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SealedEternal -> RE: Remarriage After Divorce - One Stop Thread (11/23/2008 3:57:40 PM)
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Genesis 2:21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
God created marriage in the garden of Eden, and stated that this union would take these two from their families and join the two into one flesh to create a new family unit. Jesus quoted this to the Pharisees when asked about divorce, and added that we could not separate this union because it is joined by God:
Matthew 19:3-6 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?" And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH'? "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."
Mark 10:6-9 "But from the beginning of creation, God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE. "FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. "What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."
Paul also quoted the creation of marriage in Genesis in his teaching on the topic:
Ephesians 5:22-33 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
Marriage symbolically represents Christ's people being joined to and becoming one with Him:
John 17:20-23 "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me."
Marriage is a perminent covenant that is unconditional once it is accepted by both parties involved, just as the New Covenant that Christ made with His Church. He is always loyal to His end of the covenant He made with us, and we can know that He will fulfill his obligations despite our flaws. So also we enter into an unconditional covenant which requires us to exhibit the same grace, forgiveness, and unconditional love that He demonstrated to us, and that we therefore may only be released from these obligations through the death of our partner:
Romans 7:2-3 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
1 Corinthians 7:39 A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
If only death will dissolve this covenant which God has joined together, then any woman joining to another man while her husband lives is committing adultery according to Paul in Romans 7. This is a reiteration of what Jesus taught while He walked the earth:
Mark 10:10-12 In the house the disciples began questioning Him about this again. And He *said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery."
Luke 16:18 "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.”
He also condemned the Old Covenant people for their misuse of the Laws of Moses to divorce and remarry, which He said was causing them to commit adultery since their illegal divorces did not separate their marriage covenants:
Matthew 5:31-32 "It was said, 'WHOEVER SENDS HIS WIFE AWAY, LET HIM GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE'; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Matthew 19:7-9 They *said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY?" He *said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for fornication, and marries another woman commits adultery. (TR) And the one who marries her who was put away commits adultery.
The Old Covenant Israelites did have one provision for divorce which Jesus said was fornication, but He added that men who divorced for reasons other than finding their wives had fornicated prior to marriage were committing adultery, making their wives commit adultery, and causing whoever married her afterward to commit adultery. Therefore this was a condemnation of the men of Israel who were divorcing and remarrying apart from this very limited provision in the Law, and telling them that they were adulterers for doing so and thus should have been stoned to death according to Old Covenant Law.
This is the Law He was refering to:
Deuteronomy 22:13-19 "If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then turns against her, and charges her with shameful deeds and publicly defames her, and says, 'I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her a virgin,' then the girl's father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl's virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. "The girl's father shall say to the elders, 'I gave my daughter to this man for a wife, but he turned against her; and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, "I did not find your daughter a virgin." But this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.' And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. "So the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him, and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl's father, because he publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he cannot divorce her all his days.
Deuteronomy 24:1-4 "When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's wife, and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.
So for Old Covenant men there was a provision to divorce a woman who was found not to be a virgin when he married her, but also says that if she was a virgin at that time, that "he cannot divorce her all his days." That's why Jesus said that these men who divorced for reasons other than fornication were committing adultery, making their wives commit adultery, and causing whoever married her afterward to commit adultery.
This Old Covenant provision has no application to New Covenant people who don't live according to the Laws of Moses, so it is irrelevent to this discussion. Beyond that, it was a condemnation against the Old Covenant people and calling them adulterers for their divorces and remarriages, yet divorce and remarriage advocates try to turn it upside down and claim it is giving permission to do excactly what it was condemning.
Therefore we are commanded not to divorce to begin with, and commanded that if separation does occur that we must either remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to our spouse:
1 Corinthians 7: 10-13 But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife. But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away.
Those who do not adhere to this commandment are entering into extramarital affairs according to both Jesus and Paul.
SealedEternal
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