There is no word in the English language more in need of a complete rehab than the word “sex.” Speak the word on any corner in America and it won’t be heard with connotations of God-ward purity and pleasure. No, the word has been dented, damaged and debased by sin. It has been stained with connotations of junior high locker room giggles and middle-age auto-erotic late-night porn. It is connected with sleazy advertising and B-grade comedians going after the cheap laugh. Tattered, torn and rendered almost unusable, we must take back sex and restore to it the purity and glory that a wise and holy Creator had in mind when he designed a man and woman for an intimacy with one another that would bring honor to him. To do this we have to look in on Genesis 1 and 2 and examine sex as God created it to be in the beginning. Here are three perspectives on sex that Genesis requires us to make.
Sex is Worship. The primary relationship that people were created to have was not their relationship with one another, but their relationship with God. They were created by him, they were designed to live for him, and as dependent creatures, to exist through him. (See Romans 11:36.) This meant that everything in their lives was to have verticality to it, that is, a God-ward orientation. What does this have to do with sex? Everything! The highest purpose of sex was not the momentary pleasure of a man and a woman, but the long-term pleasure of God. Sex is to be viewed as coming from God, belonging to God and a chief way that I express my joyful submission to him. When we forget this dimension, we remove sex from its primary shelter from difficulty.
Sex is relationship. Sex was not created by God for an individualized pursuit of pleasure that employs the body of another as a means of self-satisfaction. No, by God’s creation design, sex is to be rooted in, propelled buy, and protected by relationship. Sex, by God’s plan is not so much a ravenous hunt for pleasure, but an expression of the deeper pleasure of relational intimacy, unity, understanding and love. It is this unity, understanding and love that allows a husband and his wife to honor and serve one another in the marriage bed in a way that results in something more beautiful than individualized pleasure; mutual satisfaction and joy.
Sex is stewardship. When you look in on Genesis 1 and 2, you cannot escape the fact that the sexual relationship must be understood in light of God’s call for the man and woman, who he made in his image, to be the caretakers (stewards) of the physical world he created. This is captured by the words, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” It is in the context of life-long marriage, mutually-sacrificial love and God-honoring sex that the planet was to be populated. Children were to be conceived in the context of relationship and worship, and because of this, would be born into homes where they would be loved and nurtured. The world would be filled with children who knew they were loved by God and their parents and who would, in turn, learn to love others in the same way. Rob sex of its stewardship and what do you get? Millions of children who are not wanted and nurtured by those who have conceived them and grow up without the womb of security that God designed for them.
Yes, sex needs to be rehabbed. It needs to be restored to it original purity and glory. To do this, we must go back to the beginning and let an all-wise and gracious Creator restore what sin has so significantly damaged. Sex can be restored, but only the grace of the Creator has the power to do it. Will you consider submitting your sex life to him? He sent his Son to live a perfect life and conquer sin and death so that you would have the power you need to do just that.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
To be honest, the ideal of the rehab (getting back to sex's "original purity and glory") is daunting and I wonder if realistic. I'd be happy with curbing temptation and sin. As we write these articles, we are going to need to offer some "how-to" advice. Is there anyone reading this who has a specific question to ask in dealing with a sexual sin?
ReplyDeleteIts complex to me, I did not know any better to protect myself when I was young. Now I'm living for God and I struggle through all of this. I'm in my mid-thirties and wish to have children, yet God has not blessed me with a partner. If I would have know then what I know now, I would have abstained. I'm struggling big time with sex, loneliness and having a desire for a mate with no prospects. Praying about it only gets me oh so far. Dating in the church has been a learning experience. I’m at a point of surrender and total frustration with singleness and purity.
ReplyDeleteI hear a question in koffeetawk's comment, namely: "What should I do while I am waiting for a partner I hope that God will provide?" Here is one part of the answer: Invest in relationships -- with both men and women -- in which your seek to love others in sacrificial ways. It is tempting to think mainly in terms of getting something -- in this case, a life partner -- when in fact God wants us to learn how to give ourselves way more and more by serving others. This may turn out to be the best prepration for the partner that God does have for us, but if not, nothing we offer in service for others is ever wasted, but brings honor to God.
ReplyDeletePhil
Koffeetawk, I like your name and it reminds me of something: I imagine Jesus, as he was in the first century but with blue eyes, sitting at a coffee table with two cups of coffee waiting for me. I arrive breathless from all the things that keep me busy and sit down to "chat" with him. I tell him all my struggles and wait for his response. Sometimes a thought comes to me during the day and sometimes I get to read the Bible. It is the idea that I am trying to respond to his call for an intimate relationship which this image helps me focus on. The level at which this intimacy occurs does satisfy our deepest desires. As a married woman who has struggled with my own sexual sins and come to some conclusions with which Paul Tripp's comments ring true, I can tell you that getting married does not solve the sexual "problem." It is a lifelong process and is routed in that intimacy with Christ, part of which can be accomplished by Phil's point.
ReplyDeleteThank you Paul Tripp for pointing us to God's plan, which is to serve one another in love, not for our own selfish reasons. We so easily find ourselves looking out only for ourselves in so many things, including sex. It is Christ who has pointed us to love sacrificially and it continues on into this of course, although it seems as though some find it harder to apply in this area of life.
ReplyDeleteKeep on, if you are someone who is struggling, don't be discouraged, there is hope in Christ now and a eternal reward for the faithful!