1 Corinthians 7:1-6 Scripture begins with a marriage (Adam and Eve), and it ends with a marriage (Christ and his church). The joining together of the man and woman is a picture of how heaven and earth will one day be joined together through the union of Jesus and his people. Human marriage reflects the big thing God is doing in the universe: making a people for his Son.
Grasping this vision of marriage means we won’t demean or trivialize it, and it also means we won’t idolize it. Marriage itself is not meant to fulfill us, but to point to the One that does. What does this mean for those who are single?
At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. -Matthew 22:30
Singleness, like marriage, has a unique way of testifying to the gospel of grace. It is a way of both anticipating this reality and testifying to its goodness. It’s a way of saying this future reality is so certain that we can live according to it now. If marriage shows us the shape of the gospel, singleness shows us its sufficiency. It’s a way of declaring to a world obsessed with sexual and romantic intimacy that these things are not ultimate, and that in Christ we possess what is. What we forego on a temporal plane now, we will enjoy in fullness in the new creation for eternity.
Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. -Revelation 19:7
