COV LIFE BLOG

Genesis 2:18-25 – God’s Good Design in Gender and Marriage

HEART PREPARATION
“Men and women were deliberately designed to be different. Indeed, we are specifically created as complements to one another—as different halves of a whole that reflects the glory of God. It’s patently obvious we were created to fit together physically; of course, we couldn’t create life if that weren’t the case. So when men cease to be such or when women deny their uniqueness, they make such complementarity impossible, and the whole, as it were, suffers. We are meant to be different and God wants us to celebrate and rejoice in our differences, not suppress or denigrate them.”
Erix Metaxas

Marriage—as old as the human race itself; the institution that has been the foundation for every civilization that has ever existed; the covenant relationship that God ordained between the man and woman. With all the chaos and confusion surrounding marriage these days, one could easily lose sight of God’s original intent and the blessing He planned marriage to be. God intended that man and woman would share a deep and lasting relationship that would bless them physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually while simultaneously be glorifying to Him. As we experience God’s intended purpose through our marriages, God is glorified as people see both the goodness of God in our lives together and a picture of Christ’s love for His people and their love for Him. Let me put it this way: Marriage is God’s good gift to mankind, and He intended it to bring joy and fulfillment. Marriage itself is good because God created it, but it can only be experienced in its fullness if Christ is at the center.
Brian Broderson

SCRIPTURE FOR REFLECTION
Genesis 1:26-27
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Matthew 19:4
He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female.”

MEDITATION ON THE SERMON PASSAGE
Read Genesis 2:18-25.

God gave both gender and marriage as gifts to mankind and it was God’s good design to give both of them to mankind. God created both marriage and gender for the purpose of displaying truths about himself and as pictures of his glory. So how grounded are you to be able to respond to the gender and marriage crisis in our culture today? How can you better grow in your understanding of these biblical truths and in demonstrating these truths to the larger world?

SONG FOR THE WEEK
Come, People of the Risen King by Keith and Kristyn Getty