Is God a bigamist? Today was our fifth installment dealing with marriage and divorce. We were able to study out the four biblical conditions for the dissolution of a marriage and the possibility of remarriage. It is important to understand that these four conditions are transdispensational and build upon each other without replacing previous instruction and law. Please remember that even though these conditions are given, God always wants husbands and wives to work out their issues and reconcile to each other without the pain of divorce.
The Four Biblical Conditions for the Dissolution of a Marriage:
1. Death of a Spouse: Romans 7:1-2 This is the simplest situation concerning remarriage. When a spouse dies, the widow or widower is no longer bound to that spouse. All legal documents, etc., must be revised to remove the deceased's name. The living spouse is free to remarry.
2. Incompatibility / Irreconcilable Differences: Deuteronomy 24:1-4 This is the law the Pharisees confront Jesus with in Matthew 19:1-12 and Mark 10:1-12. Can you divorce your wife for any reason? Jesus rebukes them saying that Moses wrote this law because of the hardness of their hearts. This is probably the most common reason given in divorce cases. In today's world, Christians can get caught up in the web of narcissistic thinking, and can become very selfish in their outlook in the marriages, losing their focus of honoring their spouse and being benevolent toward them. This can cause deep scars in a relationship leading to divorce! 1 Corinthians 7:3, Ephesians 5:22, 25, 1 Peter 3:1-7
3. Adultery / Fornication: Matthew 19:7-9, Mark 10:10-12, Deuteronomy 22:13-30 This is the scripture most commonly used as the benchmark for the dissolution of a marriage. Jesus makes it clear that there will be no easy escape from marriage in the kingdom age. Matthew 5:27-28 Jesus raises the bar of adultery to looking on a woman and lusting after her in a man's heart renders one guilty of adultery. People will be judged for their thoughts in the millennium. This stringent condition certainly keeps couples from divorcing because they are incompatible. What we can take away from this kingdom teaching is that we must be committed to one another regardless of the pain that we bring to each other. This is the condition that God declared when He divorced Israel. Jeremiah 3:6-8 4. Desertion: 1 Corinthians 6:15-7:17 Paul does not render the previous two conditions null and void, but he adds this issue of desertion, because in the dispensation of grace saved people have a new nature in Christ. All people in the Old Testament had only one nature to deal with. No one was permanently indwelled by the Holy Spirit. This is why they had the Law of Moses to spell things out for them. In this dispensation. if an unbelieving spouse can live peaceably with the believer, all is well. There are some cases that the unbeliever gets to the point where they just cannot bear living with their Christian spouse and they leave and divorce their spouse. In this case, the believer is not bound to the other conditions, and is free to remarry.
1 Corinthians 7:15: But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.
This coming week we will look at our relationship and spiritual union to Christ, and how the marriage relationship of two believers is a physical picture for the world to see who we are in Christ. We must remember that a mystery is a secret that the Lord reveals to Paul to deliver to us. It is a Bible doctrine you can believe, but you cannot always understand. There are some mysteries we are given detailed understanding, and some do not as the same amount of details. This mystery, Paul states, is a great mystery – the relationship of Christ and the Church!
