One Flesh in Two Persons: Marriage

Word from the Center
Written By LCRL Staff

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For six days, God had been creating the world. He spoke and light appeared, earth took form, land appeared out of the great sea. The sun, moon, and stars shown in the sky. Plants grew on the ground, fish swam in the sea, and animals roamed the earth.

Now Father, Son and Holy Spirit conferred and said let us make man just like us. And so, he made us –male and female. He planted a garden, came down, and formed Adam (His name means “ground, soil” in Hebrew) from the soil and breathed life into him. But something still was not quite right. Adam was alone.

So, God brought all the animals to him. He named them all one by one. While they were good, something just was not right. Dogs and cats just didn’t do it. So, God made woman from his own bones. Now at last man was just like God—two persons in one flesh. Adam called her woman—she-man and named her Eve (“life”), because she would be the mother of all people. God’s creation was finally complete. He had made marriage and the family. This was very good.

This perfect image of God, holy like Him and the closest human beings have to understanding the nature of God, was ruined by sin and its consequences. When people make themselves the center of the universe, there is no room for a god or another. Now sin tempts us to look everywhere for pleasure than in the very good gifts God has given to us. As we turn our hearts from our beloved and the Beloved, they grown cold and unfeeling.

This is why God condemns adultery, pornography, same-sex relationships and acts, pre-marital sex, sexual assault, rape, and all other seeking of desire outside of the love of one man and woman, united in marriage for a lifetime. It divides what God Himself has joined together and mars the image He placed in us. It destroys the image of the marriage of Christ to the Church and obscures the work He has done for us.

But when we were lost, unfaithful to God our husband, Jesus came and “sought us to be His holy bride, with His own blood He bought us and for our life He died,” the hymn notes. When He found us, He washed us and cleansed us in Baptism, so that He could present us as His radiant bride. On the last day, He will come for us and bring us to the wedding and the marriage reception that lasts forever. That’s why marriage matters! Then, now, and always.

The Rev. Robert Smith is electronic resources librarian, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind.

 

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See Also
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LCRL Staff
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