The question Chad addressed today was "Why is sex sacred?" He gave a few good answers that I really appreciated. One of the ideas that he touched on briefly was that we are not "just mammals" (quoting Eminem, I think) - that we don' t have to blindly follow our sexual impulses. I want to expand on that a little bit - because I think there is something profound there - about us and about our sexuality.
Sex has a spiritual and moral dimension that transcends mere biology. Morally, of course, sex outside of marriage breaks God's command - but there is a deeper reason why this is so. Those of us who follow Christ are identified as His bride more than a few times. We are the bride of Christ - and we await the arrival of the Bridegroom - when we will be eternally united with Him. We are all, men and women, collectively and individually, feminine with respect to Christ. One of the reasons sex is sacred is that it is a figure, a picture, for the eternal joining of Christ to His bride. This spiritual and moral dimension is integral to sex. God could have figured out some other way to propogate the race. Instead, He made us, men and women, in His image, to bring Him glory in every part of our lives - including our sexuality. That is why sex outside of a lifelong commitment is so out of place. It runs counter to what sex essentially is.
So, we can't have sex without strings ... because we are not just mammals, because sex is bound up with who we are spiritually and morally, who God is, and what His plan is for us.
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It is interesting in a church culture that is calling men to "embrace their manliness," that men are considered (with women) as the bride of Christ. What is manly about being a bride? I associate words more along the lines of cute, beautiful, and sweet when referring to a bride. I wonder what kind of masculinity fits with being a follower of Christ. Maybe it is something we need to re-think. I resonate with things like wild at heart, but then being a bride seem to go against this. Or is it a false dichotomy? Perhaps there is a space for wild at heart brides?
I think that it only seems like a disconnect. When we as men fail in imitating Christ, it is often because we are not sufficiently masculine (ala Wild at Heart). But this doesn't conflict with being the bride of Christ. It only seems so because we talk about the "war between the sexes", which was never God's intent. The sexes should compliment each other, not be in competition. It is not one over the other, but two different, complementary expressions of God's image.
Christ said that in heaven there will no longer be marriage or giving in marriage - because we will be, eternally, Christ's bride, and the relationship that we were ultimately made for will be what defines us. (Of course, it is what should define us now - but we sometimes forget this.)
How are male and female expressions of God's image? There has been much wrong done in the church because of Christians using God's masculinity as a reason for men to dominate women. Maybe not as common recently, but in the past there are examples of periods of time where women were oppressed by man. Many times the reasons that man used to justify their actions were related to their understanding of male and female in God's eyes. How long ago did women get the right to vote? We are not really that for removed from those times. How would our understanding of male and female being expressions of God's image have implications for how we treat the opposite sex?
Genesis 1 says that male and female are both God's image. Nowhere is there even the hint that males are more in God's image than females. Obviously, oppression of women (or anyone - since all are equally in God's image and derive their true value from being in God's image) is wrong and cannot be justified in any sense. If we all understood that our true value comes from being in God's image (not gender, wealth, position, fame, utility to society ...) we would not only treat each other better, but understand ourselves better.
What motivations are apporpriate for sex? Emotional love, physical attraction, child creation..?
Yes, Yes, and Yes - it is okay to want to have sex and to enjoy sex - as long as it is within the context of a lifelong marriage commitment between a man and a woman. Sex is good - it has been touched by the fall, as have all things, but it has not become a bad thing. But because it does have a spiritual and moral dimension, there can't be an anything goes approach to it.
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