God’s Original Blueprint for Marriage (part 2): What does it mean to be One Flesh?
March 2, 2025God’s Original Blueprint for Marriage (part 2)
What does it mean to be One Flesh?
3.2.2025
Review
Hebrews 13:4 (TPT)
Honor the sanctity of marriage and keep your vows of purity to one another, for God will judge sexual immorality in any form, whether single or married.
Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.
He who finds a wife finds a good thing,
And obtains favor from the LORD.
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Marriage as it has been defined for thousands of years is under attack.
When heterosexual marriage is dishonored, a culture will fail.
Marriage is the foundation for family life and the training of children.
A great definition of marriage:
One man and one woman united spiritually, emotionally, physically, publicly and legally, in a lifetime bond of loyal love, for procreation, channeling sexual and emotional energy, and serving as a civilizing and stabilizing factor in society.
– I Never Thought I’d See the Day by David Jeremiah, p. 110
How bright is the light in your home?
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
*If the Word of God does not affect your marriage and family life, then you will not change your world or have an impact on those around you.
The light in you shines no brighter than it does in your home.
Today:
What Does it Mean to be One Flesh in Marriage?
The closeness designed for marriage is revealed in the creation of man.
God created male and female on the same day – all in one body!!
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Verse 26 is referring to the creation of the body from the ground.
Make:
Hebrew – asah
To make from already existing material
Verse 27 is referring to the creation of the spirit of man…
created
Hebrew – bara
To create something out of nothing!
The spirit and soul of both Adam and Eve was in Adam on the day when he was created!
Notice Genesis 2:7
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Hebrew – plural – lives); and man became a living being.
Inside of Adam was the spirit and soul of the woman! Adam had a male body, but the spiritual essence of both male and female was within him.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; 2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
Adam and Eve’s spirits were created on the same day.
Adam’s body was created on the sixth day of creation. It is not known how long afterward Eve’s body was created.
Inside of him was them!
Why did God do this? He wanted a closeness in marriage not found in any part of creation.
The Creation of the Woman’s body
Genesis 2:18-20
18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. 23 And Adam 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.”
God took more than the rib out of Adam. He also took the spirit and soul of the woman out of him!
God made women different from any other created thing!
Animals and Adam were made directly from the ground, but the woman came out of Adam’s side.
Matthew Henry – Bible Commentator
“She was not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”
(from The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament © 2001-2004 by Warren W.Wiersbe. All rights reserved.)
Why did God take the woman out of the man instead of directly from the ground?
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
The woman came from the man’s body because their relationship was to be different from any other relationship in all of creation.
God wanted the marriage relationship to be more than a body to body relationship. He wanted it to be a spirit, soul, and body relationship!
Adam had knowledge of Eve’s spirit and soul long before her body was created.
There is a spiritual bond between husband and wife not found anywhere else in creation.
Our culture puts the sexual relationship first.
Don’t fall in love with the body; fall in love with the person in the body first!
The morality of marriage
God took one rib from Adam and made one woman. God planned that marriage consist of one man and one woman for life!
There is a sense of morality in marriage not found anywhere in the animal kingdom.
There is no such thing as immorality among animals – they have no morals.
Very few animals mate for life. Most have multiple mates.
But God planned that there be one man for one woman for life!
That’s the reason the woman was taken out of the man. That act created a special relationship called marriage!
When people are sexually promiscuous, it places the soul and body in a state of confusion. We were never created to mate like animals!
Proverbs 6:32
Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; He who does so destroys his own soul.
In marriage, there is an analogy of Jesus and the church
God knew that Adam would sin and that one day Jesus would pay the price for his sin. The analogy of marriage helps us understand Jesus and the church.
The Old Testament sacrifices and priesthood all point to Jesus. And, the one flesh relationship in marriage points to Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us!
In 1 Corinthians 15:45, Jesus is called the last Adam. He was born outside of the curse without sin.
Jesus carried the church within Him. Ephesian 1:4 says that we were chosen in Him from the foundation of the world!
Jesus carried the spirit and soul of the church in Him to the cross. There, His side was opened, and God began to build the body of Christ from the “rib” of Jesus. That body is still being built today.
God presented Eve to Adam, and one day we the bride of Christ will be presented to Jesus without spot or wrinkle! (Ephesians 5:27).
Perhaps the attack today on marriage is really a subtle attack on the Lord Jesus Himself, since marriage reflects His relationship to the church.
One flesh is designed by God to be the closest relationship known to a man or woman.
1 Corinthians 6:17 (AMPL)
But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.
Don’t continue to think as a single person if you are married!
There is a similar change to how you live life as a married person, as there was when you came to Jesus!
As a believer, you do not think of living independently from Jesus. He is involved in all you do!
When I married Susan, there was a fundamental change! From then on, I could not live independently from her, for my time was not just mine but also hers.
I could not spend money independently any longer. What is mine is also hers.
We are One Flesh.
Action Points
- Do you value the sacredness of Marriage as the closest relationship possible between two people?
- Do you value the sacredness of sexual intimacy as an act only fulfilled within marriage?
- Marriage is worth working through your problems! Don’t give up on your spouse or yourself.
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