90
" Unlike the Old Testament, in which singleness was not a good, the New Testament—or, more properly, the coming of Christ—opens up, for the first time in redemptive history, the possibility of viewing marriage completely as a freely chosen vocation. It is not necessary in the way that it once was, and singleness is now an equally (or more!) honorable calling. But, "
― Preston Sprinkle , Two Views on Homosexuality, the Bible, and the Church
93
" Already in the Old Testament, God’s love for Israel had been compared to the marital bond (Isa 62:5; Jer 2–3; Ezek 16; Hos 1–3), but here that imagery becomes Christologically specific. It is the love of Christ for the church, a love that will culminate in an eschatological wedding feast (Rev 19:7, 9; cf. 21:2), that earthly couples image and in which they participate. The created good of marriage, marked by its openness to children and its faithful union, is taken up into Christian life and made to be an outward and visible sign of the love of God in Christ. In "
― Preston Sprinkle , Two Views on Homosexuality, the Bible, and the Church