[bearbear]

Some notes I jot down after meditating on the marriage law given by Jesus (Luke 16:18, Mark 10:11-12):

We are now no longer under the law of Moses but the law of Christ which includes his commandments (Galatians 6:2, 1 Cor 9:17)

Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away but not one dot will pass from the law until all is fulfilled (Matthew 5:18, Luke 16:17).

We can now eat pork because the food laws were fulfilled when God showed Peter the unclean animals and said it was okay for him to eat and then told him to share the gospel with a gentile Cornelius. The unclean foods were a symbol of Israel not associating with the gentiles and its end and fulfillment meant the gospel could now go to the gentiles.

So when Jesus gave the marriage law in Luke 16:18 he may have been implying this law was not yet fulfilled "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery."

Paul then says that marriage is actually a symbol of the union of Christ & the church (Eph 5:31-32). So as Christians, one of our major obligations is to observe Jesus' marriage laws until it is fulfilled in the resurrection when Christ & the church are wedded in the marriage supper of the lamb (Rev 19:7-9, 21:4) and where marriage is no longer a thing for the saints in heaven (Matt 22:30).

This is also consistent with the consensus in the Acts 15 council where the Gentiles were told to abstain from sexual immorality as one of the required things to observe.

If marriage is a symbol of Christ and the church, then allowing divorce and remarriage due to abandonment & adultery communicates that Christ will divorce her bride if she is unfaithful even after the wedding. However scripture says that God will never leave us or forsake us and nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38–39).

It makes sense then that husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ loved the church (Ephesians 5:25). You can imply the marriage law from this verse because Christ will not abandon us even when we are unfaithful to him (Romans 8:38-39, 2 Timothy 2:13, Luke 15:11-32).