Sex According to God

God means sex and our gender identity as men to be gloriously true, beautiful and good.  They are good gifts for us to enjoy and delight in but they are not ends in themselves.  Sex and gender are pointers to what is most valuable, satisfying or significant, namely God. If we make sexual intimacy and gender our ultimate value and pursuit, then we’ve made them idols. In1 John 5:21 God warns us “keep yourselves from idols.”

On the soundtrack in the movie Urban Cowboy there was a song called ‘Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places”. It became a number one country hit in 1980 and has been covered many times. Looking for intimacy is not wrong. God has made us for intimacy but in the right places and the right ways. God is to be our first love above all suitors.

Below Justin Taylor in Sex and the Supremacy of Christ  captures some of what God says about sex:

Sex is created by God (“by him all things were created”—Col. 1:16).

Sex continues to exist by the will of Christ (“in him all things hold together”—Col. 1:17).

Sex is caused by God (he “works all things according to the counsel of his will”—Eph. 1:11).

Sex is subject to Christ (“he put all things under his feet”—Eph. 1:22).

Sex is being made new by Christ (“Behold, I am making all things new”—Rev. 21:5).

Sex is good (“everything created by God is good”—1 Tim. 4:4).

Sex is lawful in the context of marriage (“all things are lawful”—1 Cor. 10:23).

Sex is to be done for the glory of God (“whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”—1 Cor. 10:31).

Sex works together for the good of God’s children (“for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose”—Rom. 8:28).

Sex is a cause for thanksgiving (“nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving”—1 Tim. 4:4).

Sex is to be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer (“everything . . . is made holy by the word of God and prayer”—1 Tim. 4:4-5).

Sex can be enslaving and its entrapment must be resisted (“I will not be enslaved by anything”—1 Cor. 6:12).

Sex should not be an occasion for grumbling (“do all things without grumbling”—Phil. 2:14)

Sex should be an occasion for rejoicing in the Lord (“rejoice in the Lord always”—Phil. 4:4).

Sex should be an occasion of contentment in the Lord (“having all contentment in all things at all times”—2 Cor. 9:8 mg.).

Sex should be engaged in with holiness and honor (“each one of you [is to] know how to control his own body [KJV: “possess his vessel”; RSV: “take a wife for himself”] in holiness and honor”—1 Thess. 4:4).

Sex should usually not be withheld from one’s spouse (do not “deprive one another [sexually], except perhaps by agreement for a limited time,” that they might devote themselves to prayer—1 Cor. 7:5. But then they are commanded to “come together again [sexually], so that Satan may not tempt [them] because of [their] lack of self-control”—1 Cor. 7:5).

Sex can be both pure and impure in this fallen world (“To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled”—Titus 1:15).

JUSTIN TAYLOR is vice president of book publishing and an associate publisher at Crossway. He has edited and contributed to several books, including A God-Entranced Vision of All Things and Reclaiming the Center. He blogs at "Between Two Worlds," hosted by the Gospel Coalition, and runs the website www.johnowen.org.