The Purpose of Mariage

Reading a book on marriage from a single person‘s perspective can be a weird task. My experience with marriage has been, for the vast part, looking in from the outside. My own short lived and long passed marriage, was a very turbulent and atypical model in itself. Though I find many of the concepts and themes through the first five chapters, and through the entire book to be helpful, I found it most impacting to consider constructing an idea of what marriage is and what it’s designed to do in the first place. The Bible teaches that the entire human experience has been orchestrated as a means by which God demonstrates His unmatchable character. Isaiah 43:7 “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, who I formed and made.” Marriage is one journey within that context of knowing who God is, and giving His character a place or stage to be shown.

Through the institution of marriage, a Christian couple can Both display many characteristics of our creator to each other, as well as being agents of the reformation and restoration of each other as well. “God gives grace not only to forgive and to forbear, but also to change, so that less forgiving is needed” (momentary marriage p 64). Through both means, God‘s character is on display and the glory of His redemptive work can be more fully seen in each party as they grow in their Christ likeness.

So let’s take a moment to go back through these two major aligning principles of marriage. First looking at the ways a couple makes Christ known to each other, Bringing Him glory, through displaying Christlike character to each other. Matthew 5:16 says “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”. It stands to reason that as each party in a marriage becomes a bearer of light, this glory of the father will become more apparent to each. Through demonstration of fruits like patience, kindness and self control. Or though acts of selfless generosity, the character of Christ will be seen and glorified daily in this marriage.

And more significantly, each member in a marriage can play a substantial role in the tangible growth of character in the other. We as Christians believe that the engine for change within the heart of a human comes through continual encounters with the Character and grace of the Creator. In a marriage relationship, each spouse can serve to be a drawing force for the other to encounter their Creator for the sake of their refinement. Piper goes on to say “Grace is not just the power to return good for evil; it is also the power to do less evil…”(momentary marriage p 64). And further explains “Grace makes you want to change for the glory of Christ and for the joy of your spouse. And grace is the power to do it.” So the Cross not only becomes our hope for salvation, but also the center post on which we organize our marriage relationships...for his or her refinement….for the Glory of the king.

As I consider the potential for my own marriage at some point, these ideas clearly must follow me into that relationship and I believe act as the foundation by which I approach a relationship. A very wise man once said to me that “if you make the goal of your relationship seeing your spouse blossom in glory to her creator, your decisions to follow will bring honor to them both“. Hearing that statement and thinking of marriage this way is both an inspiring and also an intimidating thing for me to consider. I know that marriage is not a new thing, in fact almost every human culture has had some form of marriage, but it would be new to me. And my prayer after considering these things is that I would be blessed with the opportunity to marry a daughter of my king, lead her to know Him as she leads me to do the same, both of us blossoming in glory to our creator while extending each other the Christ-like grace we will surely need in the process.