New Creation in Christ is blessed to have a good number of marriages that reflect the devotion and loving commitment that God delights in and that testify to younger generations how good is this divinely-ordained union. The assault on this godly institution is relentless. New television programming and advertising as well as Valentine’s Day promotions depict as normal the expression of our sexuality apart from a committed marital union. With this in mind let’s consider the words of Glenn Stanton in his article “What’s Good About Sex?”
… the Bible calls God the Creator. He invented sex; it was His idea. And let’s not forget that after He finished His work, He called the whole creation “good.” Dazzled by His handiwork, Christianity espouses a higher view of sex than any other religion. That’s why it also has the strictest rules about it. Anything so important has to be handled carefully.
So what’s good about sex? Sex serves not just one great good but three. However, they need marriage to come into their own.
First among the goods of conjugal sex is procreation. God told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply.” This was part of their dominion of the earth.
Second is union. When Adam was lonely, God didn’t give him a man, an animal, or a crowd of people, but a woman—different than he, yet made with him in God’s image. When Adam first gazed upon his new companion, he was so astonished that he cried, “This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.”
The third good of conjugal sex becomes real only when the spouses are united to Christ, for that is when they become a living emblem of His sacrificial love for the Church and the Church’s adoring response. Paul is so awed that he calls matrimony one of God’s secrets. “This mystery is a profound one,” he says, “and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church.”
These three goods are the point of sex. They are what sex is for.
What about pleasure? I hear you ask. Has Christianity got something against that? No, pleasure is great. God is for it. But by His design, pleasure is a byproduct—an outgrowth of other things that are more important.
If you pursue pleasure for its own sake, two things happen. First, it disappears. Philosophers call this the “hedonistic paradox.” Second, it steers you wrong, because pleasure can result from doing wrong as well as doing right.
Kudos to those who honor God this Valentine’s Day and every day!