What Does God have to do with Sex?

February 14, 2013 The University of Toronto

By Dan MacDonald (BA, JD, MDiv), Pastor of Grace Toronto Church www.gracetoronto.ca
It is a pleasure to be here today to talk about God and sex. It is a bit ironic, isnt it- God and sex in the same sentence? Most people in our culture love sex, which is right and good - and yet most people in our culture seem to think God hates sex - which is simply wrong. I heard about the now- infamous OASIS event a little while back, known commonly as the orgy at U of T. We had one of our church staff join some Christian students in handing out coffee and hot chocolate at the event. I also heard that someone was there with a microphone screaming hate and judgment. Both events made me sad. They made me sad because, I think, both the Oasis event and the man with the microphone are distortions of reality that are defacing and diminishing. The Oasis event made me sad because it was not just a cheapening of sex, but a diminishing distortion of who we are as humans. The man with the microphone made me sad because he represented such a reductionistic, simplistic diminishing of the true character of God. Because that man communicated - though I am pretty sure he did not mean to, that man communicated that God hates sex. And in fact the opposite is true. God loves sex. God loves sex so much that He exalted sex to a much higher place than most of us realize, just as He exalted us to a higher place than we realize. And it is these two ideas I want to pursue this afternoon - because you cannot separate them. The rst thing I want to say to you is this: it is really hard to say something without thinking about everything. In other words, you

cannot just make a decision about how you view sex without deciding what you think about a whole range of things. For example, let us examine what our culture, generally believes about sex. The primary view is that sex is a bodily function, a pleasure, and like all bodily functions that are pleasurable, we should do it as often as we can. Sex is like chocolate have as much as you can. But this view of sex actually arises out of something bigger. It arises out of what we think of reality, and life, and who we are. This view of sex does not arise in a vacuum. It arises, clearly, out of our present belief that we are simply mammals, biological accidents of time and mutation, with no particular purpose for living. Because that is who we are, and because life has no inherent meaning outside of what meaning we give to it, and no pleasures outside of what we squeeze out of life, then sex, which is highly pleasurable, is simply one of those things to be squeezed out of life. Our particular view of sex arises out of our general view of reality, and of who we are. But of course we dont actually, consistently, live that way. We claim there is no purpose - but if there is no purpose, there is no justice so why do we cry out for justice all the time? Why do we applaud progress in civil liberties and rights and justice - if justice simply doesnt exist? We live lives like Christopher Hitchens did.
Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selsh. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity

This is how we live. We live partly as if we are just random collection of atoms - and partly as if we have some kind of extraordinary dignity as people. Somewhere deep down, we think we were made from something great, and grand, and beautiful. And I want to tell you this - our deepest instincts are on to something. So here is how I would like to proceed. I would like to begin by probing this larger question of WHO WE ARE. And then I would like to probe the specic question of HOW SEX FITS INTO THIS ISSUE OF WHO WE ARE.

Because WHO WE ARE - in technical terms, ontology - precedes and determines what we should do - ethics- in life. Our view of sex is rooted in our view of us. And here, I think, we will nd the Christian attitude to sex surprisingly nuanced, and surprisingly beautiful. And may I say, surprisingly compelling.

So let us dive in. Firstly - WHO WE ARE - An elevated identity Most of us who live in and study in Toronto believe that human beings are accidental mutations, a random collection of atoms that, through the combination of time, and the selective process of adaptation, and random mutation, have become a chemically complex, intellectually rational, morally and ethically aware mammal. As Richard Dawkins put it in The God Delusion, we might have moral and ethical inclinations, but these things are accidents; blessed, happy accidents. We have animal makeups, animal urges and pleasures that we need an outlet for. We evolved a strong impulse for sex, and we should therefore go with the ow of how we came to be. Christianity, on the other hand, paints a much more elevated picture of who we are as humans. In the opening chapter of the whole Bible, the chapter wherein God is pictured as a workman, creating the world, God nishes His creative work with one crowning achievement. 26 Then God said, Let us make humanity in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the ;ish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.27 So God created humanity in his own image, in the image of God he created us; male and female he created them. Now the intriguing thing about this passage is that it literally says that humanity was made in the image of God. We were made with immense dignity and purpose. We were made to be able to think thoughts like God does; to be able to make moral decisions of incredible consequence; to perceive the actual difference between good and evil. And to live forever in a perfect world. We were made to imitate God, to manifest Gods character, to literally be the reection of God to the physical world we inhabit. What an incredible privilege! I know a man who was asked by the President of the United States to be an ambassador to another country. It is the crowning privilege of his life!! 3

That is a pale comparison to the dignity, and beauty, and privilege, that God bestowed on us. We were made to live beautiful lives of love and grace and dignity. That is who we are. Peter, one of Jesus closest friends followers and early leaders of the church, put it this way: we were made to partake of the divine nature. And this exalted identity, this manifestly beautiful dignity of being, affects everything about us. It affects our self- awareness, it affects our sense of the moral consequences of our decisions. It changes our view of everything. And this identity completely changes our view of sex. For the Christian, sex is not meant to be just a pleasurable encounter between two random collection of atoms who are attracted to each other. Sex is a sacred act between two people, made in the image of God, and charged with the privilege and responsibility of imitating and manifesting His beauty and glory and love to the world. We imitate God, we enjoy His love and grace, we re-enact our covenant love to each other, when we have sex. In light of this single, stunning picture, three purposes begin to unfold themselves as central to the Christian understanding of sex.

- First, sex is for our delight as image-bearers of God - Second, sex is for our unity as image-bearers of God 1. Sex is for our Delight Everyone agrees that sex is delightful. Or, it should be. Bad sex, we all know, is not the way it is supposed to be. But sex is a relational delight, something shared sex with yourself is just weird to the biblical understanding. Sex is one of the great pleasures and treasures of human existence. It was made to be shared. When we look at the physiognomy of men and women we see that we were made to do it together. The plumbing works, the parts t each other. But sex as delight, sex as joyful appreciation of the wonder of creation, points humans to our status as divine image- bearers.. Christianity understands that God, being a relational being, is in himself a 4

relationally perfect combination of unity and diversity. There are three people in the Godhead, who have eternally delighted in and enjoyed each other in innite, almost ecstatic mutual adoration and love. There is no human love that can transcend our human limitations and really approximate this mutual pouring out of love. Sex is the closest thing we have to this mutual self-giving, others-loving, intimate pouring out of our love and adoration upon one another that exists in the Trinity. C.S> Lewis, author of the famous childrens series The Chronicles of Narnia, was also a fairly prominent professor of medieval literature at both Oxford and Cambridge and a fairly prominent atheist who converted to Christianity while a professor. He has this to say about the Trinity: In Christianity God is not a static thing - not even (just one) person - but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life - almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way around) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance. There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made.

And so sex, unlike the modern understanding of mere bodily pleasure, is bodily pleasure for a purpose - the purpose of imaging God, of imitating His divine self-giving love and joy to another. There is a second way that Sex as delight images God. God, in His creation of the universe, was said to delight in what He had created, for He had created a beautiful world. The rst chapter of Genesis keep repeating the phrase, and it was good. At the end of his creation work, God is said to look and behold, it was all very good. Gods delight in His beautiful world, his enjoyment of it, is imitated and manifested by us when we delight in His world. In an Old Testament book, the Song of Solomon, a poem written by a young woman in love with a young man, we read these words:
Chapter 4: 3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.

4 Your neck is like the tower of David, built in rows of stone; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. 5 Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that graze among the lilies. She responds: chapter 5 Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits. 10 My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand. 11 His head is the finest gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven. 12 His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a full pool. 13 His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh. 14 His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. His body is polished ivory, bedecked with sapphires. 15 His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars. 16 His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

Sex is for our delight. Sex is delightful, and when we delight in sex, as a self-giving, others-loving pouring out of ourselves, we image God in Himself as trinity, and in His work as our creator. So rstly, sex is for our delight. Secondly, sex is for the purpose of unity. 2. Sex is for our unity In Christian thinking, sex is the supreme act of unity that denes the marriage relationship. In fact, in the Old Testament, the marriage ceremony was almost non-existent the ceremony was the act of making love to your spouse. That act sealed the marriage bond. 6

This raises a question; why is sex restricted to marriage? So let me tell you. Marriage, according to the gospel, is a reection, a re-enacting, a human imaging, of a covenant love relationship that God has initiated with humanity. The apostle Paul wrote a letter to a church in the ancient Roman empire, in a city called Ephesus, He was a former jewish rabbi who converted to Christianity because he physically saw and met Jesus after his death, risen and breathing, and the evidence of his resurrection convinced the rabbi to repudiate his own beliefs and embrace Christianity. In meeting jesus, Paul learned about the essence of the gospel. And marriage is part of that. This is how Paul describes marriage, and see how he ties it into this idea of image bearers imitating God:
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

In this little paragraph, Paul explodes our understanding of marriage. It is not just a relationship between two people who love each other. It is a sacred covenant commitment that images the covenant commitment God made to humanity by sending his son. What is that commitment? It is this. God made humans, as we said, in divine image. But we rebelled; we took the power, the abilities, the moral freedom he gave us as his image bearers, and we decided that we would run our own lives, thank you very much. We broke covenant with God. We, in the terminology of the Bible we missed the mark, missed the blueprint the Greek word for missing the intended mark or goal is sin. We sinned. We went our own way. We decided to control our lives. And in that independence, in that sin, we broke covenant with God and incurred his divine displeasure. His children were now simply walking away from the beautiful life he had made for them. And we walked into a world of our making; where everyone now wants not only to live independent of God, but take that another step- independent of anyone else.

The wealthier we are, the more independent we are, the more selective we get. This drive for independence turns into cocooning, but much worse competition, oppression of the weak, violence to get our own way, and thus this I want to be god of my own life pits human against human, since we have competing interests. And the world as we know it, the world of competition rather than cooperation, is born and the breakdown of social dynamics is woven into our world. Sin breaks our fellowship with God, and this selsh drive to impose our agenda on every aspect of our lives alienates us form each other. We become selsh, grasping, competitive, indifferent people. We are morally guilty- the Bible calls it spiritual death, separation from God, and we are morally corrupted. But then Jesus enters the picture. He comes to deliver us from our alienation rst from God, then eventually from each other, and then from the created order of nature. And He comes and he delivers not by conquering, but by dying. So let us see again how Paul describes him here. Jesus, Paul says, is like a bridegroom sent to rescue a bride and humanity is the bride. We need an intervention because we are addicted to our selshness and the ruin it is wreaking on us and our planet. And so this groom comes to us and shows His love for us, the love of God. Most grooms demonstrate their love by getting down on one knee and offering up a precious ring, that demonstrates the depth of their love and commitment. Jesus did not get down on a knee; he got nailed to a cross. He offered no ring; He offered his life as the demonstration of his commitment of love to us and His life was accepted by God as an adequate price to pay for the sin and brokenness of the world. Jesus took the penalty we should have paid, and he paid it to God, so that we might be embraced by God. That is the level of covenant commitment God shows humanity. He will do whatever it takes, He will pay whatever cost necessary to bring humans back into an everlasting, eternal relationship of intimacy and love even the cost of sacricing his own son. The Cross, as it were, was Jesus wedding vow; it was the acceptable act that sealed the marriage between God and humanity.

But marriages need to be sustained to grow. And so God asked that Christians regularly practice something called the Lords table, eating bread and wine, to remind themselves of Gods love for them, and to renew their covenant love back to God. Now, back to sex. The marriage ceremony is where we image God by making a once for all, denitive act of covenant commitment to each other. As we image Gods everlasting commitment to us, so marriage is an unbreakable commitment until death do us part. But we need to renew our love, our marital vows. So sex is what God gave us to renew our mutual commitment of everlasting love and care for each other. Sex, in Christian thinking, is a covenant renewal ceremony between two people who have covenanted to love each other for as long as they both shall live. Sex is a sacramental act, a sacred communion that images the selfgiving love of God to us in the sending of his son. Sex is not a vehicle for personal pleasure, but for personal commitment and love it is not for getting, but for giving, love and pleasure. Sex is an expression of delight in God, in Gods provision of a life partner, in Gods provision of His Son as an everlasting, never-ending Groom for humanity. Let me wrap this up with a few observations and comparisons. 1.We tend to think of sex like chocolate - it is good, and the more the better. God thinks of sex like the Mona Lisa- a masterpiece to be treasured. We put our greatest masterpieces of art in carefully controlled climates, in museums, where they can be preserved in their beauty, and enjoyed in their full majesty. God took the greatest sensual pleasure He made, and He said - I magnify it, I reserve it for the relationships of highest covenant love, for beings who are made in my exalted, divine image. Restricting access to something good doesnt mean you hate it; sometimes it means you treasure it. In the gospel, God says - I treasure sex, as I treasure you. I exalt both of you by my creation and purpose of it. 2.You may not agree with this Christian view of sex - but it is probably because you disagree with the Christian view of you. Here is my question and challenge: a.Doubt your doubts.

b.Wouldnt you want it to be true? What if it were true? c. 2000 years ago, a man walked the earth who said it was true. And then He died on a cross. And then, history shows - He rose again. He literally, truly, physically rose form the dead. It is a fact of history. It is a fact that, if true, utterly repudiates the idea that we are random accidents of an impersonal combination of time and mutation, without purpose or meaning, adrift in a cosmic soup. If Jesus really rose from the dead, and he did, then you really are who He says you are - a divinely designed, image of God creation created for immortality, for innite joy and beauty, for innite love and pleasure. The good news - the nal good news of Christianity is this - there is a pleasure awaiting us that is so much better than sex, that sex was given as a signpost to it - that there is a pleasure available to humans that dwarfs sex, as the CN tower dwarfs an ant. There is a joyful, intimate relationship with the God of all joy that is so intimate, so pleasurable, that nothing compares to it. Sex is good; sex is great; God is greater still. And he is waiting for us with open arms. Let us think about that.

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