Human Sexuality and the Story of Redemption (Part 1)

Introduction

Story of how Ashley and I met.

What is the purpose of dating?

Should Christians date?

Does the Bible have anything to say about dating?

I plan to get to all of these questions as we go through our short 5-week series entitled: Dating According to God’s Design.

But to have an understanding of dating, we have to see where it fits in the larger context of sexuality and marriage. . . and to do that, we need to see how it fits into the big story of redemption (the Bible).

So, tonight and next week, I want to provide a Biblical worldview of human sexuality so we can better understand dating, marriage, and singleness.

Key Point: If we are going to date according to God’s design, we must put on the glasses of a Biblical worldview to see clearly how human sexuality fits into the story of redemption.

How can we develop a Biblical Worldview?

Glasses example

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).

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.

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 1:26–28 ESV

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. [contemplation] 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.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

We can understand being made in God’s image in that we are connected to God and made to be a reflect God.

Four Truths about Being made in God's image.

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

Genesis 1:31 ESV

31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

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

Psalm 8:4–5 ESV

4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

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.

This is an important truth to know when you struggle to feel like you don’t measure up. . .

Playing the comparison game with. . .

Friends.

Social Media.

Parents.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made. . .

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.

Our sexual distinction as male and female is divinely designed, not humanly constructed.

What about gender?

Robert Smith defines gender as “the culturally mediated set of conceptions, expectations, and roles associated with being either male or female.”

This definition distinguishes sex from gender without disconnecting gender from sex. It is vital that gender is anchored and flows from one’s biological sex as male and female.

Smith says, “The purpose of gender expression is to reveal sex.”

Since gender reveals our sex, it is impossible for one’s gender and one’s sex to be incongruent. If one’s sex is female, their gender is also female.

Dysphoria can occur in a persons’ perceived feelings (gender identity), but this is not based in objective reality. Hence, gender cannot be separated from one’s sexed body but is derived and directed from it.

There may be a spectrum of masculinity and femininity between cultures. Still, gender, revealing sex, is binary (sex differentiation is maintained Deut. 22:5) and anchored in the body.

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

It is a good thing that guys and girls are different

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.

Application:

God gives us our identity. . . we don’t have to create it.

In Christ, we are enough.

God gives us our purpose. . . we don’t have to discover it.

In Christ, we are able to participate in God’s story.

God gives us belonging. . . we don’t have to search for it.

In Christ, we belong to God’s family.

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

Sex: Desires and Actions

Remember that God is good and everything he makes is good.

God freely chose to create sex. . . it was actually his first commandment to humans (Genesis 1:28).

God did not have to create sex to be enjoyable.

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

Don’t forget the goodness of God’s character that is displayed in his gifts to humanity:

Genesis 1:29–30 ESV

29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Notice what command God first gives Adam in Genesis 2:15-17.

Genesis 2:15–17 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

But, notice the context in which God created sex. . . it was exclusively created to be enjoyed in a covenant marriage between a husband and wife.

Sex is not an end in itself but was created for a purpose.

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

Genesis 2:22–25 ESV

22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 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.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 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).

Thus, sex is a “type” that should point to and image the gospel.

The one flesh union of a husband and wife is a picture of the oneness between Christ and his church.

So, to summarize the purposes of sex. . .

God created sex for pleasure between a husband and wife, but he also intended it to create children.

We were meant to use our sexuality in ways that extend the image of God over creation as we reign and rule in God’s name.

Thus, the coming together of a husband and wife in marriage, in some way, reflects God’s image as they rule and reign over creation.

However, it is important to also remember that while sexuality and marriage are gifts from God. . . Scripture does not depict either as the comprehensive basis for one’s identity or human fulfillment.

Chastity in singleness and faithfulness in marriage are both equal pathways to human flourishing.

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.

Song of Solomon 2:7 ESV

7 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

Response

We must submit to God’s good design for our sexuality.

We must believe that God is good.

He gives good gifts.

He created us, he created our bodies, he created our sexuality and gender, he created marriage. . . therefore, he has the authority to say what is best for us. . . God knows best.

His “no’s” are for our good to protect us and bless us.

Going against God’s design is like “kicking against the goads”

The quicker we submit. . . the more enjoyable things will be.