Is marriage eternal?

Few questions stir our hearts like this one: Will I be married to my spouse in Heaven? 

In Scripture, we read about the beginning of marriage, how the husband and wife relate to each other, and how the result of this union contributes to the glory of God. But one question that often lingers is whether marriage continues into eternity.

Will I still be married? Can I get married in Heaven? What if I had multiple spouses throughout my life? Will I forget all about my earthly marriage?

To answer some of these questions, we first need to understand why God instituted marriage in the first place.

Before the fall into sin, God established two institutions when He created the world. Marriage was the second, but the first was the Sabbath. After God made the world in six days, He rested on the seventh day (Gen. 2:2–3). In doing so, God demonstrated that six days we should labor, but on the seventh day we should rest and worship Him (Ex. 20:8–11). Beyond this, the weekly Sabbath foreshadowed the new creation, an age when God would bring perfect and everlasting salvation for His people (Isa. 66:23). The New Testament indicates that the Sabbath points us toward the work of Christ as He brings us to this eternal rest, both now and in the age to come (Heb. 4:9–11). In other words, Christ has led us into a spiritual Sabbath rest, but we are still waiting for its full consummation. Accordingly, we continue our observance of the Sabbath on the first day of the week as we await the eternal rest to which it points (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1–2).

Much the same, God instituted marriage in the creation to point us toward a covenant relationship with Him, even before the fall. It is not good for man to be alone (Gen. 2:18), so God made Adam a wife. But that marriage relationship was not an end in itself, for it was meant to be a tangible representation of the marriage between God and His people. Throughout the Old Testament, God describes Himself as married to His people who have committed adultery against Him (Isa. 62:5; Jer. 2:2; 3:6–8; Ezek. 16:8–21; Hos. 2:2). Likewise, Jesus often describes Himself as the Bridegroom of His followers (Matt. 9:15; 22:2; 25:1–13; John 3:29). Following the example of Jesus, Paul indicates that marriage is a profound mystery that points to Christ and His Church. Like the Church to Christ, the wife respects and submits to her husband; like Christ for the Church, the husband loves and sacrifices himself for his wife (Eph. 5:22–33; 1 Cor. 11:2–3). In Revelation, John even describes the final heavenly celebration of the reunion of Christ and His church as a marriage supper (Rev. 19:7–9; 21:2; 22:16–17).

Both the Sabbath and marriage are creation ordinances that we presently enjoy as tremendous blessings from God, but they each point to heavenly realities that we long to see fulfilled in the age to come. The reason we as Christians continue to meet for worship on the Christian Sabbath is because we are still waiting for the consummation of our eternal Sabbath rest in Christ. Much the same, the reason we continue to be married and give in marriage in this world is because we are waiting for the consummation of our eternal marriage to the Lamb. But when the reality is fully revealed, the shadow passes away.

This is why Jesus makes a very important statement about marriage when He was in Jerusalem prior to His betrayal. The Sadducees, a group of elites who denied life after death, questioned Jesus about marriage (Matt. 22:23–33; Mark 12:18–27; Luke 20:27–38). In an attempt to show the absurdity of the resurrection, they asked Jesus what would happen if someone was widowed six times. Would that person have several spouses at once in Heaven? In response, Jesus not only pointed them to the reality of the resurrection, but He also explained that earthly marriage is not eternal: “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven” (Mark 12:25).

According to Jesus, someone married on earth will not be married to their spouse in Heaven. Instead, their only concern will be the same as that of the angels: to worship and glorify God eternally. In other words, the only marriage with which we will be concerned in Heaven is our spiritual marriage to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, is marriage eternal? Only the marriage of Christ and His church lasts forever. If we think that earthly marriage is something that endures for all eternity, then we have missed what marriage is all about in the first place. An earthly spouse is a precious gift from God, which we should cherish and care for dearly. But while I think we will still remember our earthly marriages in Heaven, we will not be married in Heaven.

The reality is better than the shadow. When we gather before the throne, we will stand next to our earthly spouse, not in marriage to each other, but as the church married to Christ. In glory, the marriages of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of our glorious marriage to the Lamb.

This article was first published in Tabletalk, the Bible study magazine of Ligonier Ministries. Find out more at TabletalkMagazine.com or subscribe today at GetTabletalk.com.