God Has a Sovereign and Permissive Will: Consequences? (Mat 19:7-9)
Wednesday July 30, 2025
Intro:
Jesus’ teaching in Mar 10:2-12 and Luk 16:18 is clear cut; divorce is simply forbidden. Matthew, both in Mat 5:32 and Mat 19:9 allow a single cause: sexual unfaithfulness (porneia).
The joining of a man and woman is so profound that it creates a third reality in the world: one-flesh marriage.
Perhaps we can begin to fathom the mess that fallen mankind has made of marriage. Not just in modern times, but from the beginning.
Jesus is bringing heaven’s ways to the church. The disciples do not understand them. They differ from the conventional. But they will.
Loss of individualism?
In monogamous, indissoluble marriage, where the two become one flesh; one might assume that the individualism of each is lost as they become one flesh, but think again of your marriage to Christ. You did not lose your individualism, you in fact found it. Christ set you free.
Marriage is a constraint and a freedom in the same way – you are constrained in some ways but free to do things you could not before.
But what about all the bad marriages?
If people knew what marriage was, as defined by God, which Christ has made the norm for His new creation, the church, then they would be much more careful in choosing a mate and being a mate.
It is a seeming paradox, but true, that the deepest interdependencies are where true independence flourishes.
The problem is that Christians are too often earthly bound. They want to glorify God as long as they get all the earthly blessings (good marriages, ease, no sickness, good kids, plenty of money, a good name) thrown in.
“Life in this age has not been arranged for our comfort.” [Bruner]
God can turn every curse into a blessing.
There is the sovereign will of God and the permissive will of God.
Deu 24:1-4 is a clear-cut case of the permissive will of God. God’s design is in Gen 1-2, which must not be questioned.
Jesus totally rejects divorce.
Mal 2:16 “For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel.
Christian marriage is a great witness in any society.
Trapping Jesus. Motivation: God or self? (Mat 19:7-9)
Mat 19:7 They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY?"
The Pharisees read into Deu 24:1-4 a commandment which is not there. The divorce and the certificate are presupposed as already having taken place and imagining a remarriage scenario.
Mat 19:8 He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.
Jesus accepts that the passage does permit divorce, though the passage itself does not say that.
Hardness of heart in the Bible is generally an attitude towards God and not so much to people. The classical example is Pharaoh who first hardened his own heart and then it was hardened further by God. It is a term for rebellion against God when obedience is due.
Eph 4:17-19 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
A hard heart is one that is not receptive to God’s ways.
In our context the hard heart does not see God’s design for marriage, tries to make one’s own, and use God’s own law to make God agree with it.
There is a sovereign will and a permissive will.
The Corinthians had asked Paul about marriage and divorce, unbelieving spouses, sexual frequency in marriage. For some questions he had a clear use of God’s sovereign will; for other questions, he had to lead while God’s will was not as clear.
1Co 7:10-11 [like Gen 2] But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband 11 (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.
1Co 7:15 [like Deu 24] Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases [no longer married], but God has called us to peace.
Jesus subordinates Moses to Genesis.
He claims that the one flesh is broken by adultery.
Mat 19:9 "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."
Though a provision was made, the proper status of marriage is still what Jesus quotes from Genesis: “What God has united must not be divided.”
Application:
We are to seek the heart of God’s laws and not see what we can get away with.
Jesus knows that a new age is coming. He is going to make a new humanity in union with Him endowed with heavenly assets.
They will be graciously given the life and the power to live out heaven’s ways on earth, including in marriage.
And if we fail? Consequences? Yes. Forgiveness and provision? Yes. Relaxing the rules ala Pharisaical interpretation of Moses because we fail? No.
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