Over the last few days, I’ve been posting a three-part series on the Sex-Positive Movement, a trending and powerfully dangerous influence on all our kids. Today, Part 3, an overview of God’s grand and glorious design for sexuality and gender.
So, what does the Bible teach about sexuality, sex, gender, and marriage? Because of all the cultural confusion regarding these realities, we have endeavored to summarize what it means to live out sex and gender within God’s life-giving borders and boundaries. We believe these have been given to humankind by God as an expression of His love for creation in order to protect us from harm and to provide for our well-being.
As you ponder God’s design for sex and gender, never forget this truth: whoever speaks first to our kids about sex and gender will set the bar for truth and “own” the conversation. And with the culture speaking 24/7 to even the youngest of our kids, our responsibility to know and speak the truth is clear. What should our guiding principles be? What can we teach so that we can own and shape the sex and gender conversation with the kids we know and love with a balance of truth and grace?
We must be committed to following the way and will of God as contained in the Bible, which is the Word of God revealed and written as God’s authoritative rule for all matters of faith and practice. Our calling is to do ministry, to parent, and to live lives that are firmly rooted in biblical truth.
We must recognize that God’s order and design for human sexuality, gender, and marriage is clearly stated in the Creation narrative (Genesis 1 and 2), reflected in the teachings of Jesus Christ himself, and is maintained consistently throughout Scripture. Christian identity is rooted in Jesus Christ and not in one’s sexuality.
God, in His goodness and grace, creates human beings in His image, either male or female, which are distinct, complementary genders. Therefore, rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person, which undermines one’s humanity and diminishes one’s flourishing.
We must understand that God has established marriage to be a covenantal, lifelong, monogamous, one flesh, heterosexual union between one man and one woman. And, that God has given humanity the good and beautiful gift of sex to be indulged and experienced only within the context of marriage between one man and one woman, for the purposes of consummating the marital relationship, fostering mutual intimacy, enabling mutual pleasure, and facilitating procreation.
We must never fail to recognize that due to sin and brokenness in the world, all humanity struggles personally with sexual brokenness and is tempted to wander from God’s will and way sexually. . . every single one of us. With Scripture, we must believe that any form of sexual immorality (including but not limited to adultery, fornication, LGBTQ+ behavior, bestiality, incest, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, sexting, sex trafficking, objectification, and the use of pornography) is sinful and offensive to God, and harmful to one’s self and others.
We must recognize that our experience of sex and gender is not always that which God the Creator originally designed. All humans live with broken and misplaced desires as they relate to sex and gender. Yet, we are to endeavor to glorify God and experience the fullness of our humanity by living out biblical faithfulness in all areas of life, including sex and gender.
And, we must recognize that God in His grace offers redemption and restoration to all those who confess and turn from their sexual sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. We recognize that living the life of Christian discipleship in this still-sin-marred now-but-not-yet-fully-realized Kingdom of God is always difficult, requires sacrifice, and involves some level of continued struggle for all, as all disciples expectantly await that final full rescue and restoration from whatever unique forms of sexual brokenness they experience.
Don’t believe the sex-positive movement hype. It is God, the Creator of sex, who is truly sex-positive! And when we live into God’s design, we experience the freedom and flourishing for which we were made. As Os Guinness has said, “Freedom is not the permission to do what we like but the power to do what we should. . . The idea that freedom means we can do what we like, so long as we do not hurt anyone else, is a dangerous modern lie.”[i]
To download a FREE pdf copy of this entire three-part series, click here.
To learn more about biblical sexuality and to access resources for talking about sex and gender with your kids, visit CPYU’s Sexual Integrity Initiative at sexualintegrityinitiative.com
[i] Os Guinness, A Free People’s Suicide, p. 152-3.