God’s View of Biblical Sexuality

Introduction

I could have just as easily titled this blog post "The Biblical View of Godly Sexuality." Why? The one and only self-existing Trinitarian God has revealed all that we need to know about Him and How He wants us to live in His self-authenticating Bible. A Godly view of sexuality is a Biblical view, and a Biblical view is a Godly View. 

I often shake my head in wonder as I contemplate how God made us in His image and with physical bodies practically identical to animals. Evolution makes perfect sense apart from the Biblical revelation since we share so much with the beasts of the field.

But we are not animals nor are we dogs who mate because we can’t help it. No, the Bible says we are made a "little lower than the angels." (Hebrews 2:9) And contrary to movie portrayals, we can control our sexual impulses and are responsible for what we do with our sexuality.

A Marital Metaphor

Biblical sexuality is a metaphor demonstrating something far more significant than humanity. I used to think that the relationship between Christ and His Bride, the Church, was the metaphor for the covenant relationship between a husband and wife. Now, I've come to believe it is the other way around, that the covenant relationship between a man and woman in holy matrimony is the metaphor for Christ and the Church. Christian marriage is only a picture of a more profound and higher reality than matrimony itself.

For a husband to love his wife as Christ loves the Church gives deep meaning to the institution of marriage. (Ephesians 5:25) Just as the wife is the "body" and the husband the "head" (Ephesians 5:23), so we have a physical metaphor God gave, demonstrating to us the relationship the True Husband, Jesus Christ, has with the Real Bride, the Church.

The Image of God

Indeed, at the beginning of creation, the self-existing Triune God gave us a picture of His image. This image was not an individual. The image was a man and a woman in covenant relationship. While God made each individual in His image, that image is given meaning by God, revealing that His image is best displayed when a man "leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife and the two shall be one flesh." (Genesis 2:24)

Any variation of this "image" is nothing short of blasphemy. Any change to God's image is a warping and distorting of an essential truth that God has communicated to us. This is why God links adultery to idolatry. (Isaiah 57 for example) It is humankind redefining God in our image. It is the sexual manifestation of idolatry so graphically displayed in Romans 1 when human beings leave the worship of the one and only self-existing Trinitarian God and begin to worship the created rather than the Creator. 

Holy In His Eyes

God delights in the fruitful covenantal, sexual union of a man and a woman. It is holy in His eyes. Those who want to promote alternative forms of marriage, in whatever form that may be, must demonstrate that this alternative sexual union is not only holy in God's eyes but that He delights in it, is pleased with it, and it is life-giving. It's not just sex. It is the fruitful covenantal union ideally resulting in the "godly seed" God refers to in Malachi 2:14 and 15:

Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. (emphasis mine)

Sex is More than Procreation

Does this mean that sex is only allowed for fertile couples? The book of Song of Solomon is filled with erotic images of sexual delights between a man and a woman in covenantal marriage. While sexual union between a husband and wife does not always result in a "godly seed," it always results in a strengthening of the marriage union, a protection of God's image within a covenant marriage, and galvanizes a culture and nation's familial bonding. 

What Exactly Is Adultery?

The root of the word "adultery" is to "adulterate." This means "to corrupt, debase, or make impure by the addition of a foreign or inferior substance or element." This is what happens when we leave God's marriage ordinances and replace them with something else. Thus "adultery" is anything other than what God has ordained. It is any sexual deviations and perversions known to humanity. I do not need to spell them out because God already has. Any action or behavior that is in antithesis to God's image is adultery.

The Body Connection

The only way to commit adultery is to use our bodies. Even mental adultery cannot be committed apart from our physical brain. This is why God called us to honor Him with our bodies. We can use our bodies to dishonor Him by distorting the image of God through sexual union with someone who is not our spouse. In the end, God insists that His image be protected through our obedience with our physical bodies. The premier passage for understanding this is 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. I recommend you take the time to read these words rather than skip over them. The words that I write are nothing in comparison to what God says here:

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

A Personal Note

I am ashamed to say that I contributed to the distortion of the image of God through past sinful actions. There was a time in my life when I sought out and viewed the distortion of God’s image through pornography. My disobedience led to the breakdown of my morality and ultimately the breakdown of my first marriage.

God is so protective of marriage that He says in Hebrews 13:4

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

I learned the hard way that God doesn’t mess around when it comes to distorting His image in Biblical sexuality. I am deeply grateful that while He judged me for my sin, it wasn’t a judgment unto death.

When you belong to Him, the consequences of sin become a vehicle of chastisement unto restoration. (Hebrews 12) When you don’t belong to Him and don’t repent, the judgment can and will lead to eternal death and damnation. Hard words, I know, but I’m not the Author of the Bible, God is. God is that serious about protecting His image and His name!

By God’s grace, I have repented of my sin and He has forgiven me completely through the blood of Jesus Christ. I share this personal note lest someone think I throw stones from my ivory internet tower. Any stones I throw would only be cast upon my own head.