A biblical view of marriage will celebrate the picture of the gospel that marriage is intended to put on display.
Marriage has cosmic implications because it is a picture of God’s covenant love for us in Christ. When we minimize the sacredness of the gospel picture of marriage, we begin to treat marriage as a contract.
The main argument today in favor of same-sex marriage in the United States deals with the contractual rights and legal benefits that a civil marriage provides. Only in a society where the sacredness of marriage has already been devalued could we arrive at the stage where we speak of marriage only in contractual terms:
- Who gets what?
- How can I sign this away?
- Who’s in charge?
As Christians, we subvert the Caesar of Sex by tying sexuality to marriage and by insisting that marriage is not a contract, but a covenant before God.
Seeing marriage as purely contractual undermines marriage. That is why countries that long ago legalized same-sex unions have witnessed a dramatic reduction in the number of people getting married. Once sex is divorced from marriage and once marriage is no longer seen as sacred, the only people who continue the tradition of celebrating the marriage covenant are religious people who see a remnant of sacredness in the institution.
The prevailing view of marriage and sex in our society today actually makes it easier for Christians to subvert the Caesar of Sex. As we witness the devaluation of marriage and the abandoning of biblical sexuality, ordinary actions like saving sex for marriage, celebrating biblical marriage, and remaining faithful to our wedding vows become unusual. Christians stand out in a world of people who are settling for a sad series of “live-in” relationships.
The arrival of same-sex marriage in the United States is indeed detrimental to American society, but this new development provides the church with a unique opportunity to counter the culture with a robust biblical worldview, through “ordinary” acts:
- practicing chastity,
- remaining faithful to our spouses,
- cherishing our marriage covenants,
- and recommitting to fidelity.
It is in our “ordinary” acts that Jesus appears extraordinary to the world around us.
– from Holy Subversion: Allegiance to Christ in an Age of Rivals, “Subverting Sex” – Crossway, 2010
