“Marriage in Scripture” Series

What Is the Purpose For The Institution of Marriage?

This is the first study of what will be a series of studies on marriage – its purpose, selecting a mate, problems faced in marriage, etc. We will be asking and answering with the scriptures, many questions you may have had, and maybe many questions you have never had, but should have asked before you ever got married. We will first establish with the scriptures the purpose for the institution of marriage. Then we will be discussing the stresses upon the marriage union, and what the Creator of this institution of marriage has given us to keep our marriages strong and unified in the one mind of Him who created and instituted the marriage union.

So what is the purpose for the institution of marriage? Why do we need marriage? Is there a spiritual lesson for us in this institution? Why did God give Adam a woman instead of another man? Why are women called “the weaker vessel”?

1Pe 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Here is the history of how the Lord gave us the institution of marriage. Let’s read this story and see what lessons we can learn from what we are told:

Gen 2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
Gen 2:21 And 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;
Gen 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Gen 2:23 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.
Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

There is a huge spiritual revelation in this true story of how the Lord gave us the institution of marriage, and the scriptures reveal that this union has many very edifying spiritual revelations for us.

After giving us many wonderful admonitions that will, if obeyed, keep our marriages healthy, Paul tells us this:

Eph 5:32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

In 1 Corinthians 2 Paul also tells us this:

1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

When Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 that the institution of marriage, when “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” is actually speaking “concerning Christ and the church”, then we know that our physical marriages are really just a type and shadow of “Christ and the church”.

Accepting that as the Truth, let’s look the institution of marriage “comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and see what we can learn. Let’s ask ourselves what is the spiritual meaning of “she was taken out of the man.” What is the spiritual meaning of “sleep”? What is the spiritual meaning of “flesh… and bone”? And what is the spiritual meaning of “they shall be one flesh”?

The spiritual meaning of “she was taken out of the man”

The spiritual lesson behind this statement is of utmost significance. Without knowing what this statement means we cannot “know God and Jesus Christ who He has sent”. And if we do not “know God and Jesus Christ” we do not have life eternal.

Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Knowing just how important a matter this is Christ Himself reveals to us the meaning of this statement. This is what that part of the history of the institution of marriage is teaching us:

Joh 16:27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

Joh 17:8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

This is not speaking of Christ as the firstborn from the dead, as Babylon teaches us. This certainly includes that meaning, but it is specifically teaching us that God the Father created Christ and in that sense Christ came out from His Head, for the specific purpose of creating the physical universe and for the specific purpose of creating all men of all time, and becoming the savior of all men.

Here are two places in scripture where this is plainly stated for all who have eyes to see and ears to hear:

Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

The word ‘for’ in verse 16 is translated from the Greek word ‘hoti’ and it means ‘because’. Christ was “the firstborn of every creature BECAUSE by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth…”

Then we also have this verse of scripture:

Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

That is the spiritual meaning of “she was taken out of the man”.

The spiritual meaning of ‘sleep’

To understand the spiritual meaning of ‘sleep’, we need to go to the New Testament story of the death of Christ’s good friend, Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. When Christ was told of the sickness of Lazarus, He waited until Lazarus had been dead four days before he got there to pray for Lazarus. Lazarus had already died, and after his death Christ told his disciples:

Joh 11:11 These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
Joh 11:12 Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
Joh 11:13 Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
Joh 11:14 Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

So being in “a deep sleep”, as Adam was when God took a rib from him to make him a wife, is a symbol of being dead. If we are given the understanding that the first Adam is a type of the last Adam, then we will know that the first Adam had to, “in a figure”, die before he could be given a wife who would, just like the last Adam, be given a wife who also must come “out of [himself]:

Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

If we are so blessed, spiritually we are the espoused “chaste virgin”, who is the bride of our husband, Christ:

2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

How was this accomplished? It was accomplished only as Adam’s “deep sleep” typified, “through death”:

Col 1:22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

The Spiritual Meaning of “Brought Her Unto the Man”

We were told that Christ brought Adam’s wife to him:

Gen 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

Who then gave Christ His wife?

Joh 17:6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

Joh 17:12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

The type carries through to the point that the first Adam, and Christ, the last Adam, both willingly died for their respective errant, sinful wives:

1Ti 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman [as the type of Christ’s called out ones] being deceived was in the transgression.

Joh 10:17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

Joh 10:18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Very few know or understand just how integral Christ’s espoused wife is to His own purpose. Very few understand just how integral she is to His death, His resurrection, and His own inheritance.

Look at this verse:

Rom 4:25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

The word ‘for’, which appears twice in this verse, should actually read “through”, because it is both times, translated from the Greek word ‘dia’, which means ‘through’ and from which we get our English word ‘diameter’, which is the distance ‘through’ a circle to the other side. What this verse reveals is that Christ was delivered up to be crucified ‘through’ our offenses, and was raised from the dead ‘through’ our justification. That is just how integral His own wife is to His inheritance. She is given to him “through death”, and this is all typified by God causing a symbolic “deep sleep” to fall upon Adam, and taking a rib from him and making of that rib a wife which He then brings to Adam. That is the spiritual significance of the word ‘sleep’ in the story of the institution of marriage.

The spiritual meaning of “flesh and bone”

Let’s notice carefully what we are being told about Eve’s origins:

Gen 2:23 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.

Eve coming “out of Adam”, for those with eyes to see, reveals that Christ Himself is the one out of whom Adam came. Christ is the Word who said “Let us make man in our image…”, and that is exactly from whence we are told Adam came:

Col 1:16 For by him [Christ] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

The scriptures teach that when God creates another, a second for that which He created first, under those circumstances, that which is first, becomes the stronger, and becomes the head of that which was created for the first and preeminent creation.

Here are the scriptures which make this spiritual lesson so clear:

1Co 11:3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Christ was created before the man, Adam was created before the woman, and the Father is He “of whom are all things” (1Co 8:6). This is the lesson of the institution of marriage. “Through death, “a deep sleep”, the wife of the first Adam came out of Adam, just as the wife of the last Adam “through death”, comes out of Christ” to be “bone of [His] bones, and flesh of [His] flesh”. All of this is done for the purpose of showing us that a married couple are to be “one flesh”, spiritually typifying the one spiritual mind of the one body of Christ and His bride.

Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

While the earthy type is created in a “marred… made to be destroyed” condition and composition, the spiritual anti-type is being made to be of an “immortal” condition and composition, “a spiritual body”. The first Adam is of this earth, earthy. Nevertheless he is a figure of the last man Adam:

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure [Greek, tupos, type] of him that was to come.

Rom 8:20 For the creature was made [‘”marred… in the Potter’s hand”] subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Why Did God give Adam a woman instead of another man?

Why are women called “the weaker vessel”?

“Adam called his wife’s name Eve because she was the mother of all living.”

Gen 3:20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

Here is the meaning of the Hebrew word ‘Eve’ the name Adam gave his wife.

H2332
חוּה

chavvâh
khav-vaw’
Causative from H2331; lifegiver; Chavvah (or Eve), the first woman: – Eve.

The wife was made for the husband for the purpose of giving life to others by her husband. Witness the billions and billions who have come “through the woman”.

As unpopular as it is to just read it out of the Bible, the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the holy spirit, tells us that this headship of God over Christ, and Christ being the head of the man, and the man being the head of the woman, is all ordained to be symbolized by a man having short hair and thereby having an “uncovered… head”. The very same symbol of submission to God’s ways is also symbolized by a woman having her head covered by her long hair:

1Co 11:4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head [Christ].
1Co 11:5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head [her husband]: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
1Co 11:6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
1Co 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

And what is the point being made by the holy spirit?

1Co 11:8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. [and Christ for His Head]
1Co 11:9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. [As the man was created for Christ]
1Co 11:10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels [the messengers of Christ].

1Co 11:11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
1Co 11:12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.

1Co 11:13 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?

So exactly what does “uncovered” mean?:

1Co 11:14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
1Co 11:15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.

1Co 11:16 But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom [of long haired men and short haired women], neither the churches of God.

Just like outward adultery and outward fornication demonstrate our infidelity to the spiritual laws of God, so does a man having long hair, and a woman having short hair, demonstrate that we are not very worried about our Lord’s spiritual commandments.

Please do not think that we should begin measuring the hair of our brothers and start setting limits on exactly what is to be considered as long hair, and what is to be considered as short hair. We do not want to think above what is written, but we do want to be faithful to what is written, and let the holy spirit do its own convicting work within each man and woman.

What all of this reveals is that this is the exact same submissive, fruitful function that Christ fulfills for His head, His God the Father:

Let’s put these two sections of scripture together and see if we can see what the institution of marriage reveals to us:

1Co 11:3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Col 1:15 Who [Christ, whose “head… is God”] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

Why must Christ be “the firstborn of every creature”? Here is why:

Col 1:16 For [Greek, ‘hoti’, because] by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

Nowhere in the New Testament is there any mention of anyone in “the Godhead” other than Christ and His Head, “the Father of whom are all things” (1Co 8:6). It is the lesson we are taught by the institution of marriage which delivers us from the yoke of the false doctrine of a trinitarian Godhead. We are told that the invisible things are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even the Godhead:

Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

We are not left to speculate which “things that are made” make the “Godhead” to be clearly seen. We are told throughout the New Testament that “the head of Christ is God”, and we are told that “the Father” Himself is the “one God”, and that besides that “one God, the Father of whom are all things, [there is also] one Lord Jesus Christ by whom [like Eve, “the mother of all living”] are all things.” There is no mention of “third person” in the Godhead.

1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

1Co 11:3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Just a few verses later we are made to know just how integral Christ is to His Head and just how integral Christ’s wife is to Him:

1Co 11:12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.

“The man is by the woman” tells us that Christ is a woman to His head, His “one God, the Father, of whom are all things…” (1Co 8:6). “The man” came by Christ, as Col 1:16 make so clear:

Col 1:16 For [Greek, ‘hoti’, because] by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

There certainly is not room in the institution for a third “coequal” head, and it is the institution of marriage which teaches us that “the head of Christ is God”.

Just as a marred creature, such as these Adamic vessels of clay, is a very accurate “figure” of “the last man Adam”, so too, is the physical institution of marriage an accurate type of the relationship between Christ and His Creator and His head, His “one God the Father. The institution of marriage also teaches us that we are the weaker vessel, the called-out bride of our husband and our head and our Creator, Christ. But the institution of marriage also reveals to us that Christ is “the weaker vessel”, in His relationship with His head and His Creator the “one God, the Father, of whom are all things”, including Christ, by whom the Father has chosen to give life to all men.

Conclusion

The institution of marriage shows us “clearly” what is the Godhead (Rom 1:20). It shows us that the Father was, is and always will be the head of Christ (1Co 11:3). It shows us that Christ is “subject unto the Father” (1Co 15:28), just as the church is “subject unto Christ in all things” (Eph 522-24). These are spiritual lessons which the institution of marriage impart to us. This is why God gave Adam a wife instead of another man. This wife, He tells us, came “out of the man”. It is through the institution of marriage that we are taught that the wife is “the weaker vessel” (1Pe 3:7), by whom “all living” came into this world (1Co 11:12). It is the institution of marriage between male and female which shows us we are to ‘bear fruit’ (Gen 1:28). It is the institution of marriage which the scriptures use to demonstrate for us that Christ’s relationship to His Father is as “the weaker vessel” (Joh 14:28), His “life giver” (Col 1:16) who, in the end will be “subject to Him who put all things under Him” (1Co 15:28).

1Co 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God [“the Father of whom are all things”] may be all in all.

There is nothing about the institution of marriage which so much as hints at Christ being “co-substantial, coequal, and co-eternal” with His Father. There is nothing about the institution of marriage which even hints at a trinitarian Godhead. Instead what we are clearly told many years after Christ had returned to His Father, is that “the head of Christ is [still] God” (1Co 11:3), that “it pleased the Father that in Him should all the fulness of the Godhead dwell”, and that the Father is “but one God, of whom are all things, [and besides this “one God of whom are all things” there is also] one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom [like Eve] are all things”. What we are told that Christ, the anti-type of the first Adam, “is the first born of every creature, For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:” We are even told in very clear language, which confirms the witness and lessons of the institution of marriage, that “the holy spirit” is “the holy spirit of God [the] one God, of whom are all things”:

Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Then finally we are told is that Christ will subject every man who has ever lived, along with every creature and every power in heaven and in earth to Himself, and that He will then, “be subject unto [His]… Head” just as “wives [are to be] subject unto their husbands in all things”.

All of this demonstrates scripturally how the institution of marriage helps us to ‘clearly see the invisible things of the Godhead’ (Rom 1:20). All of these scriptures demonstrate how the institution of marriage teaches us that all men come through Christ who is “the weaker vessel” in His relationship to His Head, His Father. All these scriptural witnesses teach us that Christ is also His Father’s Eve, His Father’s “life giver” and that through Christ, our “life-giver”, the very definition of the name ‘Eve,’ we will all “in [our] own order” be imparted an “immortal… spiritual body”.

Through the institution of marriage we learn that while we are the sons of Christ, we are at the same time also His bride, and He is our husband. In the same way, the institution of marriage teaches us that “the things that are made” (Rom 1:20), teach us that while Christ is the son of God and He too, is at the same time, the Father’s “life giver”, the Father’s ‘Eve’, the Father’s wife. “The head of Christ is God” (1Co 11:3).

Also ref: http://iswasandwillbe.com/The_Head_Of_Christ_Is_God.php