IS A RELIGIOUS CEREMONY STILL IMPORTANT FOR A CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE?
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: “Is ‘n godsdienstige seremonie nog nodig vir ‘n Christelike huwelik?
The following question came up in a conversation that I would like to share with you:
How important is a Christian religious ceremony today as far as a Christian marriage is concerned?
Then my answer is Yes – just as it has been from the beginning and through all the ages, the answer is:
Essential, very important.
People today take away so much from the Word with the view of:
"Times have changed. Back then they did things like that but today we do things completely differently.” It suits them to reason like that as they wilfully forget:
HEB 13:8 Jesus Christ (God who became man) is the same yesterday and today and forever.
HEB 13:9 So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas; (diverse and strange teachings, such as, that things have changed and we no longer have to live according to certain precepts, which for the Christian in God's New Testament, which He has prepared for His children.)
I mentioned that Jesus is God who became man:
JHN 1:1-3
Christ, the Eternal Word
1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.JHN 1:14 So the Word became human, and made his home among us, He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
I also mentioned that our Lord has drawn up a New Testament for us as His children –for true Christians:
MAT 26:28 For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission (forgiving) of sins.
HEB 9:15-17
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.
17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.
Back to the importance of the Christian marriage ceremony:
God created man and woman for each other and here I quote the NLT, because for me it is a much better translation of this passage:
GEN 2:18 Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper who is just right for him."
Not only did our Lord create man and woman to fit together and fulfill one another in all matters of love – but our Lord created man, that is, man and woman, in His image:
GEN 1:27 So God created man in His own image (in other words, it was not a physical image, for it was male and female) in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
We do not know what message our Lord gave the first couple when He confirmed them in the first marriage, but there is, so I believe, a passage from that first message that applies to every couple who marries before Him in a Christian religious ceremony and therefore our Lord has also preserved that passage in His Word to us and it is:
GEN 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (God sees a man and woman who are married and living in His ways, as one)
Then Jesus come in the New Testament that was drawn up for the Christians by Jesus and He underline the marriage ceremony that should take place in public before Him as very, very important.
So much so, that it was the only non-exclusively religious ceremony that Jesus made time to attend.We read:
JOHN 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus should also have received an invitation and He accepted it, because we read:JOHN 2:2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.
Then Jesus underline how important He, God who became man, consider this ceremony, because He did His first of many miracles there and turn water into wine and thus underline how important to Him this marriage ceremony is, that He made time for to attend.
JOHN 2:11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, (for there He showed who He really is) and manifested His glory. And His disciples (also you and I who are His disciples) believed in Him.
Of all His great and wonderful miracles, He perform at a marriage ceremony and thus make the importance of that ceremony stand out to us for all time.
Now I want to point out one more thing to you that also joins this public ceremony:
Every person that Jesus called to Him in His walk here on earth, He called them to Him in public – so they had to make the decision in public for, or against Him.
Therefore, our Lord also consider the Christian religious marriage ceremony so important, that it should also be done in public.
This is how our Lord want you and I to live out our Christianity here on earth.
There should not be this incomprehensible phenomenon among Christians, as there is among many Christians today.
I know of people who will easily talk about their children's achievements, but many will be, let's call it ‘reluctant’ to talk to people about Jesus.
I know of people who will talk much easier about their rugby team or sports hero or best singer etc than about Jesus. He, who went to hang on the cross to save them from hell.
Jesus is saying:
MARK 8:38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
Furthermore, our Saviour and Redeemer, who is also our Leader in this life against satan, says:
MAT 10: 24-28
24 "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
25 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house (God who became man) Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household. (this is you and me)
26 "So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
27 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered (from Jesus), proclaim on the housetops.
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (God – He who has the power and who became man if you then want to fear)
Come you and I live the Gospel shamelessly in public for our Lord.
He, who is God was not ashamed to hang on the cross for us, to save us from hell.
Let's rejoice it in our hearts, as my great hero Paul lived out and proclaimed it:
ROM 1:16-17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
Greetings,
Sakkie