Cedarville Magazine, Spring/Summer 2016

God’s Design for Man and Woman in Marriage In this vexing and disturbing climate, the temptation to disengage is strong. But that is why Cedarville is equipping the next generation of believers to engage culture with a perspective that is thoroughly biblical, reasonable, and compassionate. Not only should we speak about God’s plan for men and women because it is right, but by doing so we offer a redemptive picture of marriage that reveals true love to our neighbors, friends, and family. MANKIND DESIGNED Both Jesus and Paul go back to Creation when discussing marriage (Matt. 19:4–6; Eph. 5:28–32) and gender roles (1 Cor. 11:8–9; 1 Tim. 2:12–14). The Bible is clear that a person is made whole by a relationship with God through Christ, and a single person may experience this as well as a married person. However, God’s original crafting of mankind included both male and female, and marriage was given as a way for man and woman to experience oneness with another. There are discoveries made about being male and female that are unique to the one-flesh marital union. God created man and placed him in the garden to cultivate it, but it was not good that the man was alone. He was designed to be connected to a helper. So God took from the man, fashioned the woman, and put her alongside the man so she was related to him bodily, “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23). Although she was different from him, she was a refashioning of him, and she was defined in unity with him. And so the man was realized in his fullness in relation to woman. They were united as “one flesh,” the biblical description of marriage. GOD GLORIFIED God created man to live in a plurality-unity relationship because God at His level lives this way. The Triune God exists in the intimacy of a three-in-one relationship, so male and female are created in God’s image as the “two become one.” The word “one” means complex unity and is also used in Deuteronomy 6:4, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” As the Cedarville Doctrinal Statement notes, paraphrasing Genesis 1:27, “God created humans, male and female, in His image.” The Creation account ends by declaring, “The man and his wife were both naked and unashamed,” a discrete way of describing their physical intimacy. In marital intimacy, the couple images the one God who is plural in personhood. By embracing each other, Adam and Eve are embracing God’s purposes for them to be fruitful and exercise dominion. This sexual oneness is more than physical. God provided human sexuality not only for procreation, but as the intimacy that reflects the type of unity that exists within the Godhead. The oneness of marital union is a joining of heart, soul, and mind — all we are in our humanity. This is the language Jesus uses to describe His relationship with His Father. “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). ROLES FULFILLED The opening chapters of Genesis show God creating man and woman with similarities and differences. At Cedarville, we teach that man and woman are both the image of God. Both man and woman are given dominion over the earth and mandated to procreate. That same responsibility results in different roles and The Triune God exists in the intimacy of a three-in-one relationship, so male and female are created in God’s image as the “two become one.” Cedarville Magazine | 17