Life is not always easy, and Jesus Christ warned us it would be that way. He also told us He had conquered the world.
Jn 16:33 In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” NKJV
Still, I think, in marriage, but other places as well, we walk under clouds instead of walking in the sun. Let me explain.
In Genesis 2, God created humans. Alone, man was “not good.” (Gen 2:18) That was the only thing about God’s Creation called out as less than “good.” Enter woman. After that, everything on the earth was “very good.” (1:31) Before The Attack in God’s Garden, we may think all was perfect between humans, and between humans and God. But there had been no test, and The Attack, and subsequent human failures, proved there were “chinks in the armor.”
Alright, so be it. True – we failed. True – God’s previous warning about losing immortality came to pass, and the earth itself bore the frustration of our scandalous behaviors – God was being merciful to us even then. Humans would be outside God’s Garden, working with mortal bodies. What’s NOT true? That men and women have no choice but to live in a cursed state of unfulfilled desire and/or dominance all their lives, as long as we inhabit this earth? That is not true.
Do we really believe in so little Mercy, so little Grace, that God would not give us the power or direction to live beyond what happened back there? If that is so, how can we be saved from our sins today? Yesterday? Tomorrow? Are we to be saved from all of them except the first? Is that how we’re supposed to live?
Or is Christ’s sacrifice only capable of saving us from CERTAIN sins?
1 Jn 1:6-7 If we say that we have fellowship with Him (God), and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. NKJV
If we are only free from certain sins; then each day will be worse than the last, as we walk out our lives purposefully embracing a cursed existence. (Not unlike teachings of “karma”)
Seriously, then, why be saved?! From what?! TO what?! What good is following the examples of Christ? Did He not walk without sin to take on all our failures? Or was it just some of them, and NOT the failures in The Garden? No – He bore all our iniquities. ALL. (Hebrews 10:16-25) Praise God!
So, do we just throw ourselves into antinomianism – party on – because Jesus Christ has the keys to sin and death? (Rev 1:18) Psh – seriously!? Who orders huckleberry ice cream, then tosses it to the dogs??? OR: do we learn to BE in gratefulness, covered with Mercy so giving Mercy, walking in freedom so refusing to chain others (Philemon), submitting ourselves to one another (Eph 5:21) without taking advantage of others’ submissiveness, and expressing The Kingdom of God on earth as we daily refuse the shackles of past mistakes and embrace love, expressed as God always wanted?
Does that exclude marriage? Is marriage the only place where a curse still has authority beyond the efficacy of the cross? God forbid! Marriage was to be saved as well. Jesus brought heaven to earth, making Himself a servant to all who would accept Him, releasing us from the bondage of sin, and from being held under a curse. Unless we want to live that way. We have free will. We can be as miserable as we desire, outside the freedom of the cross.
Look at how Jesus taught us to pray. Why pray for something we cannot have? Jesus would never set His people up for misery and failure. He came to get rid of that. He taught us to pray in a way that blessed us and God.
Mt 6:9-13
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. NKJV
So, is God’s Will to be done “on earth as in heaven” everywhere except in marriage, (or teaching, or pastoring)?
Are husbands expected to dominate, or are they supposed to love and sacrifice? Are wives to live out their days desiring their husbands but getting squashed for it? Are they to live in submission to a man that over-rides the gifts given to them by God Almighty Himself? Are husbands to feel un-manly if they support their wives in their expression of Holy Spirit’s gifts, rather than nudging them aside to express their own? Does that look like The Kingdom of God being mimicked “on earth, as in heaven?”
Jesus walked in agreement with God, out of overwhelming love, and humble submission, based on a relationship that Jesus Himself fostered through daily learning and by separating Himself from everything else to spend time alone with God. No, it was not always easy, but it WAS “good” – “on earth, as in heaven,” rather than under the clouds of a curse, embracing what went wrong in the past. Jesus overcame sin, He did not embrace it, or its consequences, except on the cross – to relieve others; and He was the only One who could do so.
Claim and walk in God’s Promises, not the curse. Have a Christ-like effect on this world, and your relationships.
Blessings!
Leaona Huston
May 24, 2021
P.S. There is a longer, more in-depth study of this teaching. It will be in the Bible Study section shortly.
