Man's Desire, God's Design

In Matthew 19, the Pharisees approach Jesus to trap Him by asking Him a question regarding marriage and divorce. They ask Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?"  During that period of time, there was an ongoing debate amongst Jewish religious leaders as to the meaning of "unclean" or "indecent" in Deuteronomy 24:1 (If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce...). One school of thought, which was the popular view, said that "indecency" could literally mean anything; everything from sexual immorality to burning your breakfast. In Jesus' answer, He exposes that the desires of their heart are disobedience and compromise rather than pursuing and striving for their Father's design of a lifelong union between a man and a woman.

In the phrasing of their question, they are going back 2,000 years to Moses and the Law. In Jesus' response, however, He demonstrates to them the necessity of going back before that. Jesus is saying, "Let's get back to the point of creation, before the fall of man." In doing so, Christ addresses God's original design for man, before any concessions had to be made due to his sinful nature.

In verse four He says, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."

Jesus points out a couple of things that are noteworthy here. Firstly, He references Genesis 1:27 where God created mankind in His image, male and female He created them. We must always remember that our entire being is not only created by our Heavenly Father, but in His creating us He did so in His image. How astonishing is this fact! You were created by the very hands and imagination of the Creator God, but, so much more than that, He also created you in His own image. Amazing.

There are so many issues in this day and age regarding the human body - divorce, adultery, homosexuality, abortion, and now even transgender individuals. The opinions of people on these issues are often as strong as they are numerous. But, we must always remember what Jesus says here about God's design for mankind. Firstly, it is He who created each one of us. He created your inmost being; He lovingly knit you together in your mother's womb, as David says in Psalm 139:13. God Himself designed you, and He designed you in His image. What security we find in these words of Scripture! For those struggling with identity issues, I would strongly encourage you to remember that the greatest assurance comes from the fact that God created you, and He created you in His image. What love, what hope, what assurance that ought to bring to each of God's children.

These words of Christ are ever-applicable to mankind. God's design, which is the picture of perfection for His creation, was that one man and one woman, created in God's image, would form a family unit and that bond would be untouched by any man. However, because of our sinful nature, we have fallen so far from God's design, so much so that we often cannot distinguish between our desire and God's design. We often assume the two are identical, but that could not be farther from the truth.

Hold fast to the truth that you were created by the imagination and hands of God Himself, and in His image. May we all pursue the Creator and His design in our lives, and these other issues and questions will surely fade away.