Creation history is bookended in a marital framework. The story of humanity begins with “Paradise Lost” and ends with “Paradise Restored.” The first wedding occurs in that original Paradise and the last wedding will take place in the future Paradise of the New Heavens and Earth.
While the Paradise of creation was home to God's purpose in seminal form, there was little progress toward fulfillment before Adam and Eve sinned and were evicted from Eden. The original wedding feast was cut short. We have to look to the biblical revelation of “Paradise Restored” to see the full realization of God's purpose for His creation. The Fall of humanity and subsequent redemption of God's people is all a part of God's one purpose that culminates in the New Heavens and Earth.
The wedding of Adam and Eve was never intended to be eternal. From the start, it was a foreshadow of the ultimate wedding God has planned for the glory of the age to come. As Paul tells us in Eph 5, the union of a man and woman in matrimony speaks of the mystery of Christ and His church. The one flesh relationship of a husband and wife proclaims our union with our Savior. This is the fulfillment of God's good purpose – an intimate relationship with Christ in which we dwell in Him and He in us (John 14:20). This is the reason the book of Revelation pictures entrance into the age to come as a wedding feast and the New Jerusalem as a bride adorned for her husband. Here we find the ultimate wedding celebration, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
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Stan McGehee, Jr. is senior pastor of Living Word Community Church. Ordained in December of 1979, he holds a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Reformed Theological Seminary and a Masters of Theology from Tyndale Seminary. He has worked with his father at LWCC since the...
