THE BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS OF MARRIAGE
Copyright © Rosemary Bardsley 2004
PART FOUR: THE REDEMPTION, REGENERATION, RECONCILIATION FACTOR
We have seen that the Creation Factor gives great value and dignity to our marriage partner, and that the Sin Factor does not lesson this value and dignity. We have seen that the Incarnation Factor affirmed our physical bodies, marriage, female equality and male leadership.
Here, in the Redemption, Regeneration, Reconciliation Factor we will learn that the death of Jesus Christ, by which we are redeemed, regenerated and reconciled to God, endows the human person with enormous value in the eyes of God, even if that person has not embraced this incredible gift. For those who have received this gift the significance is immense, the endowed value magnified, and we all do well to think hard and long about this significance and value: that my Christian marriage partner belongs to God , not only by virtue of creation, but also by virtue of the death of Christ – by virtue of salvation.
In addition to this immeasurable value bestowed by the death of Christ, the Redemption, Regeneration, Reconciliation Factor also, as we will see in this section of our studies, by demonstrating foundational life principles, establishes a well-defined boundary around our perception of the marriage relationship and our attitudes, speech and actions towards our marriage partners.
We will also expand on what we began to see in the Incarnation Factor – that the devastating effects of the Sin Factor can be undone: that through the sin-bearing, curse-bearing, condemnation-bearing death of Jesus Christ we, personally and in our marriages, are redeemed and being redeemed [liberated and in the process of being liberated] from those horrific aspects of death and division, curse and condemnation, that entered our lives and our marriages in Genesis Three. We will learn, and hopefully rejoice, in the implications and applications of this redemption, regeneration and reconciliation for our marriages.