Being married to my wife Ana has saved me from myself.
The problem with that is having a big misunderstanding of what happens when two individuals become one. In order for the marriage to work you must make adjustments. You must change.
My married is teaching me how to be selfless. My marriage is teaching me how to be sacrificial. My marriage is teaching me what it means to lay down my life for someone else.
A successful marriage consists of two people becoming less self-centered, less self-absorbed, and less self-involved and becoming more like servants. In our marriages our goal is to seek to be like Christ to one-another. We give our lives to each other just as Christ gave himself to us through the cross.
The secret of marriage is found in the mystery of the gospel.
Take a look at how Tim Keller describes the connection between the gospel and marriage:
Jesus’s sacrificial service to us has brought us into a deep union with him and he with us. And that, Paul says is the key not only to understanding marriage but to living it. That is why he is able to tie the original statement about marriage in Genesis 2 to Jesus and the church. As one commentator put it, “Paul saw that when God designed the original marriage, He already had Christ and the church in mind. This is one of God’s great purposes in marriage: to picture the relationship between Christ and his redeemed people forever!”
The gospel gives us both the power and pattern for marriage. When we lay down our lives for each other we don’t lose ourselves – we don’t lose our identities. In faith, we instead gain a deeper sense of union with each other as we are transformed more and more into the image of Christ.
Visit here to listen to a sermon Jovan recently preached entitled “Marriage for Keeps” on May 1, 2016.
Jovan preaches for the Littleton Church of Christ near Denver, Colorado. You can visit Littleton’s webpage here.