The evidence mounts: Marriage is a gospel issue

Marriage is a gospel issue.

The reality of that truth is becoming more evident in our culture. Take two examples from the last week's newspapers:

-- For the first time, more than half of all births to American women under 30 years of age are to those who are unmarried. That figure is at 53 percent. In a report last Friday, The New York Times described it as "the new normal." Whether or not that is true, it is tragic and the implications for our society are frightening.

-- A caption under a photo running with a Monday story in The Washington Post about two men who have opened an antiques store/tanning salon in D.C. included: "Interior designer Paul Corrie, right, and his husband Steve Ewens . . . " That phrase -- "his husband" -- is jarring. Yet, it is one we will see duplicated many times over in the days ahead.

These anecdotes demonstrate the twin truths that marriage is increasingly being rejected and redefined in our day.

In ways, marriage has become a luxury in our culture -- something embraced largely by people of certain ethnicities, as well as by those with a certain level of education and of a certain socioeconomic status. National Vital Statistics Reports, according to The Times, says: "73 percent of black children are born outside marriage, compared with 53 percent of Latinos and 29 percent of whites." The Times cites statistics from Child Trends that show "about 92 percent of college-educated women are married when they give birth compared with 62 percent of women with some post-secondary schooling and 43 percent of women with a high school diploma or less." Couples, especially those in the lower-middle and lower classes economically, increasingly are living together and having children without getting married. Bradford Wilcox, a professor at the University of Virginia and director of the National Marriage Project, has said, "Marriage is not losing ground in America's best neighborhoods. But it's a very different story in blue-collar America."

Marriage increasingly is being redefined. Seven states and the District of Columbia have acted to expand marriage's definition to include couples of the same sex. Our neighboring state, Maryland, may do so soon. Yesterday, a federal judge in San Francisco struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Voices on the cultural fringe are calling for marriage to encompass other arrangements. As some wise observers have pointed out, once marriage is redefined to include same-sex couples, there is no logical basis for prohibiting other types of unions.

As marriage is increasingly redefined, it will be increasingly ignored. Perceptive commentators have pointed out that when marriage is redefined to mean things other than the union of a man and a woman, people recognize it has lost its meaning. As a result, fewer people will enter into a relationship that has been gutted by society of its significance and sanctity. Society -- especially a large swath of society -- no longer esteems marriage. For it, there no longer exists a norm that would expect a couple to marry before living together or having children.

At this moment in the American story and in the midst of this societal upheaval stands the church. We -- as the grace-showered and blood-bought church -- value marriage -- not because it is ultimate but because of who established it and because of the great meaning He bestowed upon it.

God designed and defined marriage. As its creator, He holds every right to say what constitutes marriage. In Gen. 2 and beyond, He has made it clear marriage is only for a man and a woman. Marriage is a great benefit to men and women, to children and to society. Marriage's greatest significance is in what it portrays. God made marriage a picture of the union of Christ and His bride, the church. The apostle Paul makes that reality clear in Eph. 5. While Paul writes in the last part of that chapter about the relationship between a husband and wife, he asserts near the close he is talking about Christ and the church.

Jesus and His sacrificial love for His bride are at the heart of the gospel. Yes, marriage is a gospel issue, and we should frequently remind ourselves of this truth.

Marriage is a gospel issue because we, the church, exist as the adulteress God the Son came to purchase off the slave block of sin to transform into a beautiful bride.

Marriage is a gospel issue because we, the church, should defend, promote and teach the truth that this covenantal relationship between a man and a woman is -- at its most meaningful -- an earthly portrait of that most valuable message -- Christ came to redeem a bride for Himself.

Marriage is a gospel issue because we, the church, have been commissioned to take the good news of Jesus and His all-sufficient work to children, young people and adults who have been devastated by broken marriages and betrayed by society's wicked siren song about sexuality.

Marriage is a gospel issue because we, the married couples within the church, are to model the gospel before children, young people and adults in order to help them think biblically about marriage and trust God and His good design for it.

As the church, may we believe Jesus and His gospel -- and attest to the power and beauty of the gospel by our lives -- in order that God would be glorified, Christ would be exalted, and the good news would be made known to and believed by others.