as “one flesh,” forming a
new creative order. Similarly, when we come to the Lord we merge with
His body spiritually through the Holy Spirit and become a new creation, His
body, and bride, under the new covenant, taken out of His side, the second Adam.
2.
The married couple leaves family of origin to start something new. The Lord
sets out a personal governmental order, the family unit, with husband and
wife, mother and father, if there are children.
The man departs from one home to create another governmental structure
with himself and his wife. As believers,
we leave an old life to be merged in Christ for a new life under a new
headship.
3. As the man cleaves to his wife, neither is to
be self-identified any more, but instead identified with the new family unit.
This is an important spiritual point, too, as we enter into Christ. We are no
longer just self-identified, but part of Him under the new covenant. Marriage reflects the divine purpose of God
to form a new covenantal order.
4. The family unit is where the Lord sets out human
sexual order, because it unites God-ordained and God-designed creations,
for sexual relations, and to be fruitful and multiply.
5. Reproductive order: A new creation has occurred (man and woman as
one) to give birth in the natural to other new creations (babies), just as
Christ is married to His church, (a new creation), and that union expands His
family (spiritual babies).
6. God’s stamp of approval is on marriage
because it reflects a divine pattern of Christ and His church. So, the
union reflects a divine order.
The
earthly relationship of marriage is a reflection of a divine pattern,
for unity, fruitfulness, fulfillment, responsibility, and a divine covenant.
In fact, all of creation and redemption (God’s act of love to give us a new
life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ) is reflected in the
marriage relationship and covenant. This simply cannot be altered by men and
women in black robes or by popular vote.
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