God’s Design

God’s Design

We were created by God and are His image bearers in the world

the word is imago dei.

Genesis 1:26: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

We were created in His image, and part of that image involves our gender.

Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

Psalm 100:3: “Know ye that the Lord he is God: It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

We were created for fellowship and companionship. The everlasting union between male and female image bearers is marriage.

Genesis 2:18: And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

The creation of this union is seen through the bearing of children. The purpose of producing children is to continue the imago dei in the world.

It takes a male and female to perpetuate this image.

Genesis 1:28–29 “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”

Christopher Yuan in his book Holy Sexuality uses this expression:

Chastity in singleness; faithfulness in marriage

Distinguishing between Desires

good desires

fleshly desires

Galatians 5:16–17 “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

Yuan notes that the tension between the spirit and the flesh is obvious in our lives. As believers, we have two natures— one is the flesh and the other is the spirit.

The flesh is the vestiges of our old self life and is formed by distorted views from the Fall.

IRREFUTABLE STATEMENTS:

a predisposition does not mean we are predetermined to succumb

as believers, we are always called to resist the cravings of the flesh

our desires are to be in alignment with God’s Word

GENDER IDENTITY

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FORNICATION

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HOMOSEXUALITY

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