Old Testament Reading: Genesis 2:24-25

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:24–25, ESV)

New Testament Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:1–8, 13

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends… [Verse 13] So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-8, 13, ESV)

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Introduction

Brothers and sisters, this is now the fourth sermon in this series on the subject of marriage, divorce and remarriage. Up to this point we have defined marriage as a “a lifelong covenant of companionship between a man and a woman that has been established under God and before the community”. Also, a  few things have been said about entering into marriage: One, to prepare for marriage a person should pursue holiness and maturity in Christ in all that they think, say and do. Two, they should know what they are looking for in a future spouse while preparing for marriage. For the Christian this means that they should find another Christian (one who is truly a Christian, and not a Christian in name only). And three, a person should  approach dating relationships and engagement in a godly way. Today we turn our attention to the topic of having a successful marriage. 

As I have said before, our objective is not merely to survive in marriage, but to thrive. Our aim should be to build marriages that thrive so that God be  glorified through them. What, therefore,  are the keys to building a successful marriage? What are the crucial ingredients for a God honoring and good marriage? 

I have three three points. One, a husband and wife must learn to love one another in Christ Jesus. Two, a husband and wife must learn to extend mercy and  grace to one another in Christ Jesus. And three, a husband and wife must be long suffering. Let us now consider these three  points at a time. 

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I. A Husband And Wife Must Learn To Love One Another In Christ Jesus

Firstly, a husband and wife must learn to love one another in Christ Jesus. Christlike love is a key ingredient in good and God honoring marriages.  

I am aware that this might sound simplistic to some. 

Imagine a couple approaching their pastor saying, “our marriage is in shambles. What do we need to do to make it strong?” And the pastor says, “the two of you really need to love one another.” Put this way, the answer seems simplistic. But may I suggest to you that, though the point be simple, it is far from simplistic. There is, in fact, substance in this answer – there is power in it. Truly, the key to a healthy marriage is love. If a husband and wife hope to have a strong and healthy marriage to the glory of God they must learn to love one another in Christ Jesus. 

Pay careful attention to what I am saying. 

Notice the word “learn” in this answer. A husband and wife must learn to love one another, I say. 

And what is implied by the word “learn”?

Is it not implied that love is something that we must chose to do?

Many assume, I fear, that love is primarily an emotional experience. And I do not deny that there are genuine feelings that come along with sincere love. But we are mistaken when we believe that love is, above all, an emotion. No, in fact, love is an action. It is something that we choose to do. When I say “if a husband and wife hope to have a strong and healthy marriage they must learn to love one another”, this is what I mean. The man and the woman must learn to love. They must learn to treat one another lovingly. They must learn to love one another in thought, word and deed. 

When I say that we must learn to love, is it not also implied that love is something that does not come natural to us, but is a way of life that must be developed? 

And here is where the theological liberals and progressives get all bent out of shape. Many in our culture imagine that man is basically good from birth, and that man knows how to love naturally. This theory is disproven by the word of God and by the world around us. I will not deny it, men and women do naturally have the ability to feel feelings that we often associate with love. From a young age we know what it is to feel attraction to another, to be infatuated with another, to desire and even lust after another. But this is not love. In fact many of these emotions that we feel have more to do with our own desire for gratification than desiring the good of the other. We are not talking about feelings that we often associate with being in love, but action – selfless action done for the good of another. This, I am saying, does not come natural to us given our sinful and selfish propensities, but is something that must be acquired. Love is something we must learn to do in Christ Jesus. It is a way of life that must be cultivated and developed.

The word of God is clear that we do not by nature love aright. An observation of the world around us also proves it. 

Do we have affections by nature? Do we feel feeling of fondness towards other people and things naturally? The answer is, yes we do! We naturally set the affections of our heart on other people and things. This is something that we do constantly. What is the problem then? The problem is that our affections are bent out of shape by the sin which ours by birth. We by nature set our affections on things that we should not have affection for – that which  is evil. Or sometimes we set our affections on things that are good but in an inordinate way. By that I mean certain persons or things might indeed be worth of our affection, but not to such a high degree. Parents do this with their children all the time. Is it right that we have affection for our children? Of course it is right! But let us beware of making our children little gods within our hearts. There is a kind of affection that is appropriate for God, and there is a kind of affection that is appropriate for creaturely things, even our own children. The same can be said for every other thing in this world – food and drink, the beauty of nature, learning, physical fitness, rest, our spouse. These are all good things that are worthy of our affections, but only to a degree and within their proper place. Let us be sure that our affections are set on the right things. And let us also be sure that they are orderly. 

I mighty also ask, do we have the capacity to love by nature? Do we have the ability to make choices and to live for other people and things. Again, the answer is yes! We being by nature free creatures and having the ability to act upon choice are certainly able to love. We have the capacity to feel affections towards people and things (this has already been addressed), and we also have the ability to devote ourselves to those people and things. Some love football, for example. They feel affection for the sport, and they also devote themselves to it. They spend their time thinking about it. They are religious in their observation of it. They invest their money into it. They love the sport, and their way of life proves it. Again, what is the problem? The problem is that we sometimes set our love upon the wrong things. We love that which is not good and lovely.  At other times our love is inordinate. We love things that are good and lovely but in the wrong way. 

The word of God testifies to our distorted love and affections, and our observation of the world around us also confirms it. Why all of this talk about our bent out of shape love and affections? It is all to say to that love – that is, good and godly love – is not something that comes natural to us because of our sin. We have affections, but they are by nature disorderly. We love, but the wrong things and in the wrong way. Do not be surprised, therefore, that a husband and wife must learn to love one another in Christ Jesus. May I suggest to you that one of the best training grounds for love is the marriage relationship. There two become one, and there in that covenant bond they are to learn to love one another. 

Notice also the word “love”.  A husband and wife must learn to love one another.

Here it simply needs to be demonstrated that love is an action or way of life. 

Yes, love and affections are closely related. And yes it is true, a husband and wife should feel affection for one another. But may I suggest to you that when the scriptures command us to love they are not commanding us to feel affection, but to take action. Love is a way of life.

The 1 Corinthians 13 passage that was read at the beginning of this sermon is perhaps the best known passage on the subject of love. Let me read verses 4-7 again and, as I do, ask yourself the question, is love an emotion or a way of life primarily?  

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–7, ESV)

It should be clear to all that love is an action, or way of life. 

When Jesus in John 13:34 commands us saying, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another…” he does not mean feel fondness for one another, but instead treat one another in a loving way. In fact, after saying, ”love one another” Jesus says, “just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jesus’ disciples are to treat one another in the same way that Christ has treated us. And it is this way of life that the world will take notice of – “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

The world cannot see our affections, but they can see our love, for love is an action. Remember, “love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4–7, ESV).

Friends, love is not something we fall into or out of, it is something that we learn to do. 

And notice also the little phrase, “in Christ Jesus”. A husband and wife must learn to love one another in Christ Jesus. 

By this I mean three things:

One, it is Christ Jesus who has demonstrated to us what true love is. Do you want to know what perfect love looks like? Look to Christ! If we are to love well we must love in Christ Jesus, or as he has loved.  

Two, it is Christ Jesus who enables us to love through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. By nature we do not love as we ought to love. We love the wrong things (often ourselves), and even when we love the right things, we love them wrongly. This is our condition apart from Christ while in our sin. But in Christ we are renewed by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. In Christ our heart of stone is turned to flesh. In Christ our hearts that are by nature dead to God are made alive to God. Christ  enables us to love through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.

Three, it is Christ Jesus who teaches us to love more and more through the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. Although you have been made alive by Christ that does not mean your struggle with sin is over. Indeed, there are many sinful corruptions that remain within you and I to war against the Spirit’s work within us. The Spirit has written God’s law on our hearts and is training us to keep God’s law. And what is the summary of God law? To love God with all the heart, soul mind and strength, and to love ones neighbor as oneself.    

When I say that a husband and wife must learn to love one another in Christ Jesus, I mean that we must love one another  just as Christ has loved us, we must love having been freed by him to love, and we must do so in continual dependence upon him. 

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II. A Husband And Wife Must Extend Grace To One Another In Christ Jesus

Secondly, a husband and wife must extend grace to one another in Christ Jesus. Grace is a key ingredient in good and God honoring marriages.  

You have just heard me say that husbands and wives must love one another. The question before us now is, what are we to do when our spouse is not loving us as they should? Instead of being patient, they are impatient. Instead of being kind, they are rude. Instead of dying to self they insist on their own way. What if they are irritable and resentful, etc. What is a Christian spouse to do then? The answer is that we must show mercy and grace. 

Thew world operates according to the works principle. The law that the world lives by is I will treat you as you deserve. I will be kind to you once you are kind to me. Be rude to me and I will respond in like manner or I will withdraw. I’ll show you love and respect once you love and respect me. This is the law that the world lives by: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 

But is this how God has dealt with us in Christ Jesus? Has he dealt with us on the basis of our works? Does he make us earn his love? Thankfully not, for he know s that we are incapable of doing so. Instead, it is by grace that we have been saved. It is by grace through faith, and by virtue of the selfless and sacrificial work of Christ that God has brought us into a right relationship with himself. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9–10, ESV). Remember that our marriages are to be a picture of God’s love for his people in Christ Jesus. 

Oh, how I wish it were so that husbands and wives would love one another perfectly being always patient and kind, and never  arrogant or rude. But friends, you and I both know that the most godly among us still struggle with sin. The very best husbands and wives will indeed sin against each other. What then? The answer is that we are to extend mercy and grace.

The scriptures tell us that we are love our enemies. If we are willing to show kindness to our enemies, why not our own spouse when they are being rude to us? 

Here the words of Christ in Matthew 5:38:  “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles” (Matthew 5:38–41, ESV). This might at first seem like a strange text to site in a sermon on marriage, but it does apply, doesn’t it? By no means am I encouraging husbands or wives to remain in a truly abusive situations, but the principle here is that as Christians we must not be governed by the “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” principle. Instead, when we are struck (metaphorically) speaking, we should should not strike back, but instead turn the other cheek. If this is how we are to respond to those who persecute us in the world, how much more should we be willing to extend grace and mercy to our own spouse when they are failing to love as they out to love. 

I have seen this time and time again. A marriage is struggling. Harshness, rudeness, selfishness dominate. The husband and wife are encouraged and instructed to love one another – to be kind and patient, tender and thoughtful. But the couple struggles so badly to change. Why? In part is it because the works principle governs the marriage – mercy and grace is lacking. 

Would you turn with me to 1 Peter 3. Peter is speaking to the wives in 1 Peter 3:1 when he says, “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct” (1 Peter 3:1–2, ESV). How is a wife to respond to a husband who is failing to obey the word of God? She is to be subject to him. She is to respond by laying down her life for him. She is to be sure that her conduct is respectful and pure. And it will be in this way that her husband is to be won without a word. I do not need to tell you how different this way is from the way of the world. The worldly wife will seek to change her husband, not without a word, but with many words! The Christian wife is to win her husband without a word through her “respectful and pure conduct”. She is to adorn herself, not externally with “the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing [she] wear[s]” but instead she is to adorn herself  with “the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” And then Peter remarks that “this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening” (1 Peter 3:3–6, ESV). 

This is my very favorite passage to share with a Christian wife who’s husband is ungodly or immature in Christ. I love that Peter mentions Sarah and Abraham. How did Sarah respond to Abraham? How did she adorn herself as his wife? She showed honor to Abraham, even calling him lord. I would image that some would respond to this saying, “ya, but Sarah was married to Abraham, the father of the faith, a godly man.” Sister, have you read the story of Abraham? Have you read of all of his shortcomings? Twice he abandoned Sarah to a King’s haram. He foolishly too Sarah’s servant as a second wife. He was far from perfect. And yes Sarah showed him honor. 

I should here say the thing that has been said time and time again in this series. The Bible does permit divorce. Two grounds are given – adultery and abandonment. In these instances divorce is permitted. So there are limitations to what I am here saying. But those issues aside, we must extend grace to one another. We musty learn to show honor even if the other is acting less than honorably. 

Notice that Peter says something similar to the husband in verse 7 of the same passage. “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Peter 3:7, ESV). 

What is the principle that ties Peter’s instructions to wives and his instructions to husbands together? What is the principle that stands behind the word “likewise” of verses 1 and 7? Did you notice the word “likewise”? It is the principle of showing honor even to those who mistreat you. Instead of the law of “an eye for an eye” it is law of “love your enemies” that is being put forth here. 

In fact, this theme runs from 1 Peter 2:13 all the way through to the end of chapter 3. 

Look at 2:13: “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people” (1 Peter 2:13–15, ESV).

Look now at 2:18: “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God” (1 Peter 2:18–20, ESV).

Notice the reason that Peter gives for this kind of conduct. Verse 21: “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:21–25, ESV)

The “likewise” of verses 1 and 7 of 1 Peter 3 has reference to this gracious way of life. Husbands and wives are not to live according to the “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth” principle, but instead they are to extend grace, showing honor to one another, even if the other is acting less than honorable.     

Tell me brother;  tell me sister, does the works principle dominate your marriage, or is your marriage infused with grace? Wives, I can tell you from experience that the Spirit of God convicts me most strongly as a husband when my wife responds to my rudeness or irritability with kindness and respect. 

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III. A Husband And Wife Must Be Long Suffering In Christ Jesus

Thirdly, and very briefly, if a husband and wife hope to have a successful and God honoring marriage they must be long suffering in Christ Jesus. Patience is a key ingredient in good and God honoring marriages.  

Truth be told, many loose hope in their marriages way to soon. 

Do you remember what was said in the middle of that that passage on love found in 1 Corinthians 13? It says, “love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7, ESV). Brothers and sisters, we need to endure in marriages. We need to persist with hope in our marriages.  

What should we do as we persevere in the marriage relationship?

We should be sure to address issues as they arise respectfully and in love.

We should be be gracious and kind to one another while we pursue sanctification in Christ Jesus. 

We should focus on ourselves, asking am I walking holy and humbly before God?

And we should pray. Pray, pray, pray.

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Conclusion 

Tell me friend, do you know the love of Christ?

Do you know how to love as Christ loves?

Are you merciful and gracious to your spuce?

Are you long suffering?

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Old Testament Reading: Genesis 2:24-25

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:24–25, ESV)

New Testament Reading: John 15:1-16

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” (John 15:1–17, ESV)

Introduction 

Brothers and sisters, in this third sermon in this series within a series on the subject of marriage, divorce and remarriage I would like to focus in upon the subject of entering into marriage – how should a person prepare to enter into the marriage relationship? We have already devoted two sermons to answering the question, what is marriage? In the weeks to come we will address the marriage relationship itself as we ask, how can we have a healthy and successful marriage? And finally we will address the difficult and rather unpleasant subject of divorce and remarriage. Truly, the word of God is a light to our feet in all these matters, and so to the word of God we must go. Today, I wish to offer some brief remarks concerning entering into marriage. My objective is to help those who hope to marry in the future to prepare well for marriage beginning even now. 

I realize that by introducing this sermon in the way that I have it is possible that some will assume that this sermon will have nothing at all for them. 

To those who are young it might seem as if entering into marriage is a long, long way off. To the young I would say, little brother, little sister, time moves very quickly. Your wedding day might be here before you know it. You had better start preparing for it now. So listen up! 

Those who are married now might be thinking, how can a sermon on the subject of entering marriage possibly be for me given that I have already entered into it? Let me ask you two questions: One, do you have children, or do you plan to have children? If so, please understand that their wedding day might be here before you know it. One of your responsibilities as a parent is to prepare your children for marriage, whether or not it be the Lord’s will for them. This is something that we must always remember, parents: our objective is not to hold on to our children forever, but to raise them so that we might release them to establish households of their own. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”, the scriptures say. May the Lord use this brief sermon to help parents help their children to prepare will for marriage. Two, if you are married now would you be willing to consider that perhaps in some ways you entered into your marriage ill prepared? I do not want you to be discoursed by this. Instead my desire is that, having recognized what was lacking in the preparation, you would now work to remedy the weaknesses. May the Lord be pleased to use this sermon on entering marriage even to those who are married now. 

And still there are others who are single now and do not plan to marry, or who are married now but do not have children in the home. To you I would say, rejoice that these truths are being taught within or community, and pray for those who are to wed in the future, that they would prepare for marriage and enter into this holy union well and to the glory of our covenant making and covenant keeping God. Also, I trust and pray that plenty of principles will put forth in this sermon that you will be able to pick up and make your own, though they may not apply to you in the same way that they will apply to the one who is preparing for, or helping their children to prepare for, marriage in the future.

Well, enough of me trying to convince everyone to listen to this sermon. Let’s get on with it. How should a person prepare for marriage? What should a Christian think and do now so that he or she might enter into the marriage relationship (if it be God’s will for them to marry) well equipped and ready to thrive in it to the glory of God?

Pursue Holiness And Maturity In Christ Jesus In The Whole of Life

Pursue holiness and maturity in Christ in all that you think, say and do.

Pursue holiness and maturity in Christ in all that you think.

Pursue knowledge.

Pursue wisdom.

Cultivate purity of thought.

Pursue holiness and maturity in Christ in all that you say.

Have you learned to control your tongue?

Have you learned how to communicate?

Have you learned how to work through conflict without sinning?

Pursue holiness and maturity in Christ in all that you do. 

Have you learned the way of Christ, which is to die to self and to live for others?

Do you keep God’s law? Do you love God with all your heart, soul mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself? Or do you selfishly love yourself, and live for your own pleasure?

These things can and should be cultivated, not after the wedding day, but well before it. Maturity in Christ should be developed today. 

Let me speak very directly now to the teenagers and preteens. amongst us. I know that some of you are thinking about marriage already. I’m no fool. I know that some of you, perhaps the girls in particular, have thought about marriage. And what I am saying to you is that you need to start preparing for it now. No, I’m not talking about finding a spouse. I’m not talking about planning the wedding day, or anything like that. I’m talking about you preparing yourself – you working on you, so that when the day (if the Lord wills) you are ready to be a good and godly husband, or a good and godly wife. 

How can you prepare? 

Do you know Christ?

Is God your first love?

Do you know God’s word? Do you have it in your heart? Do you read it for yourself? Do you pay attention when it is read to you and preached? Do you work to put it into practice. Mature and godly husbands and wives know God’s word and they seek to obey it in the whole of life.

Do you pray? 

Do you know how to love others? If you do not know how to love others now, why do you think you will be able to love your husband or wife after your are married? And what does it mean to love others? It involves you dying to yourself, and doing good for someone else. 

I’ll tell you what it looks like for a young man or young woman to be well prepared for marriage. When I see a young person notice a pile of dishes in the sink and begin to wash them with a good attitude and without being ask, that is a sign of maturity. That is an indicator this one has learned the joy serving others instead of the misery of living for oneself.

When I see a young man speak kindly to his siblings even if they have been rude to him…

When I see a young woman who is able to work through conflict…

The problems that arise within marriage relationships are not produced by the marriage, but by the sinfulness of those who are wed. The marriage relationship is simply the realm or the context in which the sinfulness of the husband’s heart and the wife’s heart are manifest. 

The problem is not the marriage, but the people who are wed. 

Imagine a truly godly and mature Christian man and a godly and mature Christian woman.  Now imagine that these two are married. And now try to imagine their marriage being bad. Can you do it?

It is difficult for me to imagine two godly and mature people having a terrible marriage. 

I can imagine a difficult marriage if one is godly and mature, and the other not.

I can imagine a marriage being very difficult if both husband and wife are ungodly and immature. 

But it is very difficult for me to imagine a marriage being anything less than good – even great –  if indeed the husband and wife have both cultivated personal holiness and have a mature walk with Christ. Will their marriage be perfect? No, for even the “godly” among us are not perfect. Will there be room for growth in this marriage? Yes! The godly and mature husband and wife will continually deepen in their understanding of God, of themselves, of one another and of the marriage relationship. But if they are godly and mature – if they love God supremely, if they have learned to walk humbly before him, if they know what it is to die to self and to live for the good of others, if they have self-control in thought word and deed, then it is difficult to imagine their marriage relationship being anything other than good and ever improving. 

Do you want a good marriage? Cultivate personal holiness and maturity in Christ Jesus.  

Heart transformation is needed. Sanctification is needed. Maturity in Christ is needed. All of this should be sought and cultivated well in advance of the wedding day. Sadly, many do not realize how weak, immature and self-centered they are util the marriage relationship is used by God to reveal it! Thanks be to God that he uses the marriage relationship to sanctify his people. We should rejoice in this. But wouldn’t it be better to prepare for marriage by walking in humble submission to God and his word, pursuing holiness and maturity in Christ prior to  marriage, so that we might enter into the union well equipped. Do your future spouse a favor and pursue holiness in the whole of life even now.  

Know What You Are Looking For In A Future Spouse

How should a person prepare for marriage?

Secondly, it is important for you to know what you are looking for in a future spouse.

Make a list. Prioritize that list. 

Tall, dark and handsome should not be at the top of that list. Thankfully those three things were not at the top of Lindsay’s, for I certainly wouldn’t have made the cut. 

Yes, it is somewhat important that we be attracted to the person we will someday marry. A bride and groom should be attracted to one another physically and emotionally.  

But I would suggest to you that other things besides physical appearance and even compatibility, so called, should be higher on our list.

Consider that many marriages throughout the world today are arranged marriages. And consider that most marriages throughout history were arranged marriages. The dating thing that we do in our culture is really quite unusual when compared to the rest of the world and to historical practices. And those arranged marriages work. Now, I am not advocating that we adopt the practice of arranged marriages. I will admit that the practice is more appealing than ever before now that my daughters are approaching adult hood. 

The point I am making is that marriages can be very, very healthy even if the issue of physical or emotional attraction is not at the very top of the list driving the relationship. In fact, think of how shallow and vain a relationship will be if physical and emotional attraction is the thing driving it.

It is far better to have other things – things of substance – at the top of your list and to allow the issue of attraction attraction and compatibly to round it out.   

For the Christian the thing that must be at the very top of the list is the question, are they in Christ? Are they united to Christ by faith?

This is not just the opinion or preference of your parents and your pastor, but is the very word of God. 

Do not be unequally yoked.

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:14–18, ESV).

They must be in the Lord. 

“A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 7:39, ESV).

They must be truly in the Lord. 

“Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:20, ESV).

Some come to faith after marriage and thus find themselves a believer married to a non-believer. In such instances the Christian should remain, “For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?” (1 Corinthians 7:16, ESV). But here we are talking about entering into marriage. 

For the Christian, that the future spouse be a Christian – and truly a Christian –  must be at the top of the list. From there you should be looking for someone who is mature in Christ – someone who is sound in doctrine and faithful in his or her way of life. 

Be patient. 

If they must also be tall, dark and handsome, then good luck. I am not saying that such creatures do not exist, only that you should take great care in forming your list. Have the right things at the top, and the right things on the bottom, and be willing to abandon the non-essential things as you go along.

Know what you are looking for in a future spouse.

Approach Dating Relationships And Engagement In A Godly Way

Thirdly, and lastly, may I encourage you to approach dating relationships and engagement in godly way? Another way to say this is that a Christian should approach dating relationships and engagement in a way that is consistent with our faith in general, and our view of marriage in particular.

Pre-adults, respect your parents. They have experiences and wisdom that you don’t have. 

Courtship or dating? Engagement or betrothal? I don’t care what you call it! Engage these things in a godly way. 

Dating

Sexual purity

Emotional purity

Recognize that you are developing relational habits in your dating relationships. 

Date/court with a view towards marriage. 

Engagement

Engaged people are not married people. 

Maintain sexual purity 

No cohabitation

Engaged people should be preparing, not only for the wedding, but especially for the marriage. 

Conclusion

Posted in Sermons Joe Anady Genesis 2:24-25
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Old Testament Reading: Genesis 2:24-25

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:24–25, ESV)

New Testament Reading: 1 Corinthians 7:12–16

“To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?” (1 Corinthians 7:12–16, ESV)

Introduction 

Brothers and sisters, in this sermon series within a series on the subject of marriage, divorce and remarriage we will eventually address topics such as entering into marriage, having a successful marriage, challenges in marriage, as well as the topic of divorce and remarriage, but today we are still addressing foundational matters. We are answering the question, “what is marriage?” Or, better yet, “what do we learn about the marriage relationship when we look to the pages of Holy Scripture?” 

I have three foundational observations to make. What is marriage? One, marriage is a covenant. Two, marriage is for the glory of God. And three, marriage is for the good of humanity.

Marriage Is A Covenant

It should be remembered that the first of these three observations was presented last week. What is marriage? Marriage is, first of all, a covenant. 

Remember the definition that was provided. Marriage is “a lifelong covenant of companionship between a man and a woman that has been established under God and before the community” (Newheiser, Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage, 6).

Marriage is a covenant. More specifically, marriage it is a covenant made between one man and one woman. It is a covenant made under God. It is a covenant is made before others. The marriage covenant authorizes sexual intimacy. And the marriage covenant is to last until death. All of this was presented in the previous sermon.But before we move on from this foundational point I would like to tease it out a bit more. 

I pray that you would comprehend how important it is to view marriage as a covenant. In marriage a man makes a promise before God and witnesses to be faithful to a woman. And the woman also makes a promise before God and witnesses to be faithful to a man. This they promise to do until separated by death. What a solemn thing it is to make such a promise. What a serious thing it is to enter into such a covenant. Truly, there is no other relationship on planet earth like the relationship that exists between husband and wife. Two individuals who were were at one time interlay unrelated are joined together by God as one flesh as they enter into this covenantal bond. The marriage covenant is the glue that holds the marriage relationship together. A husband and wife are to stick together though thick and thin, and for what reason? Because they made a promise to one another before God and before witnesses that they would. 

While I was growing up I remember being taught that divorce is not an option. I’m grateful to have been taught that lesson for, generally speaking, it is true – divorce is not an option.

I say “generally speaking” because there are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Divorce, as we will see later in this series, is an option in the case of adultery or abandonment (and I think it is right to see abuse as a form of abandonment – more on that later). If a spouse is sexually unfaithful then the other is permitted (but not required) to divorce them. If a spouse abandons the marriage then the other is permitted to divorce. But these two biblical grounds for divorce are exceptions to the general rule that divorce is not an option.

Think of the impact that these principles will have upon a marriage if they are believed and adopted. If a couple views marriage as being a lifelong covenant of companionship, and, connected to that, if a couple decides from the start that divorce is not an option for them, then that couple will have set their marriage relationship down upon a fairly firm foundation. 

More needs to be said, of course. For our highest goal is not simply to remain married to the end. No, more than that we wish to thrive in our marriages to the glory of God. But here is a firm foundation upon which to stand. Marriage is a livelong covenant of companionship. Divorce is not an option.    

Therefore, when we experience difficulties in the marriage relationship divorce should not even be on our minds. Certainly the treat of it should never be on our lips. Never should a husband or wife threaten divorce. 

As I said earlier the scriptures do permit divorce in two situations – when a spouse has committed adultery or in the case of abandonment (abuse being a form of abandonment). In these difficult situations  the spouse that has been sinned against is indeed free (not required) to divorce.  But think of it, even in these extreme instances divorce, though it be permitted, does not need to be threatened. The one who has been sinned against needs to make a decision with the help of godly counsel as to if they will divorce or remain, but he or she does not need to threaten divorce. Never should the threat of divorce be used as a weapon – as a way to gain the upper hand in an argument.

I’m afraid that many do have divorce on the mind and even upon their lips, not in the extreme cases of adultery and abandonment, but even when facing the ordinary and common struggles of marriage. 

Brothers and sisters, I hope that you would agree that this is ungodly behavior. If God created marriage to be a lifelong covenant of companionship, and if God has given only two instances in which divorce is permitted, then it is wrong for us to have divorce on our minds, in our hearts, and proceeding from our lips as a threat when the relationship is difficult and tumultuous. To ponder or threaten divorce when there are no grounds for it is to disobey God’s word on the matter.

Because marriage is a lifelong covenant of companionship ordinarily divorce is not an option. A husband and wife are to sick like glue to one another even if there are many factors and forces at work to pull them apart. And this is particularly true for the Christian. While it is true for all humanity that marriage is a lifelong covenant of companionship, the Christian should definitely know it this and live accordingly. And I would also argue that it is particularly possible for the Christian to live accordingly given our worldview. It is our worldview that makes it possible for us to stay through thick and thin. The Christian believes that there is a God to whom we must give an account. We believe that this God is our heavenly Father. He is faithful to his people and is willing and able to sustain his people. We believe that our God is able to change lives. How do you know, therefore, if your conduct will not lead to the salvation of your husband or wife? How do you know if your conduct will not lead to the sanctification of your husband or wife? The world is quick to leave, in part, because they do not have a biblical worldview. With God there is hope. And this hope enables us to persevere in the midst of difficulty. 

Marriage Is For The Glory of God

Secondly, marriage is for the glory of God.

What is marriage? Marriage is, first of all, a covenant. Secondly, marriage is for the glory of God. 

In just a moment I will make the point that marriage is for our good. Indeed, marriage is good. It is, in fact, very good. There is much to say about the goodness of marriage for the man and woman who enter into this union. But before we talk about how good marriage is for us, we must emphasize that marriage is for God’s glory. This is the proper order of things. What is the benefit of marriage? First, it is for the glory of God, and after that it is for our good. I’m afraid that we tend to have this backwards, though. We tend to enter into marriage for our enjoyment, and the idea that it is for God’s glory remains a distant afterthought. The truth is that the institution of marriage in general, and our marriage relationships in particular, are, above all else, for the glory of God. 

In fact the one who is mature in Christ understands that everything is for the glory of God. Everything that was made by God was made so that the glory of God might be manifest. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world… (Psalm 19:1–4, ESV). Everything that we think, say and do is to be for the glory of God. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31, ESV). Certainly, marriage is to bring glory to God.  

The institution of marriage itself is for the glory of God. It functions as a picture of God’s relationship to his people. Just as God entered into a covenantal relationship with his people at the beginning of time, so too the first man and woman were joined together in one flesh union by way of covenant. This was true in the beginning and in the garden prior to man’s fall into sin. And it remained true even after man’s fall into sin. God graciously provided a way for sinners to approach him. This was accomplished by way of the Covenant of Grace which was promised shortly after the fall and would be ratified in Christ’s blood. Marriage, therefore, functions as picture of God’s covenantal relationship with his people, particularly the union that exists between Christ and the church, God’s redeemed bride. 

This is the clear teaching of the New Testament. Paul, after discussing the marriage relationship in general, and the particular role of the husband and wife who are joined together in one flesh union, says, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32, ESV). In other words the one flesh union enjoyed by the husband and wife in the marriage bond is mysterious and really it is about – it pertains to and is a picture of – Christ’s union with the church. The covenant of marriage is itself an analogy of God’s covenantal union with his people brought about though the Redeemer. The institution of marriage is itself for the glory of God. It is a picture of God’s covenantal faithfulness to man. 

And certainly we bring glory to God when our particular marriages are as they should be. 

We bring glory to God in the marriage covenant when we are faithful to one another just as God is faithful. 

We bring glory to God in the marriage covenant when we act selflessly towards one another just as God in Christ was selfless, laying down his life for his bride, the church. 

We bring glory to God in the marriage covenant when we are kind, tender and compassionate to one another just as God is kind, tender and compassionate towards his children. 

We bring glory to God in the marriage covenant when we are gracious towards one another just as God is gracious to us in Christ Jesus. 

We bring glory to God in the marriage covenant when we love one another just as Christ loves us.

We bring glory to God in the marriage covenant when we truly forgive one another just as God has forgiven all our sins in Christ Jesus.

We bring glory to God in the marriage covenant we are united together as close companions as a reflection of our union with the Father through the Son and by the Spirit.  

The institution of marriage was itself designed to function as a picture of the covenantal union which exists between God and his people, but do you see that this institution is terribly marred by sin when the husband and wife live, not according to the design and will of God, but according to the wisdom and will of fallen man. The marriage relationship fails to give glory to God when approach it wrongly and live sinfully within it. 

Brothers and sisters, will you bring glory to God’s name through your marriage, or will you bring shame to his name? I would urge to stop settling for a mediocre, or worse yet, sinful marriage, and to strive for a marriage in which God is glorified. Be faithful to your spouse in thought, word and deed. Selflessly serve one another as God in Christ has served us – lay down your life for the good of the other. Be kind, tender and compassionate towards one another. Speak kind words. Be gentle. See to understand the other. Extend mercy and grace. Forgive from the heart. Cultivate closeness, intimacy, friendship. Love one as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Stop settling for mediocre marriages and strive for one that is Christlike. Strive for a marriage that brings glory to God. 

As you strive for a marriage that is God honoring you will find that the world, your sinful flesh and the evil one himself will fight against you all along the way, but in Christ we have the victory. 

Marriage Is For The Good of Humanity

Thirdly, and lastly, we must confess that marriage is for the good of humanity. 

Much has been said in this sermon about the difficulty of marriage. Marriage can be difficult. It is important for us to teach that it is a covenant and that divorce is not an option so that we might persevere in the face of difficulties. Many do enter into the marriage relationship naively assuming that it will be happily ever after for them. This is a terrible mistake, and so we must warn that marriage will be challenging. When two sinful human beings are joined together in one flesh union there are bound to be challenges. 

But may this never obscure the fact that the marriage is really, really good. It is possible to have a great marriage in Christ Jesus. It is possible to mature in marriage to the degree that the relationship can be called “wonderful”. Again, or goal as Christians should not be to endure to the end so that we might say, “at least I was faithful!” Instead we should be striving after a good and godly marriage, one that is truly pleasant and satisfying.

I wonder if our marriage relationships do not remain mediocre because we have convinced ourselves that a good marriage or great marriage is not possible. 

The same is true regarding personal holiness. I wonder if we do not plateau in our walk with Christ because we have convinced ourselves that a good or great walk with Christ is impossible. Perfection is something we should not expect, but it is something we should strive after. It is true that Christian life will be characterized by ups and downs, but let us always strive after holiness, brothers and sisters.

Have you said to yourself, “this is just the way that I am, I cannot change”? Never should a Christian believe such a thing. Christ is able to change you from the heart. Are you impatient and rude? Are you short tempered? Are you self absorbed? And prone to bitterness? Are you a bad communicator? Never should the Christian say, “this is just the way that I am.” Instead, the Christian should pursue holiness – the Christian should expect to be sanctified by the word and Spirit. 

The same principle applies to the marriage relationship. Though it is true that marriage is sometimes difficult. Though it is true that a good marriage requires work. The Christian should expect to have a marriage that is good and even great. With Christ it is possible, my friends. 

Marriage is a covenant. It is for the glory of God. And it is for the good of humanity.

In what ways is the marriage relationship good?

First of all, in the marriage relationship a husband and wife are able to enjoy companionship. 

What a blessing it is to have someone to walk through life with. 

Remember that Eve was created by God to be a helper for Adam. She was not created to be his superior, nor was she created to be his slave. Instead she was designed to be a helper fit for him. 

When I say that a husband and wife are to enjoy companionship I mean that they ought to be relationally close and intimate. They should communicate with one another. A husband and wife should be good friends. 

Brothers and sisters, if companionship or friendship is lacking in your marriage, it can be cultivated. And how can friendship be cultivated in the marriage relationship? By being kind, caring, thoughtful and considerate towards one another.

Secondly, the marriage relationship is good for humanity in that it is good for society. 

The family is the building block of society. When families are healthy, the society is healthy. When the family breaks down, society begins to break down. God’s design is that children be raised in healthy families under the authority of a husband and wife, mother and father. 

It is possible, no doubt, for a single mother or a single father to do a wonderful job at raising their children alone. But here we are addressing God’s design, or the ideal. If the situation is less than is ideal, then a single mother or father would be wise to lean upon others for assistance in raising children. But here I am setting forth the ideal. 

Brothers and sisters, cultivating healthy marriages is very beneficial to society. 

Thirdly, and somewhat connected to the previous concept, the marriage relationship is good in that it is good for the advancement of the kingdom of God. 

The kingdom of God is advanced in this world when husband and wives, mothers and fathers, raise their children in the Lord. I know that in some traditions Christians are urged to be active within the church, serving within various ministries. May I suggest to you that the most important work of all for a husband and wife, mother and father, is the work that is done within the home. Brothers and sisters, do not allow yourselves to become so busy with activities, either in the church or in the community, that you neglect investing into your children particularly when in comes to spiritual things. This is especially important for fathers to hear in our day and age. Slow down, men, and pour into your children. Drop the hobbies, cut back on work, even pull back on service within the church if you must so that you might further God’s kingdom by proclaiming the gospel to your children and raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 

Fourthly, the marriage relationship is good in that it contributes the sanctification and holiness of the husband and wife. 

Please hear me, friends. One of the reasons that God has blessed you with your spouse is so that God might use your spouse to bring about your sanctification. What is sanctification? “Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness” (Baptist Catechism Q: 38). And I am saying that one of the primary means that God uses to sanctify his people is the marriage relationship.

At the heart of our sin is pride and self-centeredness. If we lived life all alone a great deal of our pride and self-self-centeredness would go unnoticed and unchecked. But you have probably noticed that it is through our contact with others that our pride and self-self-centeredness becomes evident. 

Friends, there is no closer relationship on earth than the one that exists between husband and wife – the two have become one flesh. If there is pride and self-self-centeredness in the heart it will quickly become evident in the marriage relationship. 

Here is another reason why threatening divorce is sinful. It short-circuits the sanctification process. Imagine the heat being turned up in the marriage – imagine the flames of the refiners fire growing more intense. And then imagine that one or both have the habit of jumping out of the kiln before the work of refinement is done.

Brothers and sisters, do not be surprised when God uses your marriage to refine you spiritually. When conflict arises within the marriage do not double down on your pride and selfishness, not recognize it for what it is, confess it as sin, walk humbly before your God and live for the good others, particularly your spouse.  This is one of the reasons the marriage relationship is good for us given our sinful condition – it will used by God to advance our sanctification.   

Conclusion

Friends, I have three questions to ask you by way of conclusion. 

One, seeing that marriage is a livelong covenant of companionship, are you truly committed to your spouse?  Are you devoted the marriage? Are you “all in” from the heart? Our marriages will be terribly unstable and tumultuous if we waver in our commitment to one another in the heart. Hopefully you meant what you said on your wedding day when you uttered the words, “I take you to be my wedded spouse, and I do promise and covenant before God and these witnesses to be your loving and faithful spouse in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, as long as we both shall live.” If there was uncertainty in the heart then, or if their is uncertainty in the heart now, it is not too late to fix it. We can, even now, turn from the sin of unfaithfulness in the heart and grow in our resolve. Truly, the one who doubts in the heart will be tossed around like the waves of the sea, and the marriage itself will remain unstable. Are their grounds for divorce? Indeed there are! But let us put that issue to side for a moment and say the more general thing: husbands and wives, marriage is for life! It is a lifelong covenant of companionship.”

Two, seeing that marriage is for the glory God I ask, does your marriage glorify his name? When people look at your marriage (and this includes your children) do they see God’s love, compassion, tenderness, mercy and faithfulness on display? Do they see Christ’s self-less and self-sacrificing love for his church, and the churches reciprocal love for the Savior on display? Or do they see the way of the world? Brothers and sisters, let us do all things for the glory of God. Let us strive for marriages that bring honor to our great King. 

Three, seeing that marriages are for our good, are you pursuing a great marriage in Christ Jesus? Or have you grown content with one that is mediocre? Another way to say this is to ask, are your pursuing holiness in Christ Jesus? Are you pursuing holiness as an individual and in the marriage. 

Ephesians 4:17-32 is one of my favorite passages to use in marriage counseling. Though it does not mention the marriage relationship (Paul turns to marriage in Ephesians 5) it is deeply practical for husbands and wives.  Listen to Paul’s words, and you hear them, think of the marriage relationship. “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:17–32, ESV)

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Old Testament Reading: Genesis 2:24-25

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:24–25, ESV)

New Testament Reading: Revelation 21:1–5

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” (Revelation 21:1–5, ESV)

Introduction 

Brothers and sisters, I would like to take some time now to give attention to the topic of marriage. My plan (as of today) is to devote seven sermons to the topic of marriage, divorce and remarriage. 

Remember that I did something similar with the doctrine of the Sabbath. The creation narrative of Genesis 1 concluded by making mention of the Sabbath Day (Genesis 2:1-3). And after moving through the text of Genesis 1 verse by verse, I devoted 8 sermons to the doctrine of the Sabbath. 

Notice that something similar happens in the creation narrative of Genesis 2. There we find a description of God’s creative activities with special attention given to the creation of the  man and woman, and then the narrative concludes by making mention of the marriage covenant. 

Isn’t it interesting that both the creation narrative of Genesis 1 and the creation narrative of Genesis 2 conclude with institutions. After creating the heavens and the earth, God instituted the Sabbath. And after creating man, male and female – and having entered into covenant with man –  God instituted the marriage covenant. 

I would suggest to you that this pattern is deliberate.  It seems that the Sabbath command brings the creation narrative of Genesis 1 to a conclusion because the Sabbath functions as a sign of God’s creation of the heavens and earth and of the promise of eternal rest held out to the man who was made in his image. And so too the marriage covenant brings to conclusion the creation narrative of Genesis 2 because it functions as a sign of God’s covenantal relationship with his people. The Sabbath command and the marriage covenant, though they differ greatly from one another, share this in common: they signify or symbolize for all humanity truths concerning God and his relationship to man. Whenever the Sabbath day is properly observed something is symbolized concerning God’s relationship with his people. And whenever marriage is properly entered into something is symbolized concerning God’s relationship with his people.

I’ll leave it to you to think more about this. If I go any further this introduction will turn into a sermon all its own. For now I will simply say that I think it is appropriate for us to tease out the topic of marriage now that the principle has been introduced to us in Genesis 2:24-25 just as we teased out the topic of the Sabbath after it was introduced to us in Genesis 2:1-3. Both the Sabbath day and the marriage relationship were instituted by God at creation, they are for all humanity, and they are symbolic institutions.

Please note that the marriage relationship was instituted by God. God is the one who created the marriage relationship. He established it in the beginning when he created the first man and the first women and joined them together as husband and wife. I hope  you are able to recognize how foundational this idea is: the marriage relationship was instituted by God. 

You have noticed, no doubt, that people are very confused about marriage in this culture. There was a time when the majority of the population actually agreed that marriage was a covenant into which one man and one woman would enter for life. Things are different now. The popular view today is that two men may marry, or two women. Why it is that polygamy or polyandry is still taboo, I’m not entirely sure. I would imagine that it is only a matter of time before this is also tolerated – that is, unless God intervenes. Notice also that divorce is much more common and accepted within our culture today. People are very confused about the institution of marriage. 

But I want you to recognize that all of the differences of opinion that exist within our culture concerning marriage can be traced back to a more fundamental question, namely, where did the marriage institution come from? How did this thing that we call marriage come to be?

Many in our culture would say that the institution of marriage came from man. In other words, marriage is the product of societal evolution. A long time ago, someone, somewhere decided that it would be beneficial for man and for society to have this institution that we call “marriage”. Marriage, according to this view, arose spontaneously from the ooze of humanity. 

But what does the Christian say? Our view is that the institution of marriage came from God.  God created the marriage relationship. God is the originator of marriage, and he, therefore, is also the orderer of marriage.

It should not be difficult to see how these differences of opinion regarding the origins of marriage produce all of the other differences of opinion that exist within our culture. 

If the marriage institution was created by man, then man is also free to regulate it. If marriage is the product of societal evolution, then we should expect that the institution will undergo constant change. For many within our culture the legalization of gay marriage is viewed as progress. It fits perfectly with their presuppositions concerning the origins of the institution. They applaud the legalization of gay marriage because they have first believed that the marriage institution came from man and is constantly evolving. Who is authorized to decided what marriage is? Man is, according to this view!

But if marriage was instituted by God in the beginning – if it was designed by him – then we should not expect nor desire that it be changed. The Christian does not say, how might we improve this thing called marriage? but instead, Oh, Lord, help us to conform our marriages to your will. If God is the originator of the marriage institution, he is also the orderer of it. Our place is not to create new ways, but to conform our lives to the ways that our Creator has established.  

Do you want to have a marriage that gives glory to God? Do you want to have a marriage that is truly right and good? Do you want a marriage that is blessed of God? Then to his word we must go! We must begin by asking, what have you said, Lord, concerning marriage? And after that we must say, Lord, help us to conform our lives to your most holy word. 

What do we learn about the marriage relationship when we look to the pages of Holy Scripture? I have three foundational observations. One, marriage is a covenant. Two, marriage is for the glory of God. And three, marriage is for the good of humanity. I will elaborate on the first of these today and return to the last two next Sunday, Lord willing. 

First of all, marriage is a covenant. 

It is, to quote one author, “a lifelong covenant of companionship between a man and a woman that has been established under God and before the community” (Newheiser, Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage, 6).

To enter into a covenant is to make a solemn promise. To enter into a covenant is a very serious thing. To break a covenant is a grave sin. 

Notice that the word “covenant” does not appear in Genesis 2. There we simply read, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24, ESV). Clearly it is the marriage relationship that is being described. And though the word “covenant” is not found here, the rest of scripture makes it clear that the marriage relationship is established by way of covenant. 

Other passages could be sited, but Malachi 2:14 will suffice. There the prophet is found rebuking the man who has abandoned his wife, saying, “the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant” (Malachi 2:14, ESV). Marriage is a covenant. The relationship is established by making a solemn oath or promise.

I have five points to make concerning the marriage covenant. 

One, the marriage covenant is made between one man and one woman. 

Last Sunday I read from Mark 10 and that passage where Jesus was being questioned by the Pharisees concerning divorce. And I pointed out how Jesus appealed to this passage here in Genesis 2:24-25 in order to establish God’s ideal for the marriage relationship. Remember how Jesus replied to their questions, saying, “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mark 10:6–9, ESV). In due time we will come to consider the topic of divorce and remarriage. For now I simply wish to demonstrate how Jesus himself interpreted the Holy Scriptures. When Jesus considered the narrative of Genesis 2 he understood it to be foundational. He understood that when God created the man and the woman and joined them together in one flesh union, it established a pattern to be followed. Where do we find God’s design for marriage? We find it beginning in Genesis 2. 

And what is God’s design for the marriage covenant? His design is that one man and one woman enter into it. It is not right for a man to marry a man. It is not right for a woman to marry a woman. It is not right for a man to marry multiple women. And it is not right for a woman to marry multiple men. All are violations of God’s deign for the marriage relationship. Marriage was instituted at creation. Adam and Eve entered into this covenant. This pattern, therefore, was established for all humanity living in all times and places. Have societies deviated from this design throughout the ages? Indeed they have! But insofar as they deviate from God’s design established at creation we must say that they are in error. 

Homosexuality is everywhere condemned as sin in the Holy Scriptures, Old Testament and the New. It should not be difficult to see that homosexual marriages are sinful and are not valid in God’s eyes when compared with the plain teaching of Holy Scripture. They are sinful relationships and they deviate from God design for the marriage covenant.

Do men sometimes feel attracted to other men? Do women sometimes feel attracted to other women? I do not doubt it at all. But this does not mean that it is right to act upon the feeling. What kind of world would we live in if we allowed ourselves to be governed by the rule “if I feel it then it must be ok for me to act upon it”? Even the homosexual would have to admit that they would not want this rule to govern all conduct. Tell me, what would you say to the drunkard who says, “I was born this way?” Would you not lovingly come alongside him and say, “friend, I understand that your desire to drink to the point of drunkenness is very strong, but you must fight against it.” And what would you say to the angry and abusive person who says, “I cannot help it! The feelings of rage are all consuming!” Would you not loving say to her, “friend, I understand that your desire to be given to rage is very strong, but you must fight against it.” What about the adulterer? The liar? The thief? Will you excuse their sin also when they say, “I was born this way”, or “the temptation is just to strong”? You will have compassion, I’m sure. But you will not excuse their sin. Why the different standard when it comes to same sex attraction? God calls homosexual acts sinful. Who are we to disagree with God. 

What those who experience same sex attraction need is Christ. Indeed, this is what we all need. We all know what it is to have our affections bent out of shape because of sin. We all know what it is to be tempted to sin. We have all experienced the powerful pull of the world, the flesh and of the evil one himself. No one is immune from this. All have acted upon it. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All need the Savior. All need to have their sins washed away. All need to be renewed by the word of God and by his Spirit. Oh, that sinners like you and me would come to have faith in Jesus Christ who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 

Listen to God’s word: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” Listen carefully to Paul’s words as he wrote to the Christians living in Corinth! He went on to say, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9–11, ESV). “And such were some of you”, he said. You Christians, prior to being “washed… sanctified… and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”, were those things. You were sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, etc., etc.

The scriptures are clear that it is a sin to practice homosexuality. Certainly, God does not view homosexual marriages as valid, for they are sinful relationships, and a distortion of his original design for marriage. 

The same may be said of polygamous or polyandrous marriages. They are a distortion of God’s original design.   

In the beginning God created one male and one female and joined them together in one flesh union. This is God’s design for marriage. This is the pattern to follow. The two became one in marriage and they were to stick together like glue. 

It is interesting to notice that many of the biblical patriarchs and heroes of the faith (so called), entered into polygamous relationships. Think of Abraham, Jacob, and King David, for example. These men took more than one wife. This would not be so difficult to understand if one would simply recognize, first of all, that not everything in the Bible is prescriptive, but is sometimes only descriptive. When the scriptures reveal that Abraham took Hagar as a wife alongside Sarah in his old age it does not mean that it was right, it simply describes what happened. And notice that the narrative itself suggests that it was wrong for him to do so. It was a foolish move, the result of unbelief, and a decision that resulted in much heartache. Abraham in this instance decided to go the way of the world and to act according to human wisdom instead of believing upon and following after his God. The same can be said for Jacob and David. Secondly, we must acknowledge that although there are some things about the lives of the patriarchs that are to be admired and imitated (namely, their eventual faith in the promises of God), the scriptures actually emphasis their sins and shortcomings in order to demonstrate that whatever good came from them was not the result of their own doing, but by the grace of God. Their polygamous marriages would be an example of this – they were wrong, even for them and in that day.   

Where do we find God’s ideal for the marriage relationship? Not in the life of Abraham, nor in the present trends within our godless society, but in the Holy Scriptures in general, and at creation in particular. The marriage covenant is to be made between one man and one woman.

Two, the marriage covenant is made under God.

There is a horizontal dimension to marriage, no doubt. A man and woman stand before one another and take vows. But there is also a vertical dimension. The man and woman make their vows before God. Listen again to Malachi 2:14 which says, “the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant” (Malachi 2:14, ESV). And listen again to Jesus’ words in Mark 10. commenting on the Genesis 2 passage, Jesus said, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mark 10:9, ESV). When a man and women enter into the marriage covenant God is involved. God is witness to the covenant being made. And God is the one who joins the man and women together in one flesh union so that two become one flesh. This is why Jesus offers these words of warning, “what therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mark 10:9, ESV). Those who participate in the undoing of a marriage covenant are in fact undoing a work that God has done. Notice that I did not say, “all who have been divorced” – for there are valid grounds for divorce given in the pages of Holy Scripture, as we will see – but “those who participate in the undoing of a marriage covenant”. These – and I have in mind here the unfaithful husband or wife, the seductive woman or man who draws the spouse away, or those who facilitate the ungodly act – these are in fact fighting against God and should expect his judgement. Lord have mercy on us. The marriage covenant is one made under God.

Three, the marriage covenant is made before others.

I suppose the only exception to this rule would be the wedding of Adam and Eve, for there were no other humans to witness it. I suppose we could say that God and the angels attended their wedding. But throughout the scriptures we do notice that marriage vows would be made before witnesses. Consider the wedding of Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 4). Consider that wedding events in the Bible are described as feasts involving the community. Consider that Christ preformed his first miracle at a wedding in Galilee when he turned water to wine.  When we take wedding vows we say them before God and man. Why? In part, because the marriage institution is for the good of society. 

The vows that we make in the wedding ceremony are very important, friends. The vows are what communicate the substance of the covenant being entered into. The most important part of the wedding ceremony are the vows. And may I suggest that traditional are the best. I would warn against novelty in the wedding vows. I would also warn against using them as a time for comedy. The wedding vows should be taken seriously. A bride and groom should say something like this to one another in the presence of God and man:

“I take you to be my wedded spouse, and I do promise and covenant before God and these witnesses to be your loving and faithful spouse in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, as long as we both shall live.”

Four, the marriage covenant authorizes sexual intimacy.

Sex outside of the marriage relationship is a distortion of God’s design. Put more bluntly, it is sinful. The world scoffs at this idea, doesn’t it, but the scriptures are clear. And you would think that even the godless would be able to recognize the slew of troubles that come upon men and women when they engage in sex outside of the bonds of marriage. 

It is important to recognize that sex does not create the one flesh union that Genesis 2:24 and Mark 10 mention. The joining together of a man and women as one flesh does not happen through intercourse. Instead, it is the marriage covenant that joins a man and woman together as one flesh, and the act of sex is a sign and seal of that union. 

The reason that sex outside of the bonds of marriage is sinful is because it is a misuse of God’s gift. Sex is to be enjoyed by a husband and wife. It is symbolizes their union. It aids in their intimacy. It is the means of procreation, which is appropriate for those who have been joined together in marriage. To engage in sex outside of the bounds of marriage is a misuse of the gift of God. 

An illustration that a Christian would would understand would be that of the Lord’s Supper. Who should partake of the Lord’s Supper? The one who has faith in Christ should partake. Partaking of the Supper does not unite us to Christ – faith does. Instead, the Lord’s Supper is a sign of the covenantal and spiritual bond that exists between Christ and his people. It is highly inappropriate for someone who does not have faith in Christ, who has not been united covenantally and spiritually to Christ, to partake of the Supper, therefore. They are receiving the sign without the having the substance of the thing signified. It is a misuse of the gift of God. And so it is with sex outside the marriage covenant. It is to partake of the sign apart from the substance. It is a profaning of that which is holy. 

This is why Paul, when speaking against sex outside the bounds of marriage says, “Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh” (1 Corinthians 6:16, ESV). His point is that sexual intimacy is appropriate only for those who have been wed. 

Five, the marriage is a covenant is to last until death. 

In time we will come to talk about divorce and remarriage. The scriptures do say that there are valid grounds for divorce. Specifically, they are adultery and abandonment. In the case of adultery and abandonment divorce is permitted. We will come to deal with these things carefully in the weeks to come. Today I am making the more foundational observation that God’s ideal for the marriage relationship is that it last for life. 

Remember the definition of the marriage covenant that was given earlier. Marriage “a lifelong covenant of companionship between a man and a woman that has been established under God and before the community” (Newheiser, Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage, 6).

That the marriage convent is to last for life is also heard in the traditional vows which conclude with the words, “as long as we both shall live.”

And this was Jesus’ perspective also. When the Pharisees were asking him when divorce was permissible he decided to set forth the ideal for marriage when he said, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mark 10:9, ESV). 

This was Jesus’ interpretation of the passage that is before us in Genesis 2:24, which says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24, ESV).

Jesus’ understanding of Genesis 2:24 was that it set forth God’s ideal for marriage. And God’s ideal is that a husband and wife would break with the household they were raised in, would establish their own household, and having been made one flesh, would stick to one another like glue. The word translated in the ESV as “hold fast” means “cling to, to join with, to stay with.” 

God’s design is that marriage be permeant. And how important it is for this to be said. It is important for those who hope to marry in the future to hear this. They need to understand now, and not after the fact, that when the stand before God and man to take their wedding vows they are not saying, “well, we will see how it goes.” No! They are making a promise – they are taking a vow – to be “loving and faithful” to the one standing opposite them for life. This they will do “in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, as long as we both shall live.” This is important for those who hope to marry in the future to hear. And it is also important for those who are married now to hear. It is good to for them to be reminded of these things. 

The trouble is that many do not mean what they say when they take their wedding vows. With their mouths they say I will be “loving and faithful, in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow”, but in their hearts they mean “I’ll stick around so long as you fulfill me. I’ll be faithful so long as things go well. I’ll remain so long as you make me happy.” Lord help us. In the marriage covenant we are vowing to be loving and faithful to other, even if things don’t go well. 

Application

Do you see that there is a connection between God’s covenantal relationship with his people and the covenant of marriage? Marriage is to function as a picture of God’s covenantal faithfulness to his people. Is your marriage a picture of covenantal faithfulness?

What is it that holds your marriage together?  Will it last so long as you feel satisfied? Or will it last because you have made a promise?

Are you selfless or selfish in your marriage? Do you look at your spouse and think, “I hope he or she pleases me today?” Or do you think, “I hope that I might please him or her”?

To those not married who hope to wed in the future, I hope that you would agree that it is important for you to understand marriage before entering into it. 

May God be glorified in our marriages. May the love of Christ be displayed as we serve one another and extend grace to one another in Jesus’ name.  

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Old Testament Reading: Genesis 2:4-17

“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” (Genesis 2:4–17, ESV)

New Testament Reading: Hebrews 4:14–16

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14–16, ESV)

Introduction 

Brothers and sisters, I hope and pray that you are not growing tired of our rather tedious journey through the first few chapters of Genesis. All scripture is important, but there are some passages that are more foundational than others. Genesis chapters 1 through 3 are foundational. They communicate truths that are basic and seminal. These chapters lay down foundations necessary for a worldview that is biblical and true. And so it is good that we take our time here. 

It is so very important for us to have a worldview that is biblical and true. By “worldview” I mean the way in which we view the world. A worldview is a philosophy of life. A persons worldview is the sum total of what he or she thinks of life biggest questions. Where did we come from? What and who are we? What is our purpose and destiny? It is so important that our worldview be biblical and true, for it will undoubtably shape the way that we live our lives. By “true” I mean that we must have a worldview that corresponds to the reality of things. And by “biblical” I mean that our worldview must come ultimately from God’s word. 

I hope that you would agree that God is the only one capable of communicating to us a view of the world that is thoroughly true. Yes, unbelieving scientists, philosophers and theologians may seek to establish their own worldview independent from God through their observation of the natural world and by use of human reason, but they are terribly limited by their own smallness, their creaturely limitations and especially their sin. Do the unbelieving scientists, philosophers and theologians come to some true conclusions? I’m sure they do, for God does reveal himself to some degree through the world he has made. But there are many things that lay beyond our ability to comprehend apart from God’s word. This is due to our creatureliness, not to mention our sin which blinds our eyes and clouds our judgement. 

The true child of God happily acknowledges that we are dependent upon God for truth. He alone is qualified to communicate it. He has graciously revealed his truth to us, and we are to receive it happily and humbly. 

The same questions that God put Job are appropriate for us to consider here. In Job 38:4–7 God questioned Job, saying, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” God’s questioning of Job goes on and on in that passage, and we need not read it all to understand the point of it. “Where were you when [God] laid the foundations of the earth?” We must reply by saying, “Lord, I did not exist. I was not there to witness it.”

Who is qualified to reveal foundational truths to us? Can any man do it on his own? Can any man simply reason his way to the answers to life’s biggest questions? The Christian is content to say, “no, not infallibly.” But God can reveal truth to us infallibly, because he was there in the beginning. More than that, he himself is the source of all things. Just as we are dependent upon God for life and breath, so too we are dependent upon him for truth. If we are to know truth – ultimate truth – then he must reveal it us. 

Thanks be to God that he has revealed it, for “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (Hebrews 1:1–2, ESV). What a treasure the Word of God is! Brothers and sisters, let us treasure God’s word. May it be to us more “desired… than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb” (Psalm 19:10, ESV).

Let us open God’s word often. And whenever it is opened let us listen attentively so that we might understand it, believe it and live accordingly. Friends, let us “put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save [our] souls” (James 1:21, ESV).

What are the foundational truths that have been established for us so far in our study of Genesis 1 and 2. Among other things we have learned that God is the Creator and we are his creatures. I cannot think of a more basic truth than this, and yet so many live as if it were not so. Many live as if they were God, and God was theirs to create. No friends, God is God, and we are his creatures. We have been made by him and in his image. As image bearers of God we were created to commune with God. We were created to imitate him in his kingship. Man, as he came from the hand of God, was to exercise “dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis 1:26, ESV). The man and women together were to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…” (Genesis 1:28, ESV). 

What does this have to do with you and me? It has everything to do with you and me for it reveals something of the purpose for which God created man.

In Genesis 2 we learned that God entered into a covenant with the man. It was a covenant of obedience or works. Evidently the man and women were placed under a time of testing. Two trees were set before them – the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  They were created with a free will. God created “man with that natural liberty and power of acting upon choice.” They were “neither forced, nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil” (LBC 9.1). The man and women were put to the test. The reward for obedience was life – a higher order of life than they had experienced in the garden, eternal life, a glorified life. The stated consequence for disobedience was death – spiritual death, as well as physical. “God created man upright and perfect, and gave him a righteous law, which had been unto life had he kept it, and threatened death upon the breach thereof… (LBC 6.1). The two tree functioned as sacraments, symbolizing obedience and life on the one hand, and rebellion and death on the other. 

What does this have to do with you and me? It has everything to do with you and me, for it shows what it means to born into this world fallen and in sin. Though we have not yet come to this part of the story, you know it well enough. Adam did not keep the covenant, but broke it. And we are born in Adam. We are born under the covenant of works, which is broken. It cannot give life. It only brings death. 

What does this have to do with you and me? It has everything to do with you and me, for it also shows what Christ has accomplished. He, being the second Adam, has kept the covenant of works. He has paid the penalty for sin, which is death. And this he has done for all of God’s elect – for all who have and do and will believe upon his name.  

God planted a garden in a place called Eden and there he placed the man and woman whom he had formed. The garden was the place where this covenant was made. It was not just a garden, but it was a temple or sanctuary. There in that place man enjoyed communion with God, for God was present in that place. It was in the garden that man was to fulfill his purpose as he lived in perpetual obedience to the God who made him. it was in the garden that Adam was to keep the covenant. Adam and Eve were to worship and serve God there in that place. They were to reproduce and teach their children and their children’s children to worship and serve God there in that place. They were to fill earth with the image of God by bearing children and by working to expand the garden of God. This they were to do until the whole earth was filled with God’s glory.    

What does this have to do with you and me? It has everything to do with you and me, for it shows God’s original purpose for humanity. Also, it makes it possible for us to understand what Christ has earned. Not only has he earned the salvation of individuals, but also the new heavens and earth in which righteousness dwells. The first Adam was to accomplish this – he was to fill the earth with righteousness until heaven and earth became one – but he failed. Thanks be to God, the second Adam, who is Christ our Lord, has succeeded through his obedient life and his sacrificial death. He, by virtue of his life, death, burial and resurrection, has been “appointed the heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2, ESV). He is the one who has earned the “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13, ESV), for which we eagerly await. 

Understanding Adam’s original place in the garden also shows what has been restored to us if we are in Christ Jesus. If we are in Christ Jesus, being united to him by faith, then the image of God has been renewed in us. If we are in Christ we are again called sons of God, as Adam was. We again stand before God aright, our enmity with God having been wiped away by the blood of the Lamb. And so too our purpose has been renewed. We who are in Christ have this task, work towards the expansion of God’s kingdom to the ends of the earth. This was Adam’s task, and it is also ours if we are in Christ, the second Adam. The difference, of course, is that we must work towards the expansion of the kingdom of God in a world that is fallen, whereas Adam was originally woking in paradise. He was to work towards the expansion of the garden while also keeping it. When we expand the kingdom of God we do so m=by pushing back the gates of hell.  And we are to work towards the expansion of the kingdom of God, not by pushing out out the borders of the garden sanctuary of God and through reproduction, but through the proclamation of gospel, which is the good news that God has provided a Savior for sinners, Christ Jesus our Lord. And so our work looks different, doesn’t it? But our task is not altogether different from Adam’s original one now that we are in Christ. He was to works towards the expansion of God’s kingdom and so are we.   

All of this matters greatly, friends. When we handle the first few chapters of Genesis we handling things that are absolutely essential to a right understanding of our faith. I hope that you would agree. 

The foundational truth that I wish to emphasize today is a simple one. It is that Adam was not a farmer (as many suppose), but a priest in the garden temple of God. Put differently, Adam’s work was not only to dig irrigation canals and to plant and cultivate trees – his work was not only to bring order to the unordered parts of the earth – but he was also to function as a priest. He was to work and to keep the garden temple of God. His task was to drive away any intruder who would seek to undermine the proper worship of God in that place. Adam was to draw near to God, he was to live holy before him, he was to promote the worship of God, he was to keep the garden, driving away any who would attempt to defile its sanctity. He was to do the work of a priest.   

How do we know that Adam was a priest? By the way, remember that he was also a prophet and king. He was a prophet in that he was to proclaim God’s word to Eve and to his descendants, saying, “thus saith the Lord!” And he was a king in that he was to exercise dominion in imitation of his Maker with Eve his helper at his side. That Adam was a prophet and king seems obvious. But how do we know that Adam was a priest? I have four answers to that question, and then suggestions for application.

One, we know that Adam was a priest by paying careful attention to the narrative of Genesis chapters 2 & 3. 

Notice where Adam was placed after being created by God. He was placed within the garden which, as it was established in the previous sermon, was a temple or sanctuary of God. This is where priests work – in the temple.  

Notice also Adam’s proximity to God. Adam stood in the presence of God. God walked in the garden amongst the man and woman. His presence was in that place. 

Lastly, notice Adam’s work. God commanded him to “work” and to “keep” the garden. Genesis 2:15 says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15, ESV). This is precisely the work that the priests under the Old Covenant were to accomplish. The Levites were to “work and keep” the tabernacle, and later the temple of Israel.  

In Numbers 18 the work of the priests of Israel is described. And notice that their “So the Lord said to Aaron, ‘You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. They shall keep [šāmar – same as in Gen 2] guard over you and over the whole tent, but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar lest they, and you, die. They shall join you and keep [šāmar – same as in Gen 2] guard over the tent of meeting for all the service [ʿ^aḇôḏāh – noun form of verb, to work in Gen 2] of the tent, and no outsider shall come near you. And you shall keep [šāmar – same as in Gen 2] guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel. And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service [ʿ^aḇôḏāh – noun form of verb, to work] of the tent of meeting. And you and your sons with you shall guard [šāmar – same as keep in Gen 2] your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and that is within the veil; and you shall serve [ʿāḇaḏ – verb, to work, same as in Gen 2]. I give your priesthood as a gift, and any outsider who comes near shall be put to death” (Numbers 18:1–7, ESV). 

The priests of Israel were to “work” and “keep” the tabernacle, and later the temple, just as Adam was to “work” and “keep” the garden. The terminology of “work” and “keep” is shared in common and deliberately so. Why? To show that the garden was a temple and Adam was a priest. The temple of Israel was a microcosm of creation and of Eden, and the priests of Israel were a reflection of Adam in is his original priestly function. 

Adam was to “work” in the garden to the glory of God, laboring towards its universal expansion. And he was to “keep” or to guard the garden from all intruders, preserving its sanctity.  

How do we know that Adam was a priest? First, by paying careful attention to the narrative of Genesis chapters 2 & 3.

Secondly, by observing the development of the theme of “priesthood” in the history of redemption. 

Adam was a priest. In fact the original design for humanity was that all would function as priests. By this I mean that Adam and all his descendants  were to minister in the presence of God. All were to live holy before him, promoting his worship while they preserved the sanctity and extended the bounds of his holy tabernacle.

But notice that after the fall God, by his mercy and grace, still appointed priests. I am thinking of Melchizedek and Arron, the Levites as well as others. What was the meaning of this? Can you see that the presence of priests after the fall communicated that a way to communion with God was still open, despite mans fall into sin. What an extraordinary thing this is! It fits hand in glove with what was said in the previous sermon concerning the temple. Eden was a temple, and the presence of temples after the fall communicated that a way to communion with God was still open, despite mans fall into sin. No longer could we work our way to God, but we could come to him through the offering up of a substitutionary sacrifice – animals at first, and then Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of he world. The fact that priests remained the world from Adam to Christ communicated that a way to communion with God was still open.  

But notice this, Aaron and the Levites – that is, the priests who ministered to God under the Old Mosaic Covenant in Israel’s tabernacle and temple – were not the first priests. They are the best known priests. Their work is most clearly described for us in the pages of holy scripture. But they were not the first, nor were they the last.  

Adam was a priest. All others are an echo of him. 

Adams children knew to make sacrifices to God. Cain did so badly, but Able got it right. Think about that for a moment. Where did they learn to bring sacrifices to the Lord? The text doesn’t explicitly say, but Adam must have taught them. Making sacrifices to God is priestly work, is it not? Able functioned as a kind of priest, then, as he offered up sacrifices to God as an act of worship before him. This he probably learned from Adam, his priestly father.

And then we have that mysterious figure, Melchizedek. He lived long before Moses, Aaron and Levi, and yet he was a priest of the Lord Most High, and the king of Salem. The book of Hebrews makes it clear that Christ was a priest in the line of Melchizedek, and not Aaron, as the priests of the Old Covent were.

Aaron and the Levites were not the first priests, nor were they the last. Christ himself is the High Priest. And we are priests in him, as we will shall see. 

To solidify the connection between the priests who minister after the fall and Adam as priest, simply consider the imagery of the tabernacle of Israel and the priests who ministered there. The high priest of Israel was to enter the most holy place once per year. He represented the people as he entered the most holy place into the presence of God through the shedding of blood. Picture it now. The priest would walk up to that large curtain embroidered with seraphim. He would enter the most holy place and there he would see the ark of the covenant with the two cherubim on either side guarding that place. Was this not an image of the priest walking back into Eden as it were? After the Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden and cherubim were appointed to guard the entrance. But under the Old Covenant the high priest was invited to enter. A sacrifice had to be made, prefiguring Christ. But a way to the throne of God was still open, thanks be to God. 

Not only did the Old Covenant priests of Israel point forward to Christ, they we also and echo of Adam.

Thirdly, we know that Adam was a priest by comparing Adam, who was a type, with Christ, our great high priest, who is the antitype. 

Paul says directly in Romans 5:14 that Adam “was a type of the one who was to come” (Romans 5:14, ESV), namely Jesus the Christ. 

What is a type? A type is a picture or model or foreshadow of something that yet to come. The Old Testament scriptures are filled with “types” that pointed forward to the coming Savior, who would then be the antitype, or the thing to which the type corresponds. 

C.J. Williams has some wonderful things to say concerning the typology. He says in his book, “The Shadow of Christ in The Book of Job”, that “the person and work of Jesus Christ was imprinted on the history that led to his incarnation, through people and events that were invested with prophetic meaning by God, offering glimpses of the coming Savior, and reassuring God’s people of the promise of his coming.” Another way to say this is that God communicated to his Old Covenant people that the Christ would come not only by speaking through the prophets, but also by types and shadows – historical people and events which “said” something about the coming Christ, but not through words. 

The historical person named Adam was a “type” of Christ. Certain things about him communicated things that would be true concerning the Christ once he arrived. Adam was human – the Christ would be human. Adam was a son of God – Christ would be the Son of God. Adam was born under the Covenant of Works – the Christ would be born under the Covenant of Works. Adam was head or representative of others – Christ would be a head or representative for others. Through Adam’s headship death came to all whom he represented – through Christ’s headship life would come to all he represented. At first it seems inappropriate to compare Adam with Christ. In some respects they couldn’t be more different given the terrible failure of the first and the wonderful success of the second. But the scriptures say that Adam was a “type” which pointed forward to Christ, the antitype. 

Here is the point. If Christ is our high priest, then wouldn’t that mean that Adam was also a priest. This they share in common. The difference between the two is that the one was faithful in his priesthood, whereas the other was found to be unfaithful. This is why there is only :one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5, ESV).

Lastly, and very briefly, we know that Adam was a priest by considering that in Christ we have been renewed to function as priests before our God.

The work of Christ is a work of renewal. Christ restores in us what was lost or marred at the fall. 

Adam was created a son of God. We, in our fallenness are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3) – children of the devil (John 8:44). In Christ we are restored, adopted as children of God by the Spirit by whom we cry out “Abba Father”. 

Adam was made in the image of God. We, in our fallenness, find that the image is greatly marred and distorted. In Christ the image of God is renewed. “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:9–10, ESV).

Likewise, Adam was created to live as a priest before God. This was God’s design for all mankind. In our fallenness we do live as faithful priests. But in Christs our priesthood is restored. 

Listen to the way that Peter speaks to the Christian. “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house…” Ah, you are a God’s temple – do you see it? But there is more! “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4–5, ESV).

Did you hear it? If you are in Christ – if you are approaching God through faith in him – then you are God’s temple and you are a priest. What was lost with Adam has been restored in Christ. 

No longer is the priesthood restricted to only a few. Now that Christ, the second Adam, and our faithfully high priest has died and risen, the priestly role has been restored to all who are in him. You are sons of God, each one. You are being renewed in knowledge after the image of your creator. You are a priest before God, as was Adam was a priest, prior to his transgression. Those in Christ, “like living stones… being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Application

Brothers and sisters, do you see that God’s original design for humanity was that all would function as priests before God?

I wonder if you would consider how far we have fallen. How many from amongst the children of man are interested in coming before God to worship and serve him faithfully according to his revealed will? How many are interested in living holy before him to and to promote his worship amongst others? The answer is that none are interested, unless God intervenes. In our natural and fallen state we happily serve as false priests to false gods. We serve ourselves. We worship the things of this world, and we encourage others to do likewise. Oh, how distorted we are in our sin!

But God is merciful. He has provided a Savior, Christ Jesus our Lord. He is our faithful high priest. He served God faithfully all his life. And in the end he offered himself of for our sins. Are you trusting in him? He is indeed the only mediator between God and man. He is the only priest who can led us to God. Any others who claim to be priests or mediator are liars and should not be trusted. Faith alone in Christ alone can effetely bring us into a right relationship with God. 

If you are in Christ then you have been renewed in the image of God, and you are to walk as a priest before him. Are you?

Are you drawing near to God so as to enjoy his presence?

Are you living holy before him, or are you content with your sin?

Are you faithful in prayer? Prayers for yourself and on behalf of others? 

Are you eager to worship God and to promote the worship of God amongst others?

Are you concerned to bring others to God through faith in Christ, or have you grown complacent?

If you are a husband, father or head of house, are you functioning as a priest in your home? Are you faithfully leading your wife and kids to God through Christ? Are you promoting the worship of God there? Are you interceding for those who God has entrusted to your care? Are you preaching the gospel to your family so that the kingdom of God might be expanded realm over which God had given you dominion?

This is the kind of work that a priest is to do, and you are a kingdom of priests. “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4–5, ESV).

 

Posted in Sermons Joe Anady Genesis 2:4-17
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Old Testament Reading: Genesis 2:4-17

“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” (Genesis 2:4–17, ESV)

New Testament Reading: Revelation 21:22-22:5

“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 21:22–22:5, ESV)

Introduction

What made the garden in Eden paradise? Was it the scenery? Was it the climate? Was it the lush tress or the savory food? Now I do not doubt for a moment that the garden in Eden was a very beautiful and pleasant place, but it was not the place that made Eden paradise. Instead, Eden was a paradise to the first man and woman because there they enjoyed the presence of God. In Eden Adam and Eve lived in right relationship to God. In Eden Adam and Eve enjoyed communion with the God who made them. There was no sin in that place. There was no suffering. In Eden there was no death (at least not human death). And in Eden there was God. God was present with the first man and woman. He walked with them and they with him. They were at peace. It was God’s presence in Eden combined with the absence of sin, suffering and death that made the garden in Eden a paradise for the first man and woman. Man was made in the image of God in order to commune with God, and in Eden that communion was thoroughly enjoyed.

Remember that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earthly realm was at first without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep. In six days time God formed the earthly realm into a place suitable for human habitation. And after the earth was fully formed God made man and gave him “dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth”. The man and woman were “blessed” by God. They were to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…” (Genesis 1:28, ESV). This was the story of Genesis 1.

But note this: the man and the woman were not to live independent from God. They were not to live autonomously, but were to go on living in continual dependence upon the God who made them. Man was made to know his Maker. Man was made to commune with his God. Man was to live for the glory of God and to enjoy him forever. While this truth is not clearly established in the creation narrative of Genesis 1, it is clearly established in Genesis 2.

In Genesis 1 it is the transcendence of God that is emphasized. In Genesis 1 it is the distinction between Creator and creature that comes to the fore. But in Genesis 2:4ff. we learn that the same God who in the beginning created the heavens and earth is the God who relates to man. Elohim is Yahweh Elohim. He is the covenant making and covenant keeping God. God Almighty is relational. Not only did he create the earth to be a place for human habitation, he also planted a garden to function as a sanctuary where the man and woman he made would enjoy his presence. This is the story of Genesis 2. It is here we learn that God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life. Likewise God formed the woman from man. God planted a garden in Eden. He placed the man there and entered into a covenantal relationship with him.

Friends, the garden in Eden was more than a garden, for God’s presence was there. God walked with Adam and Eve in that garden paradise. The garden in Eden was a temple, or sanctuary.

How do we know?

First, by paying careful attention to the description of the garden in the narrative of Genesis 2 & 3.

The context of Genesis 3:8-9 is negative, for in that passage God is found confronting man in his rebellion, but it proves the point that is being made. There we read, “And they [Adam and Eve] heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8–9, ESV). Here in Genesis 3:8-9 “God walking” in the garden and “the presence of God” brought terror to the man and the woman, but that was because of their sin. When they were upright and holy God’s walking and God’s presence amongst them were purely pleasant to the man and woman, for then they stood in a right relationship to God.

When suggesting that the garden was a temple I suppose we should ask the question, what makes a temple a temple? Is it not the presence of God that sets the place off as unique and distinct from all other places? A temple is that place where God is present in pronounced way. A temple is a place where man may approach God to commune with him. The garden in Eden was such a place.

Someone might say, but isn’t God omnipresent? Isn’t he all places at all times? Indeed he is! There is nowhere you may go to escape the presence of God. This is what the Psalmist is reflecting upon in Psalm 139 when he says, “If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me” (Psalm 139:8–10, ESV). When I speak of God’s presence as the distinguishing characteristic of a temple I am of course saying that God is present within his temple is a unique and potent way.

Though it be true that God is everywhere present, he was present in Eden in a pronounced way. There man enjoyed communion with the God who made him. There in that place something of the glory of God was manifest.

God’s “walking” in the garden, his “presence” in that place and his communion with the man and the women all indicate that the garden in Eden was more than a lush garden, but was in fact a temple or sanctuary where man beheld the glory of the Lord.

How do we know that Eden was a temple? First, by paying careful attention to the description of the garden in the narrative of Genesis 2 & 3.

Secondly, we learn that Eden was a temple when we compare it to the temple that Israel built according to the command of God.

This, in my opinion, is where the matter is settled. Israel, as you know, was instructed to build a portable tabernacle, and later a permanent temple, according to instructions given to Moses by God. And what was the purpose of the tabernacle and temple of Israel? Was it not to show that Israel was God’s chosen people? Was it not to show that God was present with them in a unique way? Was it not to show that God was in covenant with Israel and did commune with them?

This is indeed what Leviticus 26:11-12 teaches. There God speaks to Israel saying, “I will make my dwelling among you… And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people” (Leviticus 26:11–12, ESV). The reader should immediately think of Eden when reading Leviticus 26. In Eden God dwelt with Adam and Eve. God was present in the garden with them. He walked amongst the first man and woman in that place. And now, so many years after the fall of Adam, God speaks to Israel, whom he just redeemed from Egypt, saying “I will make my dwelling among you… And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people”. And where did God in fact dwell within Israel? He dwelt within the tabernacle and temple that Israel built according to the command of God.

We should remember that Moses was the one who wrote Genesis, but he also wrote Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These five books, which are commonly called the Pentateuch, were delivered to Israel, and through Israel to us. They are meant to be read together. We come to understand what the garden in Eden was, not only by reading Genesis 2 and 3, but the Pentateuch as a whole (as well as the rest of scripture, as we shall see).

The Pentateuch tells a story. These books from Moses told a story to ancient Israel, and they tell us a story today. And what is the story? Adam and Eve enjoyed communion with God in the garden. Adam sinned and was cast out. But God is gracious! He has determined to redeem a people for his own possession. He has made a way for man to have a right relationship with him.

The tabernacle and temple of Old Covenant Israel were to be understood in this way. They were constructed according to the command of God given to Moses in order to function as a picture of the original creation and the original garden in Eden, which was itself a temple or sanctuary for God.

Though I am not comfortable with all of Meredith Kline’s ideas about Genesis 1 and 2, I do believe he gets this right when he says, “God produced in Eden a microcosmic version of his cosmic sanctuary. The garden planted there was holy ground with guardianship of its sanctity committed in turn to men and to cherubim. It was the temple-garden of God, the place chosen by the Glory-Spirit who hovered over creation from the beginning to be the focal site of his throne-presence among men… Eden had the character of a holy tabernacle, a microcosmic house of God. And since it lory was God himself who, present in his theophanic Glory, constituted the Edenic temple, man in the Garden of God could quite literally confess that Yahweh was his refuge and refuge and the Most High was his habitation” “(Kline, Images of the Spirit, pp. 35-37).

This is right, I think. Eden was made to function as a microcosm of the whole cosmos, which itself was created as a sanctuary for God (heaven is my throne and the earth y footstool), and Israel’s tabernacle and temple was created to function as a miniature version of the cosmos and of Eden. The massage “preached” by the tabernacle of Israel was that access to God the Creator may still be had! Why? Because God the Creator is also God the Redeemer. He may be approached by his people, but now not without the shedding of blood, given the fact of sin.

It becomes clear that Eden was a temple when we compare it with the temple that Israel built according to the command of God. The temple of Old Covenant Israel was designed to function as a picture in miniature of the whole cosmos and of Eden. All three – the cosmos, the garden in Eden, and Israel’s tabernacle – were temples constructed to “house” God’s presence to facilitate communion between God and man.

Did you know that when God gave Moses the instructions for the building of the tabernacle they were delivered to him in a series of seven speeches beginning in Exodus 25:1 and concluding in Exodus 27:19. Think about that for moment. When God created the heavens and earth he did so in seven days. When God commanded Moses to create the tabernacle he delivered the command in seven stages.

Also, did you know that there are similarities between the conclusion of the creation week and the conclusion of the construction of the tabernacle. On day seven of creation God entered into rest. And after God finished instructing Moses concerning the construction of the tabernacle the Sabbath command was reiterated (see Exodus 31:17). In fact, when the creation of the tabernacle was complete the presence of the Lord “settled [or rested] on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:35, ESV). Clearly the creation of the cosmos and the creation of the tabernacle parallel one another.

And what do we see when we consider the actual construction of the tabernacle and temple? We see that the building was designed to function as a picture, or as a miniature model, of the heavens and earth and of God’s original temple in Eden.

The tent itself represented the heavens that God stretched out at the beginning of creation. The veil which separated the holy place from the holy of holies represented the firmament which was created on day two of creation. The large bronze lavers which were crafted to hold water used for cleansing represented the seas which were formed on day three of creation. The lamp stand symbolizes the luminaries that were created on day four. The winged cherubim which decorated the temple correspond to the bird that were created on day five. And the consecration of the high priest corresponds to the creation of man on day six. On day seven of creation God finished his work, ceased from it and blessed it. When the tabernacle was finished, the people ceased from their labor and Moses blessed it.

Exodus 39:32 and 43: “Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished, and the people of Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses; so they did… And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the Lord had commanded, so had they done it. Then Moses blessed them.” (Exodus 39:32, 43, ESV)

What I am saying is that when one compares the tabernacle that Israel built according to the command of God with creation in general, and the garden in particular, it becomes clear that the tabernacle was to function as a miniature version of creation with the garden being symbolized by the holy of holies.

Many other comparisons could be made if we had the time. Consider the river that flowed out of Eden and the many prophesies that speak of a river flowing from the temple of God. Consider the precious stones that are mentioned in Genesis 2 and the fact that these precious stones were used in the temple of Israel for the worship of God. Consider also how images of angels adorned Israel’s tabernacle – two guarded the ark of the covenant in the most holy place, and the curtains had cherubim embroidered on them – and how angels were tasked with guarding the entrance to the garden in Eden after man’s fall into sin. Clearly, the worshipper would have felt as if he were walking through the cosmos and towards Eden as he walked through the tabernacle of Israel. When he came to the menorah he would have been reminded of the tree of life.

If Israel’s tabernacle and temple were designed to rind the worshipper of the cosmos in general and of Eden in particular then what message did this convey? would not the message have been, the cosmos and Eden were designed to be a sanctuary where man would commune with God. Man fell and was cast out, but God has been gracious. A way to communion with God is still available.

Thirdly, we know that the garden in Eden was a temple when we observe how the new heavens and earth are described at the end of the book of Revelation.

Remember that the new heavens and new earth which will be ushered in at Christ’s return are described in at the end of the book of Revelation as a temple: “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:22–27, ESV)

Notice that a river of life is seen flowing from the throne of God in Revelation 22:1, just as a river is said to have flowed from Eden in Genesis 2: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1, ESV).

And remember that the tree of life is said to be in the new heavens and earth: “through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (Revelation 22:2, ESV)

Clearly we are to remember Eden when see a depiction of the the new heavens and earth in Revelation 21 and 22. The new heavens and earth will be a return to Eden, sort of.

The garden in Eden was a temple, but clearly it was not the eschatological temple, for there are some very important difference between Eden and the new heavens and earth.

One, there is no tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the new heavens and earth.

Two, the who earth is described as Eden in the new heavens and earth.

Three, it is the glory of God and the lamb that will fill that place.

If the new heaven and earth are described as a sanctuary where God and man commune with one another, and if the new heavens and earth are described in Edenic terms, then Eden must have been a sanctuary also .

Fourthly, by we understand that Eden was a temple when we recognize that the theme of “temple” runs throughout the pages of Holy Scripture from beginning to end.

The earth was created to function as a sanctuary for God. Eden was the first holy of holies. When man fell access to the holy of holies was denied. Cherubim were set to guard the entrance. The story of redemption which follows can be described in terms of God reestablishing and making permanent and sure mans enjoyment of the garden sanctuary of God.

The patriarchs build alters to worship God. This they did amongst trees and on mountains. These were temples in miniature. Israel build the tabernacle under Moses and the temple under Solomon. Here God walked amongst his people. Here the people enjoyed his presence. When the Christ came the temple of stone was declared by him to be desolate. Now, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the one who has faith in Christ is said to be the temple of the Holy Spirit: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20, ESV). The church is the temple of God under the New Covenant: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16–17, ESV). When Christ returns all of creation will be temple, for the glory of God and of Christ will fill all.

This was God’s design from the beginning. The cosmos were created to function as a sanctuary where man would enjoy the presence of God forever and ever.

Application

You were made to know God. You were made to commune with him. You were made to live enveloped by his presence and to bask in his glory.

Do you know God? Are you at peace with God? I do not mean, do you feel at peace with God. But are you? Are you in a right relationship to God?

It is only possible through faith in Christ. He accomplished what Adam failed to do. He opened the way into the eschatological Eden.

If you are in Christ, do you realize that you are God’s temple?

You are God’s temple personally. Are you living holy?

We are God’s temple collectively. Are we living holy?

Posted in Sermons Joe Anady Genesis 2:4-17
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Old Testament Reading: Genesis 2:4-17

“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” (Genesis 2:4–17, ESV)

New Testament Reading: Romans 5:12-21

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:12–21, ESV)

Introduction 

In the previous sermon I made five general, big picture observations concerning Genesis 2:4-25. The five observations were these:

1. Genesis 2:4 marks the beginning of a new section of the book of Genesis. The phrase, “these are the generations of…” marks the transition from one section to another in the book of Genesis. 
2. The creation account of Genesis 2 does not compete with the creation account of Genesis 1, but complements it, providing a different perspective and emphasis. In Genesis 1 God is the transcendent and all powerful Creator of heaven and earth. In Genesis 2 God is near to his people and hands on.
3. The focus of Genesis 2:4-25 is God entering into covenant with the man that he had made.
4. In Genesis 2 we have a record of God creating the holy of holies of the cosmic temple. 
5. Adam’s task, with Eve as his helpmate, was to function as a priest in this temple, to guard and to keep it, working towards its universal expansion. 

Points three through five of last weeks sermon are very important concepts and they deserve greater attention, and so in this sermon and in the next two we will return to those three points to flesh them out more thoroughly. Today we will focus on the covenant of works that was made with Adam in the garden, next Sunday we will focus upon the garden as a temple or sanctuary, and in two Lord’s Days we will return to the idea of Adam as a priest in the garden of God, Lord willing.

What do we mean when we say that God entered into a covenant of works with Adam in the garden? Answering this question will be the focus of the sermon today. 

A covenant is simply an agreement. 

When speaking of a covenant made between God and man we must say that it is a “divinely-sanctioned commitment or relationship” (Barcellos, Getting the Garden Right, 56). Notice that it is God who initiates and established covenants with man. Man has no right to say to God, “here will be the nature and terms of our relationship”, but God certainly has the right to say this man, for God is the Creator and we the creature. In the pages of holy Scripture we find a number of covenant established between God and man. All of them were initiated and established by God. It is God who condescends to enter into covenant with man. 

It should also be noticed that these covenants made between God and man (and there are many) are always for the betterment of mankind. God establishes covenants with his people in order to advance or better their estate. Divinely established covenants, to quote Nehemiah Cox, involve “a declaration of [God’s] sovereign pleasure concerning the benefits he will bestow on [his people], the communion they will have with him, and the way and means by which this will be enjoyed.” God has always related to his people by way of covenant. It is the covenant which establishes and defines God’s relationship with his people. 

We do have an analogy available to us. It is the analogy of the marriage covenant. The relationship that exists between a husband and wife is wonderful and rich, but it is established and maintained by a covenant. The husband and wife enter into an agreement with one another. They covenant together when they say, “I take you to be my wedded spouse, and I do promise and covenant before God and these witnesses to be your loving and faithful spouse in sickness and in health  in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, as long as we both shall live.” It is a covenant which establishes and maintains the marriage relationship. It should be recognized that God entering into covenant with man, and God instituting the marriage relationship are set side by side in Genesis 2. This, of course, is intentional. For the marriage relationship was created to function as an image of Christ’s relationship to the church. The covenant of marriage made between man and woman is a picture of the divinely sanctioned covenant made between God and his people. 

A covenant is an agreement. When speaking of a covenant made between God and man we must say that it is a “divinely-sanctioned commitment or relationship” (Barcellos, Getting the Garden Right, 56).

There are many covenants found in the pages of holy scripture. In due time we will consider the Noahic covenant, the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, and the Davidic. But two covenants are of supreme importance, for they are the root and fruit of the others that have just been mentioned. 

These covenants – the Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic – pointed forward to and prepared the way for the covenant of grace ratified in Christ’s blood. We call the covenant of grace “the new covenant”. Remember how Christ said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25, ESV). The new covenant, which is the covent of grace, is the fruit, as it were, of all the covenants which proceeded it. They all pointed forward to and prepared the way for the covenant of grace ratified by Christ. 

But there is another very important covenant which might be called the root or foundation of all the others. It is called the covenant or works, or the covenant of obedience, or the covenant of creation, or the covenant of life. Sometimes it is called the Adamic covenant, for it was made with Adam in the garden and required his personal, “entire, exact, and perpetual obedience” and promised life upon the keeping of it (see Second London Baptist Confession, ch 19, para 1). 

When I say that the covenant of works is the root of he other covenants I mean that it is the foundation. All of the other biblical covenants flow from it. Indeed, you cannot correctly understand the covenants made with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David if you do not first understand the covenant of works made with Adam in the garden. In fact, the new covenant, which is the covent of grace, of which you and I are partakers if we are in Christ, would not be possible without their first being a covenant of works made with Adam in the garden. The covenant of works is the root of all other bibleof the covenant of grace. 

Another way to say this is, if you want to understand the Bible – if you want to understand your sin and your natural guilt before God – if you want to comprehend what it is that Christ actually accomplished for you, then you had better pay attention to the covenant that was made with Adam in the garden.

We have defined a covenant between God and man generally as a “divinely-sanctioned commitment or relationship”. This general definition fits all of the covenants that God has entered into with man. But let us now define the covenant of works specifically. Again, I appreciate the words of my friend, Dr. Rich Barcellos, who defines the covenant of works as, “that divinely sanctioned commitment or relationship God imposed upon Adam, who was a sinless representative of mankind…, an image-bearing son of God, conditioned upon his obedience, with a penalty for disobedience, all for the bettering of man’s estate” (Barcellos, Getting the Garden Right, 57).

Let us think about this definition for a moment and consider in light Genesis. 

First, the covenant of works was a divinely sanctioned commitment or relationship [that] God imposed upon Adam.

This relationship was not Adam’s idea, but God’s. Before God Adam had no rights. He had no right to say, here will be the nature and term of our relationship, for Adam was the creature and God Creator. This distinction between Creator and creature was firmly established in Genesis 1. Man did not make God, but God made man. Man, therefore, by virtue of his creation stood obligated before his Maker to worship and serve him always. The fact of creation itself established this relation. No specific covenant was needed. But God did graciously enter into a covenant with the man. The covenant of works was a “divinely sanctioned commitment or relationship [that] God imposed upon Adam”.

This is should not be difficult to see in the narrative of Genesis 1 and 2. God made man. God blessed man. God commanded man, male and female, to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…” (Genesis 1:28, ESV). The same is true in chapter 2. The LORD God made man and then establishes the terms of their relationship. 

This might seem like a strange point to emphasize given it’s simplicity. You might be saying to yourself, “Okay, we get it. God is God and man is man. God has the right to initiate and to establish the terms of the relationship. Move on already!” But herein lies the difference between true and biblical religion and that which is man made. Herein lies the difference between the child of God and the rebel still in his sin. The chid of God says, “yes, God has the right and I will submit to him!” The rebel says, “I will decide for myself and go my own way.”

The covenant of works was a divinely sanctioned commitment or relationship [that] God imposed upon Adam.   

Secondly, the covenant of works was made with Adam who was a sinless representative of mankind, an image-bearing son of God.

Notice that the covenant was made with Adam. The woman, who name was Eve, had not been created when “the Lord God took the man [Adam] and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Genesis 2:15–17, ESV). The covenant was made with Adam, and not Eve.

Notice that Adam was at first sinless. Everything that God had made was good, indeed very good. Adam was made upright. To quote our confession, “God… endued the will of man with that natural liberty and power of acting upon choice, that it is neither forced, nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil.” Adam was free. “In his state of innocency, [he] had freedom and power to will and to do that which was good and well-pleasing to God, but yet was unstable, so that he might fall from it” (2LBC 9.1, 2). God entered into a covenant of works or obedience with Adam and “endued him with power and ability to keep it” (2LBC 19.1). Adam was sinless. He was good and upright in the beginning. 

And notice that Adam was a representative of all mankind. Had Adam succeeded all would have enjoyed life. When Adam fell all fell in him. You and I were born in sin because we were born in Adam. We descended from him by birth. He was our federal head and representative. 

No teaching in all of scripture is more clear than this. 

The narrative of Genesis confirms that Adam was the federal head and representative of all humanity. Adam and Eve were barred from the garden and all of their descendents were born outside the garden. They were born in sin, they themselves sinned, and they, like Adam died. 

This is also the explicit teaching of holy scripture. The Psalmist said, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5, ESV). Paul, in Ephesians 2 says that  we all are “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3, ESV). And Paul developes this idea most thoroughly in Romans 5 in the passage that was read earlier, saying, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—” (Romans 5:12, ESV). 

The clear teaching of scripture is that the covenant of works was made with Adam who was a sinless representative of mankind.

Does this bother you, Christian?

This principle is woven into our everyday experience. The decisions of others impact us.  

Your salvation in Christ depends upon this principle too! Just as Adam is the federal head of all humanity, Christ is the federal head of the elect, of al who have faith in him. Just as Adam’s is inputed to all who are in him, so too Christ’s righteousness is imputed to all who are in him.   

Thirdly, the covenant of works made with Adam was conditioned upon his obedience, with a penalty for disobedience. 

What was Adam’s obligation in the covent of works? The answer is that Adam was to obey God.

What was Adam to do? Remember that Adam, having been made in the image of God and having been blessed by God, was to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:27–28, ESV).

Adam was to fill the earth with God’s image. He was to subdue the earth. He was to rule and reign on earth a God’s vicegerent. He was explained the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth. 

In Genesis 2 we learned that God planted a garden in Eden and placed the man who had created there. The whole earth, therefore, was not garden, but rather a garden was planted in a place called Eden. Outside the garden there was wild, unformed, uncultivated land. Adam’s task was to expand the garden to the ends of the earth. He was to imitate his Maker in bringing order and form to those places that were without form and void.    

Notice the mention of the four rivers in verses 10-14. It is a rather unexpected emphasis in the narrative of Genesis 2. Two of the rivers are known to us, and two are mysterious, but the meaning seems to be that these rivers emanated out to the four corners of the earth so that man might have all that he needed to expand God’s garden to the ends of the earth through cultivation. 

This is was Adam was to do while living in “entire, exact, and perpetual obedience” to God. 

Clearly, Adam was placed under probation or a time of testing. 

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a tree of testing. The tree would show if Adam had remained loyal to God. By abstaining Adam would prove himself faithful. By partaking Adam would prove himself a rebel – a breaker of the convent of works, which was a covenant requiring “entire, exact, and perpetual obedience”.  

Fourthly, the covenant of works made with Adam was for the bettering of man’s condition.

In Genesis 2:9 we read, “And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9, ESV).

The presence of the tree of life in the garden indicates that Adam had a higher form of life offered t him by God. Adam was already alive. Adam was alive in paradise. But he was prone to fall. Adam, being under a time of testing, had not yet attained the glory of God. He was to pass the test, eat of the tree of life, and enter into glory. 

Brothers and sisters, Adam never ate of it. Adam sinned and fell short of the glory of God. And now it might be said that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, ESV).

But do you see that the covenant of works made with Adam for the bettering of man’s condition. Adam, by keeping the covenant, was to advance to a higher form of life, not only for himself, but for all his posterity whom he represented. 

Application

Friends, do you see that where Adam failed, Christ succeeded?

Christ kept the covent of works. Christ remained obedient to God to the end. His obedience was “entire, exact, and perpetual”.  

Adam was the son of God by virtue of his creation, but Christ, being the eternal son of God entered into glory when he kept the covent of works. And this he did, not only for himself, but for all the elect as he functioned as their federal head or representative. 

Listen to the prayer of Jesus for his disciples recoded for us in John 17. Jesus “lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word” (John 17:1–6, ESV).

Jesus kept God’s word. He finished his work. 

Jesus was qualified, therefore, to enter into glory – into that higher form of life offered to Adam in the garden. 

Jesus entered in, not alone, but as a representative for others. He earned salvation for “all whom [the Father had] given him.”

Are you in Adam or are you in Christ? 

Are you under he covenant of works or the covenant of grace?

To be under the covenant of works means death, for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, ESV).

To be under the covent of grace means life – eternal life, “for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, ESV).

Posted in Sermons Joe Anady Genesis 2:4-17
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Old Testament Reading: Genesis 2:4-25

“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’ Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’ Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:4–25, ESV)

Introduction 

It has been my custom, whenever we come to a new section in a book that we are studying, be it the Gospel of John, the book of Revelation, or Genesis, to devote one sermon to the new section in order to make general, “big picture” observations, before moving through the section more methodically in subsequent sermons. I think it is important that we do this. Many of the errors that are made in the interpretation of the Bible are made when people loose sight of the context of a particular passage. And when I say “context” I do not only mean the sentences and paragraphs  that come before and after the passage under consideration, but also passages place within the book, and the books place within the whole of scripture. Critical to the proper interpretation of the Bible is this principle: scripture interprets scripture. So if we are to have any chance of interpreting Genesis 2:4-25 correctly we must pay careful attention, not only to the words, sentences and paragraphs found there, but also its context, both immediate and canonical. What does the rest of scripture say that might help us in understanding this passage correctly? That is an important question to ask. 

I’m afraid that when people read Genesis 2:4 and following many assume it is myth. They think they are handling a folktale – a fictional story with moral principles imbedded within. And I fear that others, though they might rightly believe that Genesis 2:4 and following is true and historical, assume that it is nothing more than a simple and direct retelling of the creation of the first man and woman. God made the man, he made the woman, and they were farmers. Genesis 2, in their interpretation, simply tells the facts. But the truth is found somewhere in-between these two extremes – neither is Genesis 2 myth (what it is says actually happened), nor is it a bare and plainly factual account of the creation of man. Instead, in Genesis 2 we find true history recounted in a literally style that beautifully rich, complex, and illuminating. 

How do we know that Genesis 2 is more than just a bare, factual account of the creation of man?  Well, by examining the passage itself, and by paying careful attention to the rest of scripture concerning the way that it interprets the text. 

A careful consideration of the passage itself reveals that there is structure to it. I will not linger here very long lest I bore you with too many details, but it should be noticed that Genesis 2:4 through to the end of chapters 3 make up a unit. Here we are told all about the first man and woman and their relationship to God while in the garden that was in Eden. This section (2:4-3:24) is made up of seven parts, and these seven parts form a chiasm, so that part 1 (2:5-17 – narrative – God the sole actor, man present but passive) corresponds to part 7 (3:22-24 – narrative – God the sole actor, man passive), part 2 (2:18-25 – narrative – God main actor, man minor role, woman and animals passive) to part 6 (3:14-21 – narrative – God main actor, man minor role, woman and snake passive), part 3 (3:1-5 – dialogue – snake and woman)  to part 5 (3:9-13 – dialogue – God, man and woman), with part 4 taking center stage (3:6-8 – narrative, man and woman) (See Wenham, World Biblical Commentary, p. 50). And what do we find in Genesis 3:6-8 (which is at the point or center of the chiasm)? It is this passage:

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:6–8, ESV)

Clearly, Genesis 2 is more than bare, simple and factual account of the creation of man. Instead it is a beautifully rich and complex piece of literature which communicates truth to us – not only the bare facts, but the deeper truths which lie behind those bare facts. 

When we consider how the rest of the scriptures view Genesis 2 we will find that there are are many things of great importance contained within this text that are only briefly mentioned or alluded to. These truths are deposited in seed form in Genesis 2, if you will. As we read on in the pages of holy scripture we will watch those seeds develop into full grown trees. This is what I mean when I say that the story of Genesis 2 is rich. It is a story that little children can understand. At the same time it is a story so packed full of meaning that the Christian can spend a lifetime pondering and applying its truths.

Today I have five general observations to make concerning Genesis 2:4-25. I should warn you ahead of time that points 3, 4 and 5 are very important – they are very significant concepts theologically – and yet I will rush through them today, providing very little support from the scriptures. Rest assured that we will return to these points in the weeks to come to flesh them out more carefully, Lord willing. I wish only to introduce you to these truths today.

Five general observations concerning Genesis 2:4-25:

First, notice that 2:4 marks the beginning of a new section of the book of Genesis. There we read, “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens” (Genesis 2:4, ESV). 

The phrase, “these are the generations of…”, is very important in the book of Genesis. This phrase, “these are the generations of…” (or something very close to it),  is found 10 times in the book of Genesis and it marks the transition of one section of the book to another.

The book of Genesis is made up of 10 parts, not including the prologue or introduction of Genesis 1:1-2:3 which we have already covered. The phrase, “these are the generations of…”, appears in 2:4 – “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth…”, 5:1 – “This is the book of the generations of Adam…”, 6:9 – “These are the generations of Noah…”, 10:1 – “These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth…”, 11:10 – “These are the generations of Shem…”, 11:27 – “Now these are the generations of Terah…”, 25:12 – “These are the generations of Ishmael…”, 25:19 – “These are the generations of Isaac…”, 36:1 – “These are the generations of Esau (that is, Edom)…”, and 37:2 – “These are the generations of Jacob.”

Notice that in each instance the phrase, “these are the generations of” functions as a heading to the section that follows. In every instance but the one we are considering today it is the name of some historical person that is listed after the phrase. “These are the generations of… Adam, Noah, Terah”, etc. What follows is either a genealogy or a block of narrative concerning the descendants of that individual.  These are the people who came from so and so, or, these are the people that so and so produced. That is the idea. 

Here in 2:4 it is not a person who is named, but two things – “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens” (Genesis 2:4, ESV). And what is described to us in the narrative that follows except that which heaven and earth generate? God, who’s throne is in heaven, forms and fashions or causes the earth to bring forth certain things. The earth gave birth to, if you will, plants, animals and man by the creative hand of the God of heaven. 

Look at verse 7: “…then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” Verse 9: “And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” Verse 19: “Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.” “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens” (Genesis 2:4, ESV).

Secondly, notice that the creation account of Genesis 2 does not in any way compete with the creation account of chapter 1, but complements it, providing a different perspective and emphasis. 

It has already been established that in the beginning God created the heavenly realm and the earthly realm. Over the course of six days God brought the earthly realm into a form suitable for human habitation. At first “the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep”, but God did not leave it as such, for God created the world to be inhabited. In six days time God formed and fashioned the earth creating, first of all, realms and then filling those realms with rulers or creature kings. 

Light was separated from darkness on day one. The sun moon and stars were created on day four to govern the day and night. 

The sky and seas were created on day two when God separated the waters from the waters. On day five the seas and the sky were filled with fish and birds to have dominion over those realms. 

On day three the dry land was formed. Listen carefully to Genesis 1:9-13, and pay special attention to the emphasis that is placed upon the vegetation that God made to spring up from the dry land. This will become significant as we consider the creation account of Genesis 2. 

 “And God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.’ And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.” (Genesis 1:9–13, ESV)

On day six God created the land animals and man to have dominion over the earth – indeed, man was created to have dominion over all that God had made. Listen carefully to Genesis 1:24-31. Again, pay special attention to the emphasis placed upon the vegetation that God had provided for man and beast to eat. 

“And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.’ And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.’” (Genesis 1:24–31, ESV)

By the end of Genesis we are convinced that God is God Most High. He is the Creator of heaven and earth. Everything that is has come from his hand. And man, being made in the image of God, is king on earth. He is not king as God is King, for God is his Maker and Provider, but he is to rule as a king under God’s supreme authority. God provided for man’s every need. He prepared a place for him. He provided food to sustain him. King Adam was to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 

Genesis 2 does not present a contrary account of creation to the one found in chapter 1, but a complementary account. The emphasis go Genesis 2 is different to the emphasis of chapter 1. Both are true. 

Notice that the creation accounts of Genesis 1 and 2 begin with problems. 

In Genesis 1 we are told that the earth was at first without, form, void and dark. The solution was for God to form and fashion the earth into a place suitable for human habitation. 

Genesis 2 begins with a different problem. The earth was not suitable for human habitation because there were no plants. Verse 5 takes us back to the time “When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up…” In other words, Genesis 2:5 takes us back to the beginning of day three. The dry land had been formed, but there was no vegetation. There was no “bush of the field in the land”, which means that there were no plants growing naturally in the wild. Neither had any “small plant of the field… sprung up”, which means that there were no cultivated plants either. 

And why the lack of plants, both wild and cultivated? Two reason are stated in verse 5. One, “the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land” and two, “there was no man to work the ground”. Wild plants are able to grow when there is rain, and cultivated plants are able to grow when man is there till the soil, irrigate and cultivate. The absence of rain and the absence of man meant no vegetation – only barren earth. The earth was not suitable for human habitation. 

And what was the solution this problem? Two things: God sent rain and God created man to till the ground. Verse 6: “and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Genesis 2:6–7, ESV)

There was no vegetation, wild or cultivated, because of lack of rain and man. Solution: God caused it to rain (I think that is the best interpretation of the phrase “a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground”, and God created man.

Notice that in verse 8 we are told that “the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.” In verse 15 we are told “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

Days 3 and 6 of the creation week are emphasized in Genesis 2 and are viewed from a different perspective. Here I am simply making the point that the creation account of Genesis 2 does not in any way compete with the creation account of chapter 1, but complements it, providing a different perspective and emphasis.

This leads us to point three. Notice that the focus of Genesis 2:4-25 is God entering into covenant with the man that he had made. 

In Genesis 1 it is clear that man owes worship and service God by virtue of his creation. God is Creator. Man is creation. Therefore man is live in submission to his God to worship and serve him always. In Genesis 1 we learn that God offed rest to man should he faithfully accomplish the work that God had assigned to him. But in Genesis 2 a covenant is made. An agreement is made between God and man. The punishment of failing to follow through on the agreement is communicated. And a sign or sacrament is given. 

What is the agreement? Adam was to walk faithfully before God He was to fulfill his mission of filling the earth with the garden of God and with faithful descendants. God had abundantly provided for all of mans needs. He could eat from any of the trees of the garden with the exception of one. Adam was to abstain from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In time, he was to eat from the tree of life. In short, what was Adam to do? He was to walk in humble and faithful submission to his Maker. He was to complete his task living perpetually in depend on and in obedience to the God who made him. What was the symbol or sacrament given to Adam? What was the visible thing that would show forth the hidden realities of Adams heart? The tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And what would be the consequence of failing to keep his end of the agreement? In the day that Adam ate of it he would surely die (Genesis 2:17, ESV).

The word covenant does not appear in Genesis 2, but the elements of a covenant are there. Also, if we consider what the rest of the scriptures say about Genesis 2, it is clear that Adam, functioning as a representative for all of mankind, entered into a covenant of works with God in the garden (see Genesis 6:18, Hosea 6:7 and Romans 5:12-19).

The covenant of works established in Genesis 2 was, to quote Geerhardus Vos, “nothing but an embodiment of the Sabbatical principle [established in Genesis 1]. Had its probation been successful, then the sacramental Sabbath would have passed over into the reality it typified, and the entire subsequent course of the history of the [human] race would have been radically different” (Biblical Theology, 140).     

That the emphasis of Genesis 2 is God in covenant with man can also be seen in the change of names used for God. In Genesis 1 the name for God used is Elohim (simply “God” in English). But beginning with 2:4 the name used for God is Yahweh Elohim (“LORD God” in our English translation. Elohim is a generic name for God. It is fitting to the emphasis of Genesis 1 – God the creator of all things seen and unseen. But Yahweh is the personal covenantal name for God. Yahweh is the God of Israel. He is the God who is near. He is the God who makes and keeps covenants. He is the God who breathed into Adam the breath of life, and formed Eve from the side of man.

Genesis 2 has as its focus Yahweh Elohim entering into covenant with the man that he made. 

Four, notice that while in Genesis 1 we find a record of God creating the earth to function as a temple in which his glory would dwell, in Genesis 2 we have a record of God creating the holy of holies of this cosmic temple. 

This is a massively important concept and one that will take some time to develop and prove. This I will do in the weeks to come if the Lord permits. But I wish to simply put the idea before you this morning. 

The earth was created to be filled with the glory of God. The earth was created to be a place where man would commune with God. Read the end of the book of Revelation again to see that it is true. When God planted the garden in Eden and paced the man there it was to function as the most holy place in God’s cosmic temple. 

I am not saying that there was a temple made of stone in Eden, but that the garden itself was a temple or sanctuary where God’s glory dwelt and where man was able to commune with the God who made him. 

This all becomes very clear when we consider the tabernacle and later the temple of Israel and compare it to Eden. In brief, Israel’s tabernacle and temple were miniature replicas of the cosmos. And the holy of holies in the tabernacle and temple were crafted to remind the worshipper of Eden. This will have to be proven at another time. 

For now, consider that  God is said to have “walked in the garden” (Genesis 3:8). God’s presence was there. It was a sanctuary where man and God enjoyed communion. And consider that the same language is used to describe the temple. To Israel God said, “I will make my dwelling [tabernacle] among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people” (Leviticus 26:11–12, ESV).

The garden that God planted in Eden was a temple or sanctuary.

Five, notice that Adam’s task, with Eve as his helpmate, was to function as a priest in this temple, to guard and to keep it, working towards its universal expansion. 

Listen to verse 15: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15, ESV). It would be a mistake to assume that when God commanded Adam to “work and keep” the garden he was calling him to simply be a farmer. In fact when these verbs appear together in other passage, the context is priestly. Listen to work of the priests and Levites of the temple as described in Numbers 18:2ff. To Arron it was said, “And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. They shall keep guard over you and over the whole tent, but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar lest they, and you, die. They shall join you and keep guard over the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent, and no outsider shall come near you. And you shall keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel.” (Numbers 18:2–5, ESV)

Adam was not simply a farmer in the garden which God planted in Eden – he was a priest. His task was to promote the worship of God. His task was to work in the garden and to keep it. He was to preserve it as holy. He was to drive away all intruders. 

In fact, when all is considered, Adam was a prophet, priest and king in the garden. He was to have king like dominion over all creation under God’s authority, he was to promote the worship of God as a priest, preserving the sanctity of the garden sanctuary, and he was to proclaim God’s law as a prophet, urging other to obey it also. 

Conclusion 

When Genesis 2 is understood in this way then we are ready to adequately comprehend the rest of scripture. When Adam sinned, he broke the covenant of works. When Adam sinned he brought upon himself, as well as all of his descendants (including you and me) the curse of the covenant. Adam and Eve were expelled, not just from a beautiful and lush garden, but from the sanctuary of God and from his presence. When Adam allowed the serpent to deceive he failed, not as a farmer, but as a priest. He failed to defend the temple of God from all intruders. He failed to preserve its sanctity. Israel’s temple was a replica in miniature of the cosmos and of the garden of Eden. It communicated that a way to communion with God was still open, by God’s grace. When the Christ appeared, he came as the second Adam, the Prophet, Priest and King. He, through his perfect obedience, entered into the most holy place, clearing the way for all who have faith in him. And what did he secure? The new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwell. When Christ returns to judge the living and the dead and to make all things new all will become holy of holies. All who are in Christ will enjoy the presence of God forevermore. 

Are you in Christ, friend? Or are you in Adam?  Christ is the perfect and faithful high priest, whereas Adam is the failed priest. Christ is able to bring us to God. In Adam there is only judgement and death.

Are you under the covenant of works, or are you under the covenant of grace?

Do you long for the new heavens and earth in which righteousness dwells?

Posted in Sermons Joe Anady Genesis 2:4-25
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