Thinking Biblically about Identity and Sexual Ethics

Introduction

Introduce yourself.

Importance of the topic in our culture.

Why do we need to talk about identity and sexual ethics?

You guys are classified as Gen Z and Gen Alpha

There is much confusion right now in your generation about sexuality and identity. . .

According to Barna research, Gen Z:

25% identify as LGBTQ.

70% believe its acceptable to be born one gender and feel like another.

30% personally know someone, most often a peer, who has changed his or her gender identity.

Some of the biggest questions our culture is asking today relate to identity and sexual ethics:

Who am I?

What is my identity?

Where did I come from?

Where/How can I belong?

What is my purpose in life?

The answers to these questions have major implications to how we think about God, ourselves, other people, and how we live our every day lives.

Therefore, for us to enjoy God and worship him with our lives, we must have a Biblical understanding of sexual ethics and identity.

How can we develop a Biblical Worldview?

Glasses example

By putting our “Biblical Worldview glasses” we will be able to see clearly the purposes of sexuality and how we should practice sexual ethics for the glory of God.

We make sense of sexuality when we set it in the context of the biblical narrative of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation.

Moving forward, we will look at sexuality from these four perspectives to see God’s original intent and design for sex (Creation), how it was corrupted by sin (Fall), how it can be redeemed in Christ (Redemption), and how it is finally completed (Consummation).

I will conclude with some practical implications of how to love and witness to those who are living in a gay or transgender lifestyle.

Creation

In speaking about Sexuality we need to define our terms.

Sexuality and sex are not the same thing.

Sexuality refers to our male and femaleness.

All humans are sexual beings whether they participate in sexual acts or not.

Sex is the actual physical act of intimacy reflecting our sexuality.

When discussing sexuality, three terms are often associated:

Identity: Who we are.

Desires: What we want.

Actions: What we do.

From the beginning of the story of the Bible, we discover God’s original intent for sexuality in three truths:

The male and femaleness of our sexuality.

Sex as a procreative act.

Sex linked to the covenant of marriage.

First, lets look at our identity in being made in God’s image as male and female.

Identity: Image of God

In Genesis 1:26-28, we learn that our true identity is that we have been made in the image of God.

Genesis 1:26–27 ESV

Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

In defining who we are, David Platt says, “I am a man or woman personally made by God in the image of God to enjoy and exalt the glory of God.”

Four Truths about Being made in God's image.

First, being created in God's image is good.

God is good, therefore, everything that he makes is good. . . Including humans being made in his image.

Genesis 1:31; 1 Chronicles 16:34; Psalm 25:8, 34:8, Psalm 107; Mark 10:18.

Second, being created in the image of God is unique.

All other creatures were created after their own kinds but only humans were made after God's image.

By being made in God’s image, Only humans have the capacity to resemble God, have a relationship with God, and represent God on the earth.

Third, being made male or female is linked to being created in God's image.

Genesis 1:27 consists of three parallel lines of poetry.

Third parallel

The author replaces the phrase "image of God" with "male and female."

This communicates that there is a close connection with being made in the image of God and being made male and female.

This means being made male and female is physical, spiritual, and essential in defining and making up who we are.

We are made up of both body and spirit being made in God’s image. . . therefore, both our physical bodies and our immaterial spirit are equally important to God.

The image of God is part of the sexual differentiation.

God differentiated between light and darkness, sun and moon, waters and land, and he differentiated his image bearers into male and female.

As image bearers of God, men and women are uniquely distinguished by God in relation to each other.

This distinction is divinely designed, not humanly constructed.

**To clarify, I am using sexuality and gender as synonomous terms. The Bible does not differentiate between them and I don’t think we should either.

Gender identity is not chosen by people.

Gender identity is given by God.

“Being created in the image of God and being male or female are essential to being human. Sex (male and female) is not simply biological or genetic, just as being human is not simply biological or genetic. Sex is !rst and foremost a spiritual and ontological reality created by God. Being male or female cannot be changed by human hands; sex is a category of God’s handiwork-his original and everlasting design.” -Christopher Yuan

Gender distinctions are for the flourishing of humanity and the glory of God.

Fourth, Being created in the image of God points to Christ.

Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3

Jesus is God's perfect image.

This means every person is made in the image of God, regardless of their race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and is worthy of love and respect.

So, our identity is bound up in being made personally by God in his image as male and female for his glory.

By being created male and female, we are sexual beings. . . and our male and femaleness, as well as our physical bodies, are good things.

Now lets, look at God’s creation of sex.

Sex: Desires and Actions

Everything God creates is good.

God created sex.

Therefore, sex is good (given it is practiced in the way God created it for).

One of the reasons God created us male and female is to be united in the one-flesh union of marriage to multiply and fill the earth with his image and glory (Gen. 1:28).

God’s design for sex is for it to be a procreative and enjoyable act that is enjoyed in a one-flesh union of marriage between one man and one woman for life.

Genesis 2:22–25 ESV

And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Marriage is ultimately given to point to the relationship between Christ and his church (Ephesians 5:22-32).

The purposes of sex can be described as:

First, like anything else, sex was created to glorify and enjoy God.

The rest are in no particular order. . .

Second, consummation of marriage.

Third, Procreation (to fill the world with God’s image bearers).

Fourth, Love and pleasure.

This is God’s design and what God commands regarding marriage, and this is what is best for our lives to enjoy and worship him.

Fall

Unfortunately, as good as things began in Genesis 1-2, as most of you know, things did not remain that way.

The danger of doubting God’s word (Genesis 3:1-7)

Notice what led to Adam and Eve sinning against God.

They doubted his word and doubted his goodness (vs 1-5)

Explain. . .

They listened to their desires and fleshly cravings instead of the Lord (vs 6).

The Doctrine of Sin

Sin means to fall short of God’s glory. We have missed the mark of God’s perfect standard.

Sin is not just actions but also small attitudes and acts. . . anger, jealousy, greed, etc.

Adam and Eve’s sin impacted the entire human race as well as creation (Romans 5:12).

What were the consequences of the Fall?

Death

Both physical and spiritual death.

Sin Nature

Total depravity

Sin affects every part of us, including our desires (Romans 3:10-17; Eph. 4:18; Is. 64:6; Mark 7:21-22).

Essentially everything we do is affected and tainted with sin.

Example of broken wheel of a shopping cart. . . you try to push it straight but it continues to veer off.

Our sinful nature is not who we are, but how we are.

Our sinful nature is not part of our essence but a corruption of our essence.

Sin has now corrupted the image of God in which we were made.

We still maintain God’s image (Gen. 9:3; James 3:9) but it is now flawed and corrupted with sin.

Total inability

Not only is everything we do corrupted by sin but our sinful nature makes us completely unable to please and worship God (Romans 8:6-8).

It is important also to see that even just as sin does not destroy the image of God and the goodness of our bodies, sin does not destroy our sexuality and the goodness of sex.

“Thus sex, despite its distortions after the fall, is still sex and God’s good gift to humanity. It becomes distorted in its longings directions, misdirected ends, and idolatrous ways.”

So how does the Fall affect our identity and sexuality?

We can see that there are four ways that sin distorts our sexuality and identity.

First, there are distortions with God.

Instead of trusting God and believing that our bodies were created by God, for his glory, and for our good, we now do not trust what he says about our bodies and how we should use them.

We think we know better than God and that our sexual longings within should not be limited to the parameters he laid out in creation.

Once more, the first sin came from fulfilling a desire that was contrary to the goodness of Adam and Eve’s body. They doubted God knew best and gave into their bodily desires.

Instead of worshipping God, we now worship ourselves and do whatever feels best to us.

We seek to please ourselves instead of pleasing God.

This is ironic because the best pleasure and joy we can receive is actually by pleasing God. . . remember that this is who we are and what we were made for.

This means that sexual sin, first and foremost is against God.

Second, there are distortions within.

The first thing that happened after Adam and Eve disobeyed God was that they became ashamed of their physical bodies and were filled with guilt.

The goodness of their bodies in which God created them. . . now was viewed as bad and shameful.

This leads to us today not seeing our bodies as good, not seeing our gender as a good gift from God and it leads us to wanting to change ourselves.

Because of sin, we are now confused about our identity and who we are.

Instead of finding our identity in God in being made in his image for his glory, we define our identity based on our desires and feelings.

Because of sin, our desires and feelings are now corrupted and are often not pleasing to God.

By finding our identity in our sexual desires, it leads us to act out this corrupted identity through sexual actions that God has not permitted nor blessed.

Sex outside of marriage, lustful thoughts, homosexuality, pornography, and other acts of sexual immorality.

Third, there are distortions in our relationships.

Sin corrupts our relationships with one another and we blame one another for our mistakes.

All human relationships are now broken and subject to misunderstandings.

We now use others for our own personal ends and treat others as mere objects.

Instead of sex being used to consummate marriage, bring children into the world, and enjoy love and pleasure in a covenant marriage. . . it is now used as a tool to manipulate, control and harm one another.

Rape

Sex Trafficking

Pornography

etc.

Fourth, There are distortions in Nature.

Sin has corrupted not only ourselves but also the universe.

The ground was cursed because of sin and work became difficult and frustrating.

Sin also distorts our physical makeup.

People are born with birth defects.

Intersex condition.

People are born with emotional states and psychological dysphorias about themselves.

People that are bent towards being attracted to the same sex.

Gender dysphoria.

However, we never make the exception the rule.

Just because we are born with a tendency towards a specific sin, this does not make the desire for that sin or acting on it ok.

So, as you can see, our sin has messed everything up, including the way we think about our sexuality and identity.

Our bodies are broken, our desires are corrupted, and we have all fallen in some form of sexual sin.

So is there any hope???

Redemption

Thankfully, God, in his mercy, has made a way for us to be cleansed of our sin, our false grasps at identity, and our depraved desires and actions through Jesus Christ!

Jesus, being truly God and truly man, was our perfect substitute. . . both in his life and his death. . .

He fulfilled God’s law and lived a perfect life we could not live.

He took our place on the cross, took the punishment for our sin, and died the death we should have died.

Jesus conquered sin and death by rising again from the grave. . . and through turning from our sin and trusting in Jesus, we can be forgiven of our sin and restored back to a right relationship with God!

So, how does Jesus’ redemptive work relate to our sexuality and identity?

First, his incarnation redeems our sexuality.

By Jesus taking on flesh and becoming a man, he affirmed the created goodness of the human body.

Also, by Jesus becoming a man, he affirmed the goodness of human sexuality.

Jesus affirmed God’s design for sex during his ministry.

Matthew 19:4–5 ESV

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

Second, his redemptive work gives us justification and forgiveness from sexual sin.

Romans 3:21-26.

The word “justification” means to be declared right in God’s sight. . . to be declared righteous.

Through Jesus’ death, he paid the penalty for our sin so that through faith in him, we could be forgiven.

I want to pause for a moment and say a word to those here who have fallen in sexual sin. . . or may be living in sexual sin right now.

There is nothing that you have done that the blood of Jesus cannot cover.

Expound on that truth. . .

Listen to the words Paul wrote to the Corinthians. . .

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 ESV

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Kintsugi (Golden repair)-Japanese Broken Pottery

Third, Jesus’ redemptive work helps us grow in righteousness and holiness.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we now have the power and strength to flee sexual immorality and pursue holiness.

God has saved us for himself to glorify him and honor him in all things. . . including our sexuality.

As Christians, we are called to pursue holiness in our sexuality. . . which means chastity in singleness and faithfulness in marriage.

Colossians 3:5 ESV

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Ephesians 5:3 ESV

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

To follow Christ, we must die to ourselves, our desires, and our wants. When we come to Christ, our bodies are no longer our own, but belong to the Lord. Therefore, we must seek to glorify God with our bodies.

1 Corinthians 6:18–20 ESV

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.

Through faith in Christ, we will be more conformed to his image and our identity in being made in the image of God will be restored.

Self-denial and following Jesus leads to true freedom.

Through Christ, we have the power to enjoy the freedom God intended us to have in sex. . . in the specific way he designed it for in a covenant marriage between one man and one woman.

Consummation

But our full and final restoration will not take place until Christ returns.

This is important for us to remember because until Jesus returns, we will still struggle with our old sinful nature. . . we will still have to fight against temptation. . . even though we have been forgiven by the blood of Christ. . . we will still have to deal with some of the consequences of our sinful actions on earth.

Example of Paul in Romans 7.

But when Christ returns. . . our transformation into God’s perfect image will be finally complete as our physical bodies will raised from the dead and be fully glorified.

All that was corrupted by the fall will be completely restored. . . we will have glorified bodies, glorified desires, and will walk in perfect obedience to God’s commands as we enjoy him, serve him, and worship him for all eternity!

Four Practical Ways to Handle Conversations with people living in LGBTQ sin.

*These points are from Greg Stier’s article “Love and Truth.”

Choose Love, not hate, as your posture.

1 John 4:8 ESV

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Don’t forget that people living in an LGBTQ lifestyle are still made in God’s image and are worthy of dignity, honor, and respect.

Choose the Bible, not the culture, as your authority.

Remember that the Bible has clearly defined God’s design for sex.

Start in Genesis 1-2 and then share how Jesus reaffirmed these truths in the Gospels.

God’s word has not changed, and he has made clear throughout his revelation that homosexual desires and actions are sinful should be repented of and resisted.

Gen. 19:4-11; Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom. 1:24-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-13; 1 Tim. 1:10.

Heterosexual desire can be a distortion of practice (through sex outside of marriage).

Homosexual desire is different as it is a distortion of both pattern and practice.

The Christian who struggles with same-sex desire should never accept this desire as “normal” or “ok” but continue to kill this sinful desire by the power of the Spirit and pursue a life of faithfulness and holiness. . . just as he or she would any other sinful desire.

The questions you must ask yourself are. . .

Are you going to trust God’s word or trust yourself?

Are you going to please God or please yourself and your friends?

Are you going to fear God or fear man?

Choose the gospel, not sin management, for solutions.

Choose engagement, not detachment, as your strategy

Questions???