Why did God create sexual relation? (part II)

Man’s fall in sin left its mark upon his sexuality. It seems that in this aspect of life humanity started to experience sin and its serious consequences that are manifested with the beginning of life on this earth. The sin has dulled man’s view about himself, about God and about sexual relation. Immediately after the fall in sin Adam and Eve’s “ eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”(Genesis 3:7) because their view about sexuality was badly affected and made them be ashamed even of each  other, being husband and wife. But in the beginning, as we have seen in the first article with the same title, God created the sexual relation exclusively for husband and wife, having these purposes: 1) multiplication 2) insurance and protection of the couple’s unity 3) to give love, affection and cherish to his/her marriage partner. These are at least two  more important reasons that need to be shown.

1.God created sexual relation so that men and women can receive love, affection and cherish in marriage equally

I want to draw your attention at the distinction between giving and receiving these things. God created every man and woman as a sexual being, having some sexual needs that are right before God to be fulfilled only in marriage. In his Book of Proverbs, when He talks about the way how a man should report to his wife, God says:

Drink water from your own cistern and fresh water from your own well. Should your springs be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth. As a loving hind and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; be exhilarated always with her love. (Proverbs 5:15–19)(NASB).

The wife’s sexuality is compared in this allegory with the system of water supply of Jews in biblical times. Because in Israel it wasn’t raining so often as in our country, people had to provide themselves with rain water, or they were doing a system of cisterns similar to that from Central Asia, called “arac”. The water came through it from the tank or from the spring to the men’s houses and it was deposited in a cistern dug in the ground. The water that came had to be collected and used proportionately, otherwise, the water was poured in the streets, as it is written in this passage. As this system was providing with water that had to be consumed, in the same way God created people sexual beings that produce sexual desires, that are given to the other and that wait to receive them reciprocally from the partner of the marriage covenant. If this love and sexual manifestation is not received, this fact exposes to danger the partner to commit “adultery”,  God’s Word means exaclty this when it says that if you “don’t drink water from your own cisterns and from your own well”, it is a great danger that “they may be dispersed abroad” and be for “the strangers with you”. But there is no excuse or justification for the partners that don’t receive sexual fulfillment in marriage to commit adultery. They will bear the consequenes on this earth and then they will bear consequences in eternity for their choices. In the same way all those who abuse emotionally their partner will bear the consequences , by refusing to offer fulfillment in the sexual relation. God’s will is that every man should be very passionate with his wife and every woman should be passionate of the sexual relation with her partner. “Rejoice” of your husband or wife. “be exhilarated always with her love!” It is God’s will for man to desire passionately and to receive love and cherish given in the sexual relation with the his/her wife/husband, that’s why it says:

Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. (1 Corinthians 7:5)(NASB)

2.God created sexual relation to reflect the realities about the Kingdom of God

I suppose that this statement surprised some and maybe you have never heard it. In Paul’s Epistle to Ephesians, God speaks about the way how Christians men and wives should report one to another in marriage and says:

Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her. (Ephesians 5:22–25)(NASB)

The relation man – wife is an image of the relation Christ – the Church, the term “Church” refers to the congregation of all believers from the whole world. Through the love, care and protection a man manifests to his wife, he reflects the character of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the same way, through obedience and reverence for her husband, a woman reflects the image of the true Church, of those who are really saved through faith in Christ and live according to the faith they testify. Following this passage, God says about us, the believers:

… because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:30–32)(NASB)

As I have stated in the previous article, the phrase “will be joined to his wife” refers to the physical contact. The Word of God says in this passage that this physical contact of husband and wife is a mystery that reflects the reality of Christ’s unity with His Church and the joy of the fulfillment given to the partners of their physical contact is a shadow of the true joy that the Christians will experience at the coming of Jesus Christ from heaven and then, when they will be in eternity, with Him, in the Kingdom of His Father.

Understanding the reasons that God had when creating the sexual relation, explains to us well why He is so angry with those who commit adultery, fornication and all other sexual perversions. They distort the image of God’s character. God created man for His glory, to be a reflection of His character and by the way people live their sexuality, they either reflect or harm this image. The message of God’s Word ends up with the book of Revelation and some of the last words let by Jesus Christ are these:

Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. ”I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. (Revelation 22:12–15)(NASB)

May God help each of us to live nicely before Him and before people, reflecting our Creator through our sexual behaviour.

Translated by Felicia Djugostran