And/Or

“…. there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

Genesis 2:24: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

In the New Testament when Paul says,”no male AND female..” as opposed to OR when referencing Jew/ Gentile or slave/free, Paul is acknowledging the individual profession of faith required for each person, essentially stating that salvation through faith in Christ is an individual act of personal agency, not covered by the marriage bond of two people or any other distinctive difference or affiliation among people. Husband’s salvation does not confer the same to his wife, nor vice versa.

When Jesus addressed this after a question from the Sadducees,
Jesus replied, “Marriage is for people here on earth. But in the age to come, those worthy of being raised from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. And they will never die again. In this respect they will be like angels. They are children of God and children of the resurrection. But now, as to whether the dead will be raised — even Moses proved this when he wrote about the burning bush. Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, he referred to the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead, for they are all alive to him.” “Well said, Teacher!” remarked some of the teachers of religious law who were standing there. And then no one dared to ask him any more questions.”

I believe we will recognize one another in the resurrection, just as Jesus was recognized and even as Moses and Elijah were recognized on the Mount of transfiguration, but our love and lives will be of such a transformed nature, spiritual instead of physical as we know them now, the need for and function of a man and wife to be joined for procreation to form a family will be eliminated altogether in the resurrection. And so it seems we will not live as married couples in pairs in heaven. There will be no children born either in heaven, but we will all be children of God, eternally and individually in devotion, in worship, and in purpose when the new heaven and new earth are instituted.

It seems to me that the new earth will continue to have a physical existence, redeemed and established as it was intended with Eden. The new Jerusalem, the seat of God’s authority representing Heaven will be known to all those on earth and will be accessible by those on earth. All will be under the authority of Christ and will operate according to God’s plan. All knees will have bowed to the sovereignty of the Lord. And eternity under the new age will have begun.