The POV of Marriage

December 12, 2011 at 10:57 am | Posted in Biblical Marriage, Mark | 15 Comments
Tags: Adam and Eve, Christian marriage, Genesis 2, Mark 10, marriage, marriage counseling, nudity, Revelation 13, the first marriage

It will be extremely helpful in our marriages to be very familiar with the very first marriage. The very first marriage is found in Genesis 2, and part of understanding it fully is understanding from whose point of view the events are being described.

This is from God’s point of view:

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

Genesis 2:18

The next Verse is also from God’s point of view:

And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

Genesis 2:19

Verse 20 is Adam’s point of view, but we know that it matches God’s point of view because of Verse 18.

And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

Genesis 2:20

Verse 21 is back to God’s point of view:

And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

Genesis 2:21

The same with the next Verse:

And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

Genesis 2:22

Now back to Adam’s point of view:

And 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.

Genesis 2:23

When we determine whose point of view we are getting in Verse 24, it will help us to see that we are getting that same point of view in the very strange Verse 25:

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Genesis 2:24-25 (emphasis on v. 25)

Remember, marriage was invented by God. Marriage is also an illustration designed by God. It is an illustration of Christ and the Church: Christ is the Bridegroom; the Church is His Bride. At a wedding, God is not visibly present. However, He is there presiding, holding the bride and groom to their vows, and doing the joining together into “one flesh.” In the reality which marriage illustrates, He is, in a sense, operating in the same way.

And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Mark 10:2-9

Jesus taught that Genesis 2:25 was from God’s point of view. Knowing this, we realize that, when there is a marriage, God (not the wife, not the husband, not the officiator, not the parents of the spouses) is the main Actor. God is the One doing the joining together into one flesh. God did not create marriage and then decide that He would fashion the sacrificial atoning death of His Son so that it would look like marriage. No, He designed marriage for the express purpose of making a picture – an illustrated sermon – of His Son the Bridegroom winning a Bride through sacrificial love and joining her to Himself in one Spirit. The Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). What I’m trying to show is that when we read Genesis 2:24 and realize that God was already sending grace to His redeemed in advance of the Fall, then we can understand why Genesis Chapter 2 ends with the strange words: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”

From this we can also know at least two things definitively about God’s perfectly designed first marriage:

1. The husband and wife were naked.

2. They were unashamed.

Why was there no shame in their nakedness? Because they themselves were innocent. God had made them that way, and everything God made was good before the Fall. This means that their bodies were objectively beautiful. It also means that their bodies were glorious and expressed something about God in their design and function and how pleasing they were to the touch, sight, smell, and even taste. The innocence and the “goodness” of Adam’s and Eve’s condition was lost when they sinned, but next time we will see how that condition can be regained.