­­­­DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE – Part 4

Marriage is God’s amazing design and reflects the heavenly fellowship of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. In His eyes, marriage is intended for life, not to be ended by human will.

Marriage is essential for the well-being of all peoples, the stability of societies and the guarantee of generations to come.

To God, marriage is so important, that He is more than willing to work in us by His amazing grace and power to sustain marriages and restore broken relationships. God loves us and wants us to be clean, to determine to make righteousness work. He is for us and “if God be for us who can be against us?” Romans 8.

Yes. If there has been adultery, the marriage covenant has been destroyed. It is done. Against God’s design. That cannot be changed by anyone. Divorce follows—a formality that follows something that has already passed away—a covenant now broken by adultery, by cruelty or by physical or virtual desertion of the unbeliever.

Adultery, fornication and divorce are things we humans, Christians and non-Christians alike, can do that cannot be undone by us or by anyone on earth.

Consider the religious, God-fearing people gathered in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost and hearing Peter’s powerful address. They were ‘cut to the heart’ by his words, stricken by the sudden realisation they were implicated in the murder of their Messiah, God’s Messiah! How awful! How could such an evil be committed?  What could be done now? How could such a deed ever be forgotten, forgiven? Surely this must be the unforgivable sin—to kill God’s beloved Son!

They cried out in utter despair What shall we do?

Peter boldly and without hesitation simply answered “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  ” And they did. A new world community began (Acts 2:38-42).

It doesn’t matter what we have done, when we turn to God, totally changing our minds and hearts and actions regarding our wrongdoing, unable to blot out any past, powerless to cover up anything before the eyes of the Living God who made everything and from whom no secrets are hidden—we are then cleansed, washed, forgiven, made new, given righteousness as a free gift! We go, determined to sin no more. That is repentance. Real repentance brings forth fruit.

So when we see we have done wrong before God, we likewise must completely change our thinking and will and desire only to please Him. And we receive His peace, His justification. Such wrongs—cruelty, rejection, hatred, adultery, divorce, lust, rebellion, independence,  are now in the past, and we move on in newness of life, walking in the light of His word and in the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

There is only one totally unforgivable sin and it is not divorce, adultery or fornication! (Matthew 12:31-32)

Believers are never told by God that they have to do something to make up for their sin. On the contrary God blots out our iniquities (Acts 3:19) and he remembers them no more (Heb 10:17). We are reconciled by the death of His son (Heb 2:17, 2 Cor 5:16-21).  There is nothing we can do to change the situation except to love Him!

Jesus “offered for all time one sacrifice for sins . . . . . . For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb 10:12-14).

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!  For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:8-10)