What Does the Bible Say About Marriage?

Marriage is one of God’s oldest and best gifts—instituted at creation, before the fall, when God saw that it was not good for the man to be alone. It is the lifelong union of one man and one woman, in which the two “become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Jesus grounded it in creation itself: “he who created them from the beginning made them male and female… So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:4-6). Marriage is not a human invention we are free to redefine; it is a divine institution with a given shape.

Lutherans understand marriage as an order of creation—a good and holy estate belonging to earthly life, honored by God and meant to be honored by all (Hebrews 13:4). This is why, unlike Rome, Lutherans do not count marriage as a sacrament. A sacrament, in the strict sense, delivers the forgiveness of sins through a command and promise of Christ; marriage, wonderful as it is, does not do that. It belongs to God’s left-hand rule over creation—a worldly estate, not a means of grace. That is no insult to marriage; it simply locates it rightly.

Marriage serves several God-given ends: the companionship of husband and wife, the bringing up of children, and the good ordering of society. But Scripture also lifts it to a breathtaking height by making it a living picture. The love of husband and wife is meant to image “Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32)—the husband loving sacrificially as Christ loved, the wife honoring as the Church honors her Lord. So every Christian marriage, however ordinary, is a small, daily parable of the Gospel: covenant love that gives itself away.