Latest / Reformed Thinking / What God Has Joined Together: Christ’s Restoration of Marriage (Matthew 19:1–9)

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What God Has Joined Together: Christ’s Restoration of Marriage (Matthew 19:1–9) · Reformed Thinking

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You know, when you think about the way our modern world
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operates, almost every single arrangement we make comes with
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the built in escape. Hatch Oh yeah, absolutely.
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I mean, you sign a lease for a car, or you subscribe to a new
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software platform, or, you know, you agree to a cell phone plan,
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and right there in the fine print is the cancellation
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policy. Yes, it is always there.
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We live in a society that is fundamentally wired for
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disposability. It is a strictly any
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transactional way of living. You pay your money, you receive
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a service, and the very second that arrangement stops making
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you happy, or the moment it becomes slightly inconvenient,
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you look for the exit. You click a button, you pay a
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small cancellation fee, and you walk away entirely free.
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Yes, we are conditioned by our consumer culture to locate the
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emergency exit before we even step through the front door,
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right? We want all the benefits of an
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arrangement without the risk of being permanently tied to it.
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That's a. Highly accurate picture of the
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modern mindset. I mean, we function on a
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consumer model build entirely around personal autonomy.
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Yeah, we really do. The culture teaches us that
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obligation should only be temporary and they should be
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completely dependent on our own ongoing satisfaction.
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Right. If it feels good, keep it.
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Yes, and if something does not make you happy today, you
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discard it and find a replacement.
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It is a philosophy that places the self at the absolute center
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of the universe. Wow, yeah.
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Judging all relationships and contracts by how well they cater
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to personal fulfillment. But then you step into the world
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of biblical marriage. Specifically, you step into the
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reality presented by Jesus Christ and the Gospel of
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Matthew, and suddenly that whole consumer mindset shatters.
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It just breaks into a million pieces.
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Right. We are looking at a divine
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covenant that is entirely foreign to our modern,
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disposable way of living. So welcome to reformed thinking.
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We are so glad you're tuning in. In this deep dive we are taking
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a close look at 2 theological expositions of Matthew chapter
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19 verses one through 9. Our sources today are titled The
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Sovereign Architect and the Sacred Yoke and What God Has
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Joined Together. Yes, 2 fantastic pieces of
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writing. When you read through this
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material, you realize Jesus is totally dismantling this
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disposable mindset. So our goal for this session is
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to investigate what marriage actually is from the Creator's
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perspective. And we want to look honestly at
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the human inclination to find loopholes in divine law and
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locate the grace of the gospel within what is frankly a very
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severe and heavy text. To grasp the sheer gravity of
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this collision between divine authority and human rebellion,
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we first need to understand where Jesus is and what he is
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doing when this conversation happens.
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OK. Set the scene for us.
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Well, Matthew sets the scene chronologically and
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geographically. He tells us that Jesus is
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departing from the familiar rural landscapes of Galilee and
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entering the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.
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So he is moving South. Right.
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This is not just a casual change of scenery or, you know, a
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preaching tour. In the narrative of Matthew's
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Gospel, this physical movement is a deliberate, relentless
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March toward Jerusalem. Yes, the shadow of the cross is
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falling over everything he says and does in this specific
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region. He is actively moving toward the
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supreme sacrifice for covenant breaking.
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Man, that adds so much weight to the conversation.
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It does, and he is healing the crowds that follow Him, showing
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himself to be the compassionate shepherd of Israel.
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But in the Gospels, wherever the grace of Christ is manifesting,
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the opposition of the religious establishment is never far
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behind. Right.
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The tension is incredibly high, very high.
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And right on cue, the Pharisees enter the scene.
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And they are definitely not showing up to Sunday school to
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learn something new from the rabbi.
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No, they are not. They are coming to lay a trap,
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the text says. They ask him, is it lawful to
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divorce one's wife for any cause?
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Yes. On the surface, if you do not
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know the history, that sounds like a sincere theological
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inquiry from religious men trying to understand the law.
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But Matthew pulls back the curtain and tells us explicitly
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that they came to test him. That phrase to test him reveals
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the moral poverty of their request.
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And we're not seeking truth. To understand how cunning this
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trap was, we need to look at the theological and cultural
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landscape of 1st century Judea. OK, let's look into that.
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You had two major competing rabbinic schools of thought
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regarding the interpretation of Deuteronomy chapter 24.
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And that is the Old Testament text dealing with divorce.
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Yes. So on one side you had the
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conservative school of Shami. Shami argued that a man could
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only divorce his wife for gross sexual immorality.
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OK. So a very strict narrow
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interpretation, yes. On the other side, you had the
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highly liberal, pragmatic school of Hillel.
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Hillel's followers argued that a man could divorce his wife for
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the most trivial reasons imaginable.
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Wait, really? Like what?
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The historical records of their rulings are shocking.
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If a wife spoiled a dish by burning dinner.
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Burning dinner? You are kidding.
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I am serious. Or if she spoke too loudly in
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the house. Or even if the husband simply
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walked down the street and found another woman he considered more
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attractive. That is insane.
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Hillel's school ruled that a certificate of divorce was
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entirely lawful in all those cases.
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It was the system designed to maximize male autonomy and
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convenience. Wow.
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So if Hillel was already letting men divorce their wives just for
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burning the roast or finding someone prettier, then the
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Pharisees were not asking a genuine theological question at
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all. Not at all.
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They were asking Jesus to pick a side in a cultural and political
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war by phrasing their question for any 'cause they are using
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the specific buzzwords of the hilly school, they want to paint
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him into a corner. Precise analysis.
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The trap has multiple layers. If Jesus sides with the strict
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school of Shamai, he risks alienating the massive crowds
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following him, many of whom likely enjoyed the loose,
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convenient rules of Hillel. Right, Nobody wants their
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loopholes taken away. Well.
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I mean, that is spot on. If he sides with Hillel, he
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contradicts his own previous rigorous teaching on
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righteousness from the Sermon on the Mount.
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Oh yeah, he would look like a hypocrite.
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But there's also a lethal political dimension to this
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Geographically, Jesus is in the territory ruled by Herod
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Antipas. Wait, Herod Antipas?
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Yes, the exact same ruler who had John the Baptist arrested
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and beheaded for publicly condemning Herod's unlawful
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marriage to his brother's wife. Oh wow, so the Pharisees know
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where they are standing. They're hoping Jesus will step
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on this political landmine, say something restrictive about
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marriage, and draw the murderous attention of Herod.
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So they are literally trying to get him killed or at the very
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least totally discredited in front of.
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Yes, that is their goal. And the sources point out
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something fascinating about the specific Greek words the
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Pharisees use when they ask this question.
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It reveals so much about how they view the whole concept of
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marriage and separation. Yes, the linguistic structure of
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their question completely exposes their internal
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condition. Walk us through the Greek there.
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In the original Greek text they utilize the word apolysi, which
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translates to releasing or dismissing, but it is the
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grammatical form that matters here.
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They use the A orist infinitive. In Greek grammar.
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The ARS tense often takes a snapshot of an action, looking
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at it as a single, detached whole event.
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Oh, interesting. By using this specific form,
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they are not talking about a painful ongoing process of a
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family breaking down. They are viewing the dissolution
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of a marriage as a cold, simple legal transaction.
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It is an event to be completed, a piece of paperwork to be filed
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so they can move on. Just a rubber stamp.
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Yes, from a theological perspective, this pragmatic
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rebellion is a direct fruit of total depravity.
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We are by nature antinomia. We hate the law.
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We despise the law of God. When the Pharisees ask about the
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lawfulness of divorce, they are actually asserting their own
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right to define the terms of their existence.
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Man, that hits hard. They want the maximum amount of
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personal autonomy while maintaining a thin veneer of
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religious respectability. You know what this makes me
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think of? What is that?
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It is like when you download a new app on your phone or you
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sign up for a new new social media platform, a massive wall
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of legal text pops up on your screen.
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The terms of service. Agreement.
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Oh yes, the dreaded user agreement.
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And what does every single one of us do in that moment?
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We grab the scroll bar, drag it as fast as humanly possible to
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the very bottom, check the little box and move on.
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We completely ignore the creator's intent for how the
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software should be used. Exactly.
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I mean, yes, we do not read the rules.
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We are just looking for the technicality that lets us get
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past the barrier. So we can do what we want to do.
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We treat the boundaries set by the Creator as obstacles to be
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bypassed. That is what the Pharisees are
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doing with the Word of God. There is a very accurate
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comparison. They are scrolling past the
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majestic, beautiful design of marriage, hunting for the terms
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of service loophole that allows them to dismiss a spouse
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whenever they feel unsatisfied. That analogy captures the
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condition of the fallen heart perfectly.
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We prefer rules that can be manipulated over a Lord to whom
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we must submit. Yes, we do.
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We prefer legal technicalities to actual holiness.
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The Pharisees embody this universal tendency.
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Think about who these men are. They are the religious elites.
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They are the custodians of the law, the premier teachers of
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Israel, yet they have reduced divine revelation to a blunt
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instrument for self justification.
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It is tragic, really. They wield scripture as a weapon
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to preserve their sinful preferences.
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Their question is morally corrupt from the very first
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syllable because hard hearts always ask the wrong questions.
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Right. They do not approach Jesus and
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ask what honors the Lord who instituted marriage.
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No, instead they ask how far may I go in breaking this bond and
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still appear legally justified. So how does Jesus handle this?
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I mean he has the strict Shamai camp on one side, the liberal
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Hill camp on the other, and the threat of Herod hanging over his
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head. It is a tense moment.
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Does he start quoting rabbinic case law to them?
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Does he pick a side? The brilliant thing is that he
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refuses to play their game. He does.
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He bypasses their entire framework.
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He does not start with Moses. He goes all the way back to the
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Garden of Eden. He points them straight to the
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Sovereign Architect of the Universe.
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He answers their corrupt question in a way that
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immediately exposes both their moral error and their failure to
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understand the scriptures. He does not hold.
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Back. Not at all.
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He begins with a stinging rebuke.
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Have you not read? Oh man, imagine saying that to
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the most elite biblical scholars of the day.
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Right. He is telling them that despite
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all their study and despite all their parsing of legal codes,
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they have entirely missed the plain meaning of the text they
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claim to Revere. That had to sting.
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Jesus then quotes Genesis 1 and 2, stating he who created them
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from the beginning made them male and female.
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In this single sentence, Christ reasserts the doctrine of
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creation. He grounds the sanctity of
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marriage not in social evolution, not in civil
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contract, and not in rabbinic debate, but in the sovereign
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creative decree of Almighty God. So he takes it out of their
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hands entirely? Yes.
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He establishes that the binary design of humanity, male and
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female, is a fixed creation reality.
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It is not an accident. It is not a socially constructed
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category. They can be altered or redefined
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by human preference. The Creator who made man and
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woman also determined the exact nature of their union.
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The sources spend a lot of time on the specific words Jesus uses
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here to describe that union. He talks about the two becoming
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1 flesh and then he issues that famous declaration.
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What? Therefore God has joined
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together, let not man separate. We hear that at almost every
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single wedding we attend. We do, but the English
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translation kind of softens the intense white of the Greek verbs
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underneath those phrases. The Greek verbs are incredibly
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forceful. The word Jesus uses for join
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together is Sinazusan. Sinazusan.
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This is an aorist active indicative verb signifying a
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completed decisive act performed by God himself.
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OK, so it is a finished action, yes?
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And it literally means to be yoked together.
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Think about how a yoke functions in agriculture.
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Like with oxen? Yes.
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It is a heavy wooden beam that locks 2 animals together, so
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they must move as one unit, pulling the same weight in the
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same direction. Wow, that is a strong image.
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Marriage is not two autonomous individuals choosing to walk
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side by side for a season while it feels convenient.
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It is God actively locking them together with an invisible
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spiritual yoke that. Completely destroys the consumer
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mindset we talked about earlier. Furthermore, Jesus uses the
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concept of holding fast. Translated from the Greek
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Prosecalithicitai. Prosecalithicitai.
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What does that imply? This word implies A fierce glue
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like tenacity. It describes a welding together
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of two distinct persons into a singular new entity, the one
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flesh. OK, that makes sense.
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This aligns Florida State with the Westminster Confession of
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Faith, specifically Chapter 24, which recognizes marriage as a
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lifelong covenant intended for the mutual help of husband and
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wife and the propagation of a holy seed.
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So it is not a temporary contract.
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No, Jesus is teaching that because God is the one who did
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the joining, man possesses absolutely no authority to do
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the separating right. Woman and wife are no longer 2
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autonomous units. They've been fundamentally
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redefined by God's creative act. Think about a machine shop.
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If you take a high heat welding torch to two separate pieces of
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solid steel, a molecular change takes place at the seam.
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That is a great visual. The metals melt and fuse
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together. When that metal cools down, you
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no longer have two pieces of steel sitting next to each
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other, You have one single brand new object.
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Yes, they are one. If you decide a year later that
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you want to separate them, you can not just pull them apart
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cleanly. They are not glued together with
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school. Paste.
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No, they are not. You have to take a saw or an
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angle grinder to the metal. You have to violently tear it
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apart, and when you do, you do not get your two original
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pristine pieces of steel back. Right, you get damage.
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You get jagged, scarred, destructive tearing on both
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pieces. That is the reality Christ is
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conveying when He says, let not man separate this.
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Is a violent act. You cannot untangle A1 Flesh
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Union without causing massive, devastating damage because you
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are trying to RIP apart something the Sovereign
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Architect has welded together. That illustration brings the
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metaphysical reality Christ is describing right down to earth.
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Marriage is an organic union. Yeah, when the Pharisees asked
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about lawful separation, their question was tragically shallow
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because it failed to reckon with what marriage actually is in its
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essence. They just saw it as a contract.
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They treated it like a Slipknot that could simply be united
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whenever the rope chafed. Wow.
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Christ corrects them by showing that it is a fusion that cannot
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be dissolved without severe moral and spiritual consequence.
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He shifts the entire conversation from the realm of
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human autonomy to the realm of divine sovereignty.
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Man does not stand above marriage as its master.
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No, he stands under God as its steward.
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But the Pharisees are stubborn. They refuse to accept this
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creational reality. They know they cannot argue with
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Genesis. The text is right there.
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Right. They cannot debate creation.
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So they pivot. They attempt to pit scripture
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against Scripture. They bring up a different text
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to justify their loophole, running straight to the book of
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Deuteronomy. Yes, they retreat to a civil
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provision in order to preserve their preferred exceptions.
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They ask Jesus why then did Moses command one to give a
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certificate of divorce and to send her away?
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They are so sneaky. This question further exposes
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the functional antinomianism in their hearts.
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They view the Mosaic regulation as a command, treating it as a
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divine permission slip for their own fickle desires.
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They're. Twisting the words.
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They want to transform a reluctant civil regulation into
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a positive moral command, shielding the rebellion behind
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the authority of Scripture. But Jesus responds with a
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devastating correction. He does, he says.
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Because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to
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divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
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He catches them right on their vocabulary.
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They say Moses commanded it and Jesus immediately corrects them
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and says Moses allowed it. That is a massive distinction in
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how we read the Bible. It is the distinction between a
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divine ideal meant to be obeyed and a civil concession designed
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to manage sin in a fallen world. Jesus uses a very specific
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diagnostic word here, sclerocardia.
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Clerocardia. Yes, which translates to
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hardness of heart. This is a diagnostic term for
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total depravity. OK, break that down for us.
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A hard heart is callous, unyielding, stubborn, and
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spiritually dead to the promptings of God's Spirit.
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It is a heart that is calcified. It is just rock solid and
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rebellion. Exactly.
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Yes, it is characterized by selfishness, cruelty, and an
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absolute refusal to yield to covenant love.
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We need to understand the cultural mechanics of the
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ancient Near East to see why Moses gave this concession.
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Because it seems odd that God would allow something he hates.
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Moses legislation did not celebrate divorce.
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It was a civil regulation of a sinful reality intended to
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protect the discarded woman in a society dominated by hard
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hearted men. Oh, so it was a protection
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measure? In that patriarchal economy,
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women generally could not own land or generate independent
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wealth easily, right? A woman sent away by her husband
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without a formal legal certificate of divorce was
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highly vulnerable. In what way?
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She could be accused of adultery by her former husband.
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She could not legally remarry to find a new provider, and she
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would essentially be left to starve or face public stoning.
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That is terrifying. The certificate of divorce was a
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protective mechanism. It was a mercy for the victim,
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forcing the cruel husband to legally release her so she could
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survive. OK.
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So it was not a positive endorsement of family breakdown
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at all. No, Jesus insists that this
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concession belongs entirely to the realm of fallenness, not the
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realm of original innocence. By drawing this sharp contrast,
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we see the second use of the law in action.
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This text acts as a mirror, exposing our total inability to
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keep covenants in our own flesh. It shows us our own sin.
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It reveals that the true crisis in any marriage is never
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circumstantial. It is always spiritual.
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Broken marriages reveal broken hard hearts.
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But hold on a second, I am trying to process this and I
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keep hitting a wall. OK, what is the wall?
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If God allowed Moses to issue divorce certificates just
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because the ancient Israelites were stubborn and hard hearted,
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why wouldn't that same concession apply to us today?
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That is a fair question. We are just as fallen.
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We still live in a broken world. People still have hard hearts.
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Why is Jesus tightening the rules all the way back to the
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Garden of Eden when the reality of human sin has not changed?
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That is the natural question to ask for sure, and the answer
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lies in the massive redemptive historical shift occurring right
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there in the ministry of Christ. OK, tell me more.
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We must contrast the old covenant civil legislation which
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was given to manage the physical nation of Israel with the
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inauguration of the Kingdom of heaven by Christ.
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So there is a change in the era. Yes, under the Old Covenant, the
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law acted as a tutor to restrain the outward manifestations of
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sin, but it could not cure the inward root of the problem.
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It managed behavior. It managed the symptoms of
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sclerocardia but could not heal the disease.
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Oh. I see.
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How the New Covenant brings the fulfillment of the promise given
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the prophet Ezekiel. God declares through Ezekiel
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that He will remove the heart of stone from His people and
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replace it with a heart of flesh.
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That is a beautiful promise. The Kingdom of God brings the
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regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
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Christ is elevating the ethic back to the creational design
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because He is now providing the spiritual resources to actually
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obey it. Because we have the Spirit now.
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Yes, believers who are united to Christ are no longer slaves to a
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hard heart. They possess the indwelling
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spirit, which gives them the supernatural capacity to
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forgive, to endure, to repent, and to love in a way that honors
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the Sovereign Architect. Wow, so we are not left on our
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own. Without this spiritual reality,
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we are just managing our stubbornness with legal
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paperwork, exactly like the ancient Israelites did.
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So Christ is restoring the original unbending design of
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creation, but he is also addressing the devastating
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reality that humans since sometimes breaks what is
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supposed to be unbreakable. We have to live in the tension
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between the pure ideal of Genesis and the messy reality of
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a fallen world. This leads directly to the
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famous exception clause in verse 9 where Jesus pronounces his
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final verdict on the whole debate.
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Yes, in verse 9 Jesus declares, and I say to you, whoever
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divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries
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another commits adultery. So there is an exception.
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We must approach this exception carefully.
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It is not a loophole for human convenience, right?
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It is not the hell out loophole, no.
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It is a righteous boundary that protects the sanctity of the one
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flesh union while acknowledging the catastrophic destructive
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impact of covenantal betrayal. OK, So what is the word Jesus
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uses there for sexual immorality?
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The Greek term translated as sexual immorality is pornea.
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We must distinguish this from another Greek word, morkea,
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which specifically refers to the physical act of adultery.
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So pornea is different. Pornea is much a broader
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categorical term. It encompasses all illicit
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sexual acts, including gross sexual deviancy, unrepentant
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infidelity, and severe sexual treachery.
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OK. By choosing this comprehensive
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term, the text indicates that such actions fundamentally
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shatter the physical and spiritual exclusivity of the
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marriage bed. It breaks the bond.
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When pornea occurs, the innocent party is granted A righteous
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release from the covenant. Because the damage is already
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done. Yes, the law permits the
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dissolution because the offending spouse has already
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violently severed the one flesh bond through their actions.
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But the sources give a very strong warning here.
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Just because this exception clause exists, it does not mean
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a believer is supposed to rush to the courthouse the very
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moment a sin occurs. That is true.
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The exception is a permission, not a mandate, to destroy the
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marriage. That is a vital pastoral and
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theological point. Citing the Westminster
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Confession of Faith again, we see that while severe sexual
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immorality or willful desertion can provide biblical grounds for
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divorce, the goal for the Christian should always be
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reconciliation. If they repent.
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If true, observable repentance is present.
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Yes, the exception acknowledges the severe reality of the
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damage, but it does not demand the destruction of the marriage
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if grace and repentance can heal the breach.
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That makes a lot of sense. Furthermore, we must look at the
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grammar Jesus uses in the second-half of the verse to
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understand the severity of unlawful divorce.
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Let's look into that. He says that divorcing without
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righteous grounds and marry another results in committing
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adultery. The verb muychetai is in the
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present indicative tense. Muychetai.
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What does the present indicative tell us?
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In Greek, this indicates an ongoing, continuous state of
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action. Oh.
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Wow. It means that moving on to a new
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relationship without righteous biblical grounds is not just a
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one time mistake. It is a state of ongoing
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covenant violation in the eyes of God.
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Ma'am, that is intense. This completely exposes the
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failures of modern, no fault pragmatic ideas within the
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Church, which often treat unbiblical divorce as a minor
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procedural hiccup rather than a severe ongoing breach of divine
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law. The weight of this verse is
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absolutely terrifying. It strips away all of our
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societal approval, all of our cultural norms, and all of our
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legal paperwork. It really does.
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A civil court judge might strike a gavel and declare that you are
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fully and legally divorced. Your friends might throw you a
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party to celebrate your new autonomy.
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Yes, the Sovereign Architect of the Universe might look at that
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exact same situation and declare that you are still bound.
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Yes, he might. And that your new relationship
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is a violation of His holy order.
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I want you, the listener, to feel the severe gravity standing
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before holy God with our horizontal relationships.
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We cannot manipulate God's law to validate our choices.
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The divine court and the civil court are not always looking at
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the same reality. That is a snairy thought.
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God defines the reality of the covenant, regardless of what the
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culture or the local magistrate says.
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That is the theological burden of the text, really.
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Marriage remains A moral reality in God's sight, not a civil
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status negotiated before men, right?
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The Pharisees had treated divorce as a manageable legal
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mechanism, a way to keep their ledgers clean.
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But Christ shows that it touches the deepest realities of moral
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obligation before the Creator. I have to be honest, looking at
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this incredibly high standard leaves everyone feeling
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condemned. It is a massive standard.
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If this is the bar perfect fidelity, no loopholes, no
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consumeristic exits, a total ban on hard heartedness, who can
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possibly clear? It nobody in their own strength.
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Every single one of us has failed in our relationships in
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some capacity. We all have moments of
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selfishness, of stubbornness, of treating the people we love as
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disposable. Yes, we do.
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If this text ends at the law, we are all crushed under the weight
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of it. We are all guilty of
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sclerocardia. On some level we are.
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But this sets up the shift in our deep dive, moving from the
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crushing demands of the Law to the grace of the gospel.
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The high standard revealed in this text is designed to do
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exactly that. Wait, I mean it is designed to
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do just that, expose our desperate need for a mediator.
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Right. It pushes us to Jesus.
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We are by nature covenant Breakers, but the passage drives
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us to Christ, who is the true and better bridegroom.
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I love that. Think about the overarching
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narrative of Scripture. When his bride, the Church,
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played the harlot through sin and spiritual idolatry, he did
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not issue a certificate of divorce.
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No, he did not. He did not point to a
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technicality in the law to abandon his people, even though
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he had every righteous right to do so.
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He had every right. Instead, he marched to Calvary.
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He absorbed the penalty for her spiritual infidelities in his
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own body on the tree. Praise God for that.
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He kept the covenant perfectly on behalf of his people,
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fulfilling every righteous requirement of the law so that
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His perfection could be credited to our account.
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So he did what we could not do. Yes.
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The Gospel indicative is that we are united to a bridegroom who
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is permanently faithful even when we are faithless.
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That brings such a massive wave of relief to our actual lives.
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The sources lay out some very specific pastoral applications
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based on this gospel reality. Yes, they do.
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First, for the weary, St. If you are listening to this and
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you are exhausted trying to hold together a difficult, strained
26:44
marriage, the message is not try harder in your own flesh.
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No, it is not about willpower. You cannot sustain the sacred
26:50
yoke on your own willpower. You are called to rely on your
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union with the risen Christ. Yes, you draw from His well of
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grace, patience and forgiveness, because human flesh cannot
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sustain the high demands of God's design.
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And for those who have been wounded, the victims of pornea
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or abandonment, Christ offers intense comfort and validation.
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He sees the pain. He sees the treachery.
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He names the sin accurately. He does not sweep it under the
27:15
rug. The divine law permits release
27:17
for the innocent party, mourning the tragedy while providing A
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righteous boundary against further abuse.
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He. Protects the vulnerable.
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Christ binds up the broken hearted and cleanses the guilty
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who come to Him in faith. Furthermore, for the single
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listener, whether never married or unmarried after a divorce,
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this text teaches that marital status is not the highest goal
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of human existence. That is such a crucial.
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Point union with Christ is the supreme reality.
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The unmarried believer is not spiritually incomplete.
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They're called a holiness and joyful submission, knowing their
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primary eternal covenant is completely secure in the Savior.
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Taking all of this in, it becomes clear that our
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horizontal human covenants are meant to be a faint physical
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reflection of the vertical spiritual covenant and God makes
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with His people. When we treat human vows as
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disposable, when we look for the exit signs and the loopholes to
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get out of things that are difficult, we are telling a lie
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to the watching world about the nature of the Gospel.
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That is a very serious thought. We are portraying a God who
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abandons his people when they become inconvenient, and that is
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a false witness. Christ's steadfast love is the
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pattern and the strength for our own fidelity.
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The text forces us to reject the pragmatic rebellion of our age.
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We cannot take our cues from therapeutic individualism or
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pragmatic convenience. No, we cannot.
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We must recognize that broken marriages reveal the tragedy of
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the fall, but Christ restores the magnificent creational
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design by giving his new hearts capable of covenantal loyalty.
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To wrap up our session today, we have seen how Christ entirely
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rejects human loopholes. He certainly does.
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He bypasses the corrupted traditions of men to restore the
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magnificent, unbending creational design of marriage.
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Yes, he exposes the stone cold reality of the human heart that
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constantly seeks autonomy over submission.
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And most beautifully, he points us toward his own unbreaking
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grace, standing as the ultimate keeper of the government.
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He's the Lord who defines the institution, the judge who
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exposes the violation of it, and the Redeemer who supplies the
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grace to heal our brokenness. I want to leave you with a final
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thought to Mull over long after this audio ends.
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OK, if all earthly marriages are temporary reflections of an
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eternal reality, how does viewing Christ as the perfect,
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unfailing bridegroom alter the way you view the difficult,
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fractured relationships in your own life today?
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That is a fantastic question to ponder.
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Thank you for joining us for this deep dive on reformed
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thinking. Grace and peace to you.