tmeiers

44  This Momentary Marriage
shine  before  others,  so  that  they  may  see  your  good  works  and  give
glory  to  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven"  (Matt.  5:16).  Paul  makes  the
same point:  "Whether  you eat  or drink,  or whatever  you do, do  all to
the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). All of life, not just marriage, is meant
to  showcase  the  glory  of  God,  including  the  glory  of  his  all-satisfying
grace.
But marriage is designed to be a unique display of God's covenant
grace  because,  unlike  all  other  human  relationships,  the  husband  and
wife  are  bound  by  covenant  into  the  closest  possible  relationship  for
a  lifetime. There  are  unique  roles  of  headship  and  submission. Those
distinct  roles  are  not  the  focus  in  this  chapter. That  will  come  later.1
Here I want to consider husband and wife simply as Christians. Before a
man and woman can live out the unique roles of headship and submis-
sion in a biblical and gracious way, they must experience what it means
to  build their lives  on  the  vertical  experience  of  God's  forgiveness  and
justification  and  promised  help,  and  then  bend  it  out  horizontally  to
their spouse. That's the focus in this chapter.
Or to put it in the terms of the previous chapter: The key to being
naked and not ashamed (Gen. 2:25)—when, in fact, a husband and a
wife do many things that they should be ashamed of—is the experience
of God's vertical forgiving, justifying grace bent out horizontally to each
other and displayed to the world.
Is the Wrath of God Relevant for Marriage?
Briefly,  let's  see  the  foundation  for  this  truth  in  Colossians.  We  will
start  with  Colossians  3:6:  "On  account  of  these  the  wrath  of  God
is  coming."  If  you  say,  "The  last  thing  I  want  to  hear  about  in  my
troubled  marriage  is  the  wrath  of  God,"  you  are  like  a  frustrated
fisherman on the western coast of Indonesia on December 26, 2004,
saying,  "The  last  thing  I  want  to  hear  about  in  my  troubled  fishing
business is a tsunami."
A profound understanding and fear of God's wrath is exactly what
many  marriages  need,  because  without  it,  the  gospel  is  diluted  down
to mere human relations and loses its biblical glory. Without a biblical
1See Chapters 6–8.