The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by David Lee of Malaysia, from the tape GC 1301-N, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 16."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  ©1981. All Rights Reserved.

Questioner

I’d like to ask you about 1 Corinthian 7:14. I am an unequally yoked wife. And the Lord has blessed me because my three children have come to the Lord. And in this particular passage (I don’t want to read between lines), but it says here, “for the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife,” what does that exactly means in the context of my husband?

John MacArthur's Answer

Let me ask you a question, Can a person be saved by somebody else’s faith?

Questioner

No, I realized that he has to make it [on his own].

John MacArthur's Answer

Has to do it himself...right? So we know it doesn’t mean salvation. See you are depending on the analogy of the scripture. You are dependant on the whole picture of scripture.

So what does it mean by being sanctified? It means to be set apart. In what way is an unbelieving husband set apart by a believing wife? I’ll tell you how.

In marriage as God has designed it two people become what? One flesh. So if God blesses you, guess who gets in on that blessing? Your husband. It is not talking about redemption or salvation, it’s talking about that fact that a believer is set apart to blessing from God, and when you are in union with an unbeliever, he gets it, it's like the rain falling on the just and the unjust. And your husband, if he were to married to an ungodly woman and had ungodly children in his family. God will not be at all involved in that home. But because you have faith in Christ and your children have faith in Christ. God is involved in blessing that home, and he by being one with you in the act of marriage comes under that sanctifying grace. But he still has to make his own commitment to Christ. And I’ll tell you, I think that a man who fights against that in that kind of environment really manifests a very hard heart. Because that kind of blessing from God should draw a person to Christ.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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