Sacred Sexuality

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.