The Mission: Glorifying God to the Point of Death

Last night at youth group we had a discussion on the topic of sexual temptation. When we gathered into our small groups, somehow the topic of Christ being (or not being) married came up. One of the volunteer staff members argued for the fact that we don't know for sure whether or not Christ was married and/or had children, but it was "certainly possible." My mind was flabbergasted! I didn't want to waste the time that was supposed to be dedicated to sexual temptation, but I felt the issue had to be addressed right then and there, for not giving the other side of this issue to the youth would have allowed them to walk away with a lopsided view of their God and Savior; this I could not allow.
Okay, I concede the point that the Bible does not use the words, "And Christ did not marry, nor did he ever have children." Nevertheless, what we do find are serious pointers to what Christ's mission on this earth was, and it was NOT primarily to enjoy the pleasures of this world. In no way do I claim perfect thinking on this issue. Pastor John at our church pointed out Isaiah 53:8 which I found helpful:  

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
    and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people? 

 So here's what I think about this whole thing thus far:

1. Division Which Can Rob God of His Glory

One of the biggest problems with Christ ever marrying and/or having children was that it would have divided His heart and mind. The apostle Paul is very clear about this issue:

I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided...I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord ( 1 Cor. 7:32-33, 35).

A family responsibility would have certainly been very divisive to our Lord. In fact, our Lord was very clear about his purpose on this earth, for he said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work" (John 4:34). What was His work? 

• to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37) 
• to gather His sheep (John 10:3-4, 16, 27)
• to die for His sheep (John 10:15; 11:51-52)
• to free us from the chains of sin (John 8:36; cf. Gal. 5:1, 13-14)
• to sanctify the Elect (John 17:15-19)
• to bring about Eternal life (John 3:16-17; 4:35-38; 10:28-30; 17:2)
• to glorify, manifest, and restore the Father in the world (John 1:18; 17:1, 4-6) 

There are more reasons that we could list, but Jesus did not come to reproduce biological children. He came "to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, [giving them] the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13, italics mine). God is reproducing children spiritually through belief in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God.

2. His Death Would Have Made Him a Poor Husband and Father

To bring about a family, knowing full well that He came for the purpose of dying, would have been cruel. If Christ were to have become an husband and father, then He would have been the best one the earth ever knew. But as we said, that was not His mission; that is, fatherhood was to be the restoration of our flawed view of the God the Father who never failed us like our biological fathers did. This Father was glorified by His Son. The Son's mission was the Cross: “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name” (John 12:37). To die was the way that true Fatherhood was going to be restored. "Father, glorify your name." How? Through the accomplished death and resurrection (i.e. purpose) of the Son's coming. I am not ready to concede that Christ was willing to produce a widow and/or orphan.

3. The Church is His Bride

Have we forgotten who Christ's real bride is? " Then came...saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb” (Rev. 21:2; Hos. 2:19-20). This is when Christ will be wed. It did not happen here on earth. He had to die in order to purchase and sanctify His Bride first (Eph.1:4; 5:27; cf. Col.1:22). Paul is very clear about this. He argues that husbands should model their love for their own wives after our Lord when he says,

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:25-27).

This is part of the Bride's motivation for desiring sanctification. This pleases our Husband, for a wife is to respect the loving servant-leadership of her husband, submitting to him (Eph. 5:21-24; 32).

 4. Jesus: The End of the Line

But even more amazing is that Jesus is the end of the line of the descendents of Abraham. He is also the end of the kingly line of David. Futhermore He is the end of the priestly order of Melchizedek. There is no reason to perpetuate His lineage if Jesus is the end of those lines. He is the promised seed (Gal. 3:16). To continue further would then continue the promise to Jesus' physical posterity, but that was not God's plan. The promise continues through his spiritual posterity (3:29). I see no reason that Jesus would have come to bear physical children.

Conclusion

I cannot help but feel that many people have been duped by the resurrection of Gnostic "gospels" and heresies. Founded on, and embedded with Gnostic gospels are books/movies like The Da Vinci Code or Pagel's Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, from which "Brown and Pagels converge again in their instance that, as the Gnostic 'gospels' teach, revelation of God does not come through biblical revelation but rather through the individual." These are Gnostic advocates, and therefore, their conclusions about Christ's divinity and purpose are skewed, and unfortunately, those views are creeping into the Church. This is why discernment in our media consumption is absolutely necessary. Paul says, "Test everything; hold fast what is good" (1 Thess. 5:21). No, Pagels, revelation comes from God's revelation of Himself in His Word.