The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent David H. during the 2008-2009 League.
Mission: Research - Sanctity of Marriage
The sacred practice of marriage was designed and instituted by God as a means of companionship and intimacy between one man and one woman. Marriage is uniquely beneficial to society because it is the foundation of the family and the basic building block of society.
Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary defines marriage as such: "The act of uniting a man and woman for life; wedlock; the legal union of a man and woman for life. Marriage is a contract both civil and religious, by which the parties engage to live together in mutual affection and fidelity, till death shall separate them..."
Where did marriage originate? Let us read what God's Word has to say. Soon after Adam was created "...the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a help meet for him." (Genesis 2:18). So by His divine wisdom in Genesis 2: 21-24, "...the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam 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. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."
Marriage is from the Lord. It has its highest and perfect form in Him, for in Him love and wisdom are one. Marriage originates, derivatively, in the innermost degrees and principles of man's spirit; in the beginnings of his nature as a human being.
God created man, male and female. He then joined man and woman together as He joined heat and light, affection and thought, heart and lungs, love and wisdom. Marriage has its origin, therefore, in God; without a doubt, it is the highest, innermost, fullest created form and manifestation in man and woman.
Marriage in creation was made as an illustration of, or a mirror of, the marriage between the perfect union of Christ and His Church. This divine union is a faultless model for earthly marriages between man and woman.
The Bible says, "The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body." (Ephesians 5:23). From the beginning, God designed marriage to picture the relationship that would someday come about between Christ and his church. The man's headship is a fact, designed to picture Christ's headship. Every husband sends a message about Christ, whether he wants to or not.
There is a beautiful unity and consistency in the Bible from beginning to end. Let's not violate this unity and separate what God has joined together. This happens when someone breaks up a marriage, but it also occurs whenever we separate realities that belong together. If we treat creation as one idea, the Trinity as an entirely separate idea, the church's salvation through Christ as another separate idea, and male-female relations as yet another idea that's entirely separate from the rest, we are separating what God has joined together.
All truth, all reality, is joined together in Christ: "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."
