Male and Female Created He Them

Preface I. "In the beginning..." - Contrast - Part I II. "In the beginning..." - Oneness - Part II III. Who invented sex? What for? IV. The dating game - or How to Fall in Love For Sure - Part I V. The dating game - Its Effects - Part II VI. What do we find in the Word of God? VII. The Foundation of marriage - The Will of God VIII. The Purpose of marriage - The Glory of the Cross IX. Until we know His will - The Single Years X. What God is really after - Two Marriages
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X. What God Is Really After

And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. And the man 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." For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
- Gen. 2:22-24

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
- Revelation 21:2

The Bible begins with a marriage. The Bible ends with a marriage. And there is profound truth behind this fact.

Our tendencies being ego-centric, man-centered, and humanistic, we think that all of God's thoughts and intentions are centered on us. Unfortunately, this is the perspective of most of today's Christianity which daily becomes more and more centered on man and his needs. Yes, our loving God cares for us beyond description, and we worship and praise Him for that. But we are not the center of His purposes.

His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the center of all that God is after and all that He is doing. It is God's eternal purpose (i.e., His plan from eternity past) to see that His Son, "has the pre-eminence in all things;" "that He Himself might come to have first place in all things", that all things are "summed up in Christ." It is that He will be exalted and worshipped and adored forever and ever. Everything else is only a "subset", a part, of that grand and glorious purpose.

We see the word, "Father" and think God has adopted this description from us so that we can understand Him. We see Jesus call Himself the true Vine and think that our Lord saw the vine and thought, "Here is a good opportunity to use something for an illustration."

We see marriage and think, "Here is something God has decided to use to show us something."

In reality, it is really exactly the opposite. Before ever an earthly father existed, God was The Father with a beloved Son. He loaned to us a title of His that we could pattern ourselves after the eternally first Father. Before ever a vine was created, the Lord Jesus was the Vine of eternal life from whom all life flowed.

And before there ever was a man and a woman in the garden, God had in mind a Bride for His Son! He loaned us, for only a short time, this thing called marriage, that is, until that which it only dimly foreshadows shall come.

But note clearly, there was a price to be paid for His Bride - even death of Christ on a cross and His precious blood shed - that out of His side could come one who was like Him in nature, in character, in life.

But this Bride must make herself ready before the wedding can come. How? Only by trodding the same path that He trod - the way of the cross. Her preparation is only in her death, her dying to all that is of self. That she can be raised anew in a life that cannot be touched by death - to meet Him face-to-face - like Him at last.

If we are centered on what is for us in God's purpose for man and woman, we have fallen far short of His desire and plan. Indeed, we fail.

For in giving man woman, and giving woman man, He is providing a place to prepare for His Son a bride.

If we are someday to marry, He is giving us the place where we can truly allow His self-less LIFE to be formed in us and His Bride can be prepared for Him.

But if we are to remain single, it is no different. We even more can seize the time that remains, learn the way of the cross, and equally prepare ourselves to be His bride.

This must be our true and foremost longing. Without this longing, we are off-center and imbalanced at best (see II Tim. 4:8). May He create in each of us just this heart.

"And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come."

And let the one who hears, say, "Come."

"Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."

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