The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Emily M. during the 2007-2008 League.

The Sanctity of Marriage

Why do we, as Christians, regard marriage as holy? Why do we set it apart as special? There is a part of our culture today that says it is not holy or special; it's only a tradition, a formality, certainly not holy. Is there a real purpose in marriage?

First of all, God himself created marriage, it is not an institution created by man. When God created Adam, He said."'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.' Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found." So, God created a special person who would be a suitable helper, someone who was above the creatures to be found in the animal kingdom." Genesis 2:22-24 (HCSB) says, "Then the Lord God made the rib He had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said: 'This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called woman for she was taken from a man.' This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh." Just like He created the earth to go round the sun, and the water created a boundary for the oceans, God created Adam and Eve to be together forever in marriage, it was the way it was supposed to be, and it was good.

Preserving the sanctity of marriage is the linchpin to a host of other issues, for one, the sanctity of sex. God told humanity to "be fruitful and increase in number: multiply on the earth and increase upon it," (Genesis 9:7 NIV), and sex that is kept between one man and one woman, is a holy and pure thing. However, when marriage begins to deteriorate, so does sex. Hebrews 13:4 (NIV) says, "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral." When, two people are married, they swear before God and man that they will "love, cherish and keep" the other till death do them part. For those who practice sexual immorality, marriage does indeed get in the way. C. S Lewis said in Mere Christianity, "If people do not believe in permanent marriage, it is perhaps better that they should live together unmarried than that they should make vows they don't intend to keep. It is true that by living together without marriage they will be guilty (in Christian eyes) of fornication. But one fault is not mended by adding another: unchastity is not improved by adding perjury." Breaking the bonds and boundaries of marriage, to follow "love" leads invariably to a host of earthly consequences, sickness, mental health issues, and heartbreak, to name a few in very general terms.

Another sphere of life that is directly impacted by marriage is government. The family is the most basic form of government, and when the sanctity of marriage begins to crumble, so do the foundations of good government. The family is the basic unit that runs and functions in a kind of microcosm on a day to day basis. Healthy families are the building blocks for healthy communities, healthy churches, and ultimately for a healthy national government. However, a healthy family requires a marriage that is godly; if a couple strays away from God or ventures outside of what He intended marriage to be, the family will deteriorate. There are no exceptions. If gravity suddenly chose to work in a way different than the way God intended, no one would expect the world to continue "business as usual"; no, everyone would agree that the world would fall apart. It is the same case with marriage, if anything ceases to work the way God designed it to, there are going to be some big problems. When marriage is not held as something more than a human custom, or if there is a belief that there are no rules of right and wrong, then families have no foundation. If the family crumbles, then the foundation of a good government begins to wash away.

Marriage is even a symbol of Christ's relationship to the church. Paul says in Ephesians 5:25-32 (NIV), "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church- for we are members of his body. 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' This is a profound mystery-but I am talking about Christ and the church." The book of Revelation frequently returns to the theme of a wedding or a marriage feast. "Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready," (Revelation 19:7 NIV). Jesus even used a parable about a wedding banquet to describe the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 22:1-15). This is an important analogy. Jesus frequently used parables to teach people about the kingdom of heaven, he used things that people see on a day to day basis to convey a message. He used the ever familiar physical world, to explain the mysteries of the spiritual world. Marriage gives us a beautiful picture of how much the Lord loves His church, and of our future with Him in heaven.

Marriage is so much more than an age-old custom that we still observe for formality's sake. God himself created marriage as a very special institution that is to be taken seriously. Marriage lays the boundaries for sex that is proper and good. Marriage lays a foundation for churches, communities and nations to build on. Marriage is even used by God to demonstrate Christ's relationship to the church. Obviously, marriage is more important than we can even imagine; the apostle Paul said in Ephesians 5:25-32 (NIV) that "this is a profound mystery." We probably will never know how important marriage is, but God created it, and it was good; if we follow His guidelines, then we will have the perfect foundation for a godly marriage.