The marriage covenant originated with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.  But for Adam no suitable helper was found.  So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.  Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.  The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”  That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Genesis 2:20-24 NIV

God took a bone from Adam to create his wife, Eve.  Then he rejoined them in marriage.  So metaphorically, you could say marriage re-unites a man and woman to become one flesh, though they were separate at their births. 

Paul’s “Profound Mystery”

Paul called marriage a “profound mystery”.

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”  This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church.

Ephesians 5:31-32 NIV

A “mystery” in the New Testament is a truth once hidden but now understood by the light of Jesus’ life.  The New Testament frequently portrays Jesus as a bridegroom who has come seeking his bride.  And the church is portrayed as his bride, the Bride of Christ.

The picture takes shape when John the Baptist called himself the “friend of the bridegroom”.  He was referring to Jesus as the Bridegroom, and himself as Jesus’ best man.

The bride belongs to the bridegroom.  The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.  He must become greater; I must become less.”

John 3:29-30 NIV

In the Gospels, when Jesus was asked why his disciples did not fast, but the followers of John and the Pharisees did, Jesus compared himself to a bridegroom.

Then John’ s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”  Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

Matthew 9:14-15 NIV

In Paul’s letters, the church is called the bride of Christ. 

I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy.  I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.  But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

2 Corinthians 11:2-3 NIV

The book of Revelation closes with the wedding feast of the Lamb, where the church is Christ’s “bride” who will rejoice and feast at a wedding festival when the Lord returns. 

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.  Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.  Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)  Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

Revelation 19:6-9 NIV

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”  And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

Revelation 21:9-10 NIV

God patterned marriage very purposefully to be a living picture symbolizing the relationship between Christ and his Bride, the Church. 

Jewish Marriage Customs

We can understand Paul’s “profound mystery” of the marriage covenant even better when we compare Jesus’ mission on earth to Jewish marriage customs of the time.

Jewish marriage began with an arrangement and a contract, where the groom’s father pays the bride’s father the “bride price”.   Christians relate Jesus’ time on earth to a man seeking his bride; the cross is his proposal of marriage.

Next came a period of betrothal, which might last a year or longer.  During that period the groom prepared the new room for his bride in his father’s home, while the bride prepared for marriage. 

Christians believe we’re symbolically living in a betrothal period with Jesus.  Jesus told his disciples that he was returning to his father to prepare a home for us. 

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

John 14:2-4 NIV

Paul likens the present to a period of betrothal for the church, a time of purification:

I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.

2 Corinthians 11:2 NIV

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Ephesians 5:25-27 NIV

The wedding day began when the groom and his friends went to the bride’s house at midnight, then brought the bride and her bridesmaids to his home, with a torchlight parade through the streets.  The bride was told approximately when to expect the groom, but not the exact time, so she had to be ready.  Christians see in this custom Jesus’ second coming to claim his church.

Then the marriage takes place, and the couple is joined in a permanent love relationship for as long as they live.  This is followed immediately by a wedding feast, which would go on for days, as we see with the wedding in Cana in John 2.  Christians are all going to be part of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.  Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.  Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.”

Revelation 19:6-8 NIV

Facets of Redemption found in the Marriage Covenant:

God’s goal in redemption is to finally be our God in a genuine and reciprocal loving relationship with us that’s as close as that between husbands and wives.