How a Legalist Views Marriage and Divorce

Mark 10 begins with Jesus answering a question posed to him by the Pharisees about Divorce. By going back to Genesis, we discover how God created humanity male and female for the institution of marriage, which is the lifelong bond between one man and one woman (Genesis 1:27; 2:24). It is an arrangement established by God for the benefit of humanity, but not everyone sees it that way. The Westminster Confession of Faith wisely understands that instead of seeing the goodness of marriage there is a tendency to try to escape the lifelong bond: "Although the corruption of man be such as is apt to study arguments unduly to put asunder those whom God hath joined together in marriage: yet, nothing but adultery, or such willful desertion as can no way be remedied by the church, or civil magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage: wherein, a public and orderly course of proceeding is to be observed; and the persons concerned in it not left to their own wills, and discretion, in their own case" (chapter 24.6). The Pharisees' attack will prove that they not only misunderstand the meaning of marriage and the place of divorce, but they misunderstand the Law itself.