The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access
If you are a child of God, you don’t lose your status if you have a bad week.
To be a Christian is a standing, a legal position. It means to be a child of God. You are or you are not, there is no try.
In every other religion the indicative flows from the imperative. Which means, ‘because I do, therefore I am... because I do this, therefore I’m a child of God.’ But only in Christianity does the imperative flow from the indicative. ‘Because I am in Christ all these things, therefore I obey.’ Exactly the opposite.
In short, the enlightenment privatized marriage, taking it out of the public sphere, and redefined its purpose as individual gratification, not any 'broader good' such as reflecting God's nature, producing character, or raising children. Slowly but surely, this newer understanding of the meaning of marriage has displaced the older ones in Western culture.
