Friday, June 29, 2007

"You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).

IDEA: We understand what a covenant in marriage means from the covenants that God established with His people throughout the Bible. First, it is unilateral.

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand what should distinguish Christian marriage from non-Christian marriage.

When we talk about Christian marriage, it should be based on a covenant, not merely on a contract.

• What do we mean by a covenant?

I. We can see what a covenant in marriage should be by looking at the covenants that  God made with His people.

He made covenants with Noah, with Abraham, with David, with Israel, and in the book of Hebrews, He makes a new covenant with us.

In all of these covenants, God initiates them and they depend on Him.

They are unconditional. Those with whom God makes the covenant can enter into it, but the covenant doesn’t depend on anything that they do.

II. In a marriage based on a covenant relationship, we can learn from the covenant God made with Noah.

First, a covenant is unilateral. The commitments that one makes to  another are not dependent on the other person’s carrying out some condition. Even though they are made at the same time, the covenants are individual. Both the husband and the wife make separate covenants.

This has practical implications: marriage is not a 50/50 proposition. It’s a 100/0 proposition. Each person in the marriage works so that the responsibility for the marriage rests on him or herself.