Getting Our Conversation and Understanding About Sex right Part II

Yet surely the Bible has more to say than “thou shalt not” when it comes to matters of sex and sexuality!  Christian theology is not limited to the matter of redemption in Jesus Christ, which of course lies at the center of the saving message of the Gospel.  Christian theology also affirms God as Trinity: that is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  And out of that Trinitarian declaration Christian theology affirms the doctrine of creation, which in turn affirms that God made all of physical existence including our sexuality.  That we are sexual beings is NOT an accident.  Neither is it a mistake.  It was from God’s very intentional will that we were created bodily as male or female.  It is furthermore God’s intentional will that we experience sexual attraction for the opposite sex.  The Christian interpretation of the reality of our sexuality is not to decry it in embarrassment, any more than it is to “spend” our sexuality in violation of the will of our Creator.  Even though sex is not to be worshipped as though it is a god, it is to be received and celebrated under God as one of His very good gifts (and perhaps the most powerful of all). And as with every other powerful gift, sexuality calls for our careful understanding of the will of the one who made it a part of His design and gave it to us in the first place.

Biblical illiteracy (ignorance) is a rampant problem in our day.  Critics of the Bible will suggest that the Scriptures themselves view sexuality negatively.  But that is not true.  What the Bible actually does, to the contrary, is provide serious instruction in how to express this aspect of life in a constructive, as opposed to destructive, manner.