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There are spread the opinions between many people that sexual attraction and the sexual act by itself is not from God, but it is a consequence of the fall of the man and in this way, man’s sexuality is sinful by itself and the physical contact is only for the man’s reproduction. Because it is an ample subject, I will divide my article into two parts that will be published separately. So, the basic question we want to see the answer from the Bible is “Why did God create sex?”
1. God created sexual relation for reproduction.
This is the well known and acknowledged reason by all people. When God created the first man and the first woman, He said: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”(Genesis 1:28)(NASB) The commandment “be fruitful” implies the physical contact, without which a child can not be conceived. One of the wrong opinions spread among people, how I said in the introduction, is that sexual relation is the result of the man’s fall in sin. I draw your attention that the cited passage is written in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, but the fall of the man happened only in chapter 3 of Genesis and in this way, sex is not a result of man’s fall in sin, but it is created by God, who made man, male and female. Nevertheless it is true about the fall of the man, that it has reflected a lot upon the manifestation of his sexuality. If this would be the only purpose for what God created the sexual relation, then men would have the right to have sexual relation only for reproducion and any other physical contact between husbands and wives would be qualified as sin. Unfortunately, there are people that believe this because of the lack of knowledge of God’s Word or because of their limited knowldege.
2.God created sexual relation to assure the unity between husband and wife and strengthen this unity.
After God had created the woman and brought her to man, he, Adam, said: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:23)(NASB). In the next verse, God comes with a very important conclusion that determines how the relations between husband and wife will be and says: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)(NASB). The phrase “be joined” referes firstly to the physical relation: and this relation will strengthen the unity between husband and wife, that has to be superior to any other relation, including the relation that everyone has with his parents. For this reason, God says in the Epistle of Paul that sexual relation is a duty that the spouse has and here is how this duty has to be fulfilled: “But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 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 7:2–5)(NASB). Sexual relation concretes and maintains unity between husband and wife and God doesn’t allow anyone to use this relation to manipulate the partner, but everyone has to understand that it is a holy duty for the married man and woman to offer and to have a beautiful sexual relation with the partner with whom s/ he entered in the covenant of marriage. It is not a secret for anyone and in the most cases, the reason of divorce is that one or both partners don’t realize and accomplish their duty of a spouse, even if before the court, they say other reasons.
3. Sexual relation is for offering joy and fulfillment to the partner of the covenant of marriage.
In the book of Deuteronomy, God gave this rule regarding marriage:“ When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army nor be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home one year and shall give happiness to his wife whom he has taken.” (Deuteronomy 24:5)(NASB) The first year of marriage is the year when the foundation of the relation between husband and wife are established, the foundation of that unity that God wants them to have for the rest of their life. And because family’s unity is the foundation for the welfare and safe of every person and of the whole nation, God requires the family to be protected and to be given priority. Do you realize, even if it was the war time, when the country was in danger, God was requiring this law to be respected and the newly married man not to go to fight. It is very important what is God’s reason when He says that a newly married man must not go to fight – to “give happiness to his wife whom he has taken”. The physical contact is that holy aspect of the marriage where partners can offer joy and fulfillment with passion to each other, this is God’s plan for the physical contact in marriage.
These three reasons, for what God created the physical contact, make us understand well why God is so absolute when He says:“Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”(Hebrews 13:4)(NASB) The word “fornicator” is the biblical term used for every sexual relation between two persons that are not bound through the covenant of marriage, and “adultery” is any other sexual relation between two persons where at least one is involved in a covenant of marriage. There are at least two more reasons why God created sexual relation and I will present them in the article that will follow under the same title.
Translated by Felicia Djugostran