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– BOTH BIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL –
The primary purpose of sex in God's design of humanity is bonding.
It is beautiful therefore that from this procreation should naturally come.
no field of human experience is more affected/damaged in humanity's spiritual and cultural history than our experience of sex.
What was designed by God as a blessing to strengthen human relationships has often been a tool of subservience and exploitation of others; yet even in societies where those perversions have been cast off, sex is often debased to an entertainment level with permanently damaging consequences for those involved.
| 1. CREATED UNIQUE |
Genetically, sexual reproduction is designed to produce variety. Most plants reproduce asexually, and so one can expect the offspring to simply continue the traits of the parent material. Sexual reproduction in contrast has a built-in process designed to produce variation in the offspring based on the parental material. This designed variety has implications concerning the attitude of the Creator.
Inasmuch as God knew/recognised those as His own, before the beginning of the beginning, who would respond to Him and find mercy in Jesus Christ, they, each one of them, are absolutely unique by physical as well as spiritual design. Not one of them is replaceable in God's purpose.
It means that if an individual Christian does not fulfil God's purpose for his/her existence, the Lord will use someone else to do what needs to be done – but it will never be done as it would have been done if that person had lived in obedience Him. Human beings are not designed to be interchangeable. Each one is unique.
| 2. DESIGNED TO BOND |
When the Bible says in describing human origins that a man and a woman become together "one flesh" ('echad bazar' – אחד בּשׂר), it is describing their personal sexual relationship.
will object, for their own reasons, that 'one flesh' cannot be limited to a sexual relationship, for marriage means much more than that. The objection sounds reasonable but does not stand up to the Bible's perspective.
For, as it is written [Gen.2:24], 'The two will become one flesh'."
a sexual relationship, which is only temporary and purely commercially based as far as the prostitute is concerned, is nevertheless described as 'one flesh' according to the Genesis definition of marriage using the same terms. Why?
Because the act of sexual union/intercourse has awesome implications and effects. It was designed by God as a bonding mechanism: making two into one. The rest of the Bible's teaching of the above verse is that, in analogous parallel, every Christian is 'one spirit' with Christ. The two are still two, but they are 'one' in a unique and new way.
| *The male gender terminology expresses leadership not gender, as with angels who have no gender as Christ expressly taught. |
This designed character of our 'one flesh' unity is presented in Holy Scripture using exactly the same term as is used for the unity of God Himself* – 'echad':
is beautiful, for it means that the oneness of God is not a singularity but a unity such as is represented in the perfect union of a husband and wife. And when the Bible explains the nature of this unity it says –
Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does."
is, there is complete equality in which each owns the other. Awesome!
The bonding of the two into one is not a contract or a vow, as meaningful as these may be. It is greater.
It is a mutual physical act of giving themselves each to the other. It is not lending, but giving. The act is irreversible. To break that bond is to lose a part of oneself. And each time that happens, each party is less than before; hence a prostitute is a seriously damaged person and needs our compassion.
The need for this bond is built into our human psyche from birth. Genesis Two makes it clear that this is a design feature and not an optional extra. The new-born infant experiences the need to feel part of something beyond itself. The physical embrace of its mother is fundamental to its sense of well-being. At an unconscious level sexual orgasm gives a profound sense of this unconditional acceptance – of personal bonding.
ultimate fulfillment of this need, is an intense and direct personal awareness of our total acceptance by God in Jesus Christ! This is transcendentally more than theology. It is the reason for the Holy Spirit being given at Pentecost, that we might know the nature of our acceptance, our oneness with God, in Jesus Christ.
The unconscious hunger of the human heart for this level of unconditional acceptance beyond itself is often exploited by the enemy of our souls to find substitutes which subvert our Christian identity, whether it be in drug addiction or sexual fantasy.
for those to whom God has given the gift of celibacy, as the Apostle Paul, he writes that toward God he is ἐξίστημι (beside himself) in oblique reference to his ecstasy in intense personal worship, fulfilling this profound sense of belonging beyond himself.
Note: 1 Cor.14:18.
At the very basic level, as the Lord designed – so sex functions; and he or she who acts otherwise causes damage to themselves at a depth of which the years will show the sad fruit.
Sex is sacred, beautiful, designed to develop and bless us beyond our individuality. Be blessed therefore!
