The Lord God formed woman of the very substance of the man. Her creation was a wonderful type of the creation of the Bride of Christ — a prophecy in symbol of the crucifixion, resurrection, and marriage of the Lamb. While Adam was in a "deep sleep" God removed a rib from his side, and from it fashioned a woman the bride of Adam. It was while Christ was in the "deep sleep" of death that his Bride had her beginning, born of the blood that flowed from his side.
The words spoken in Gen 2:24Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. were spoken before the Fall, and we have the authority of Christ, in Matt 19:4 & 5Matt 19:4 & 5 4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?, for saying that they were spoken by God, and not by Adam, as the Genesis account seems to suggest. So, before sin had entered the world, and while everything was pronounced "very good", God said, " Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave (Hebrew — `dabaq' — be joined) unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." So the marriage of Adam and Eve, and the marriages of all their descendants, are a divinely given institution, and something which God has enjoined upon mankind as a wonderful blessing, for marriage is a marvellous type of the fellowship between Christ and his Bride.
Whenever God establishes a type in the scriptures He requires it to be most strictly observed, as we can see from the punishments meted out whenever they were broken. When the man was found gathering sticks on the sabbath, the question was not, "Had he a sick wife or child at home, who needed a fire to keep warm?" Without any consideration of why the man had taken it upon himself to break the sabbath, he was stoned to death, because he had disobeyed God in breaking a type. Because Moses struck the rock twice (Christ was smitten only once), and "spake unadvisedly with his lips", in spite of his faithfulness throughout his long life, he was barred from entering the Promised Land. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord, (it should have been fire from the altar), and they died. Because Uzzah put forth his hand, and touched the ark, when it rocked, surely a quite natural reaction, and as the ark represented Christ, and only the priests should touch it, he broke a type, and was slain by God. Because King Uzziah insisted on entering the temple, and offering incense, though unqualified to do so, he was stricken with leprosy, and cut off from the rest of Israel, dwelling in a several house until his death — a lifetime sentence.
As far as God is concerned, marriage is a life-long unionScripture clearly indicates that, as far as God is concerned, marriage is a life-long union, which can only be broken by the death of one of the partners. It is a type of the union between Christ and his Bride, who at the moment is only espoused to him, but when the marriage of the Lamb takes place will be joined to him for ever. If we break our marriage, and are joined to another during the lifetime of our first partner, we break this God-given type. We have no reason to believe that this type is an exception, and that, although punishment invariably followed the breaking of other types, we can break this one with impunity. Therefore, it is absolutely imperative that we fully understand Bible teaching on marriage, and all that is related to it, including the man-made institution of divorce and remarriage, which is so abhorrent to God.
Numerous passages illustrate that marriage is a wonderful blessing bestowed upon mankind by God. It is man's perversion and misuse of marriage which has so degraded this wonderful relationship between one man and one woman. No marriage can be a sin, if it is ordered according to God's rules, and not man's. It is man's violation of the marriage-bond (i.e. fornication, prostitution, adultery, divorce and remarriage), which is sin.