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Luke 16 18 The covenantal relationship of marriage 01 Demonstrative model of God’s covenant love
📖 Luke 16:18
18Apr2020 - *Demonstrative model of God’s covenant love* - _Luke 16:18_ - Bible reading: _Genesis 1:26-27
_Luke 16:18 “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery._
This is just one verse here in the gospel of Luke regarding marriage and divorce. A more detailed explanation is given by the Lord in _Matthew 19:3-9 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" (4) And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE,' (5) and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH' ? (6) So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." (7) They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" (8) He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. (9) And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery."_
We shall title this study as the *Covenant relationship of marriage*. Though the verse for our consideration is about marriage and divorce. We have an opportunity to understand marriage as an institution set up by God.
So, why did God set up marriage? What was the purpose? We must go to the very beginning and consider how man and woman were created. We were created in the image of God. _Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (27) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them._
So, man was created in the image of the triune God and God was desiring for man to be in an intimate relationship with Him. Though man was made in the image of God, yet man was separate, was distinct, from God. God and man were in the same image but yet distinct.
_John 17:21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me._ God’s plan was that we should be one, and that we would be one in the triune God. God’s design was, though we were different and distinct from God, yet we would be in an intimate relationship with Him, one in Him.
God and man were therefore in a marriage relationship. (We will look into this more deeply in the coming studies).
God made man as male and female, similar and equal but yet distinct from each other. This social system of humanity was made up of marriage units/relationships of man with his wife. It was one man to be in an intimate relationship with his one wife, who is similar, equal and complementary to him but yet distinct from him.
As a man and his wife experienced the joy of oneness and intimacy, society would be built up to accept and love one another, based out of marriage units within society. Together, as man, we would be in a marriage covenant relationship with God, who is our husband and we, His bride. We would be able to experience a marriage covenant relationship with God for we have the opportunity to experience the covenant relationship in each of our marriage relationships, of one man with his one wife.
So, marriage between one man and his one wife is a demonstrative model of God’s marriage covenant relationship between God and man.
*Thought to ponder*
```Have you considered the lofty purpose of marriage?```