Day Six: God’s Institution of Marriage, Part IV

We are taking our time in Gen. 2:24-25 to learn the truth about marriage and sexual relations in the context of marriage, so that we can defend the truth against those who would teach the doctrines of demons. We have seen three purposes of marriage in Gen. 1 ruling, reproduction, and relational needs. We have also looked at the necessary criteria of marriage in Gen. 2:24 which have both sequential and practical significance. We learned: 1) God designed marriage, 2) marriage is between one man and one woman, 3) marriage requires public leaving of former commitments to establish a new family, 4) marriage involves emotional joining together in mutual commitment, 5) marriage requires becoming one flesh, physical consummation, and 6) God joins a couple together spiritually until death, if they meet the criteria of marriage and enter the marriage covenant.

The necessary criteria for marriage in Gen. 2:24, are quoted four times in the New Testament as God’s blueprints for marriage. However, there is one more statement that was made about the first and only pre-fall marriage, that though not a necessary criterion for marriage, certainly a necessary goal for any marriage.