Implications of Image, Part II
Introduction
I went through a phase in high school where I listened to Josh Turner’s song What it Ain’t all the time. The hook in that song goes like this: “It ain’t bold faced lies or alibis that cannot be explained - I might not know what love it, but I know what it ain’t.” The poor hapless protagonist of the song had gone through a whole lot of relationships that sure weren’t love. He isn’t sure what love is, but he’s got a firm handle on what it ain’t.
Many people today would - if they were honest - have to confess that their ideas of love, marriage, and sexuality are just as confused as those of the man in that song. What is marriage? Our society isn’t sure. Is there a purpose and a meaning behind marriage? What is this thing?
But we know what it ain’t. And by “know”, I actually mean we all have our own ideas about what it ain’t. How many people can be involved in a marriage? Does it have to be two? Or can it be three, five, ten, or more? Does marriage really need to be restricted to humans? If marriage is mainly about love and companionship, some people feel more connected to animals - or maybe, soon, artificial intelligences - than they do with humans. Maybe we should be able to marry pets or robots. And why are there restrictions about age in marriage? What about the rules around marrying relatives, those don’t make sense in the modern world, do they?
Some of those hypotheticals just made you say, “yuck.” And “yuck” is a useful feeling. It prevents you from doing those things which are repulsive to you. So, as long as your “yuck” feelings match up with right and wrong, that’s okay. But what about those generations whose “yuck” factor has been completely skewed? What about those areas of your life where what you consider to be repulsive is actually in contradiction with what God’s word says is repulsive? Do we simply accept the fact that sensitivities change, and since the times they are a-changin’, our attitudes ought to as well? Does the fact that biblical principles around marriage and sexuality strike modern ears as offensive mean that we ought to pitch those values out the window?
No. We do need to acknowledge where our cultures values and confusions lie. We need to have eyes in our head. But we needn’t simply accept what everyone else swallows as normal. Because we have the book. We have what God says. His word has the answers. So if we will be diligent enough to listen and study, and humble enough to obey, we can rise above what the world accepts as normal and normative.
This series, remember, is called “Implications of Image.” Last week we talked about the two most basic implications of God making us in his image: one, your life is immeasurably valuable. And two, your life does not ultimately belong to you. So as we come to the topics of marriage sexuality we need to start with this realization: God, the maker and designer of humanity, by making us in his image, has designed marriage and sexuality for specific purposes which, if we submit to and embrace those purposes and patterns, will lead to human flourishing.
I want to emphasize that last sentence. Pursuing God’s pattern isn’t the white-knuckled conformity to a pattern we hate and don’t understand. We need to understand and embrace the pattern, with the faithful belief that God will do good in and through our obedience to his design and instructions. He is a good God, not a cruel dictator. So as I say things that may be hard to hear, or contrary to what everyone else in your orbit says, do this: weigh it against the word, and then joyfully submit to God in faith that he loves you more than the world loves you.
Marriage is the Pattern
When it comes to the ordering of human life together, the basis of society, the most basic unit is the family. Remember our North Star text for this series, Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
And that statement doesn’t just hang out there in space, it is followed immediately by a commission in verse 28:
‘And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”’
When we looked specifically at that text I spent a good portion of the sermon talking about what it means for humanity to have dominion - we are to rule over the earth as God’s representatives. The garden of Eden was the first temple, and Adam and Eve, the image bearers of God, were to represent him in that temple. But then their commission was to extend the borders of that temple to the end of the earth - to both multiply and fill the earth.
But, to make an obvious point, the man could not do this alone. And so in chapter two when we get a more detailed look at the sixth day of creation, we see that the man was made first and given dominion - and also brought to a point where he realized the lack of any helper suitable for him. He was not able to fulfill God’s commands alone. But in creation there was no other creature suitable to help him. And so God put him to sleep, took a rib from his side, and fashioned the woman.
She was unique in that she was like Adam - made in God’s image, equal to him in value, worth, and dignity - and yet she was unlike him, fashioned for a unique role. “The basic pattern set in place by Genesis two is this: the man has a fundamentally outward focus, toward the mission God has given him [the cultivating and keeping of the garden and world]. The woman has a particularly relational focus, toward those persons God has called her to help [especially her husband, and then, children]. These two dynamics are not mutually exclusive - the man’s role as keeper is going to require the wisdom of his wife and will require him having enough focus on the relationship to make sure that she is kept and cared for. And the woman will need to understand that the relationships she is focused on need to be strong in order that the mission God has given to humanity, and to her family, can be accomplished… [all this to say] The Image of God and purpose of man cannot be fully expressed and accomplished in just one sex. God designed the complementarity of man and woman, and the marriage covenant, to express something about himself that could not be seen or experienced alone.”
Paul develops the relationship this has to the gospel in Ephesians 5, which we’ll look at later.
But we should note that what this means for the institution of marriage is that its primary purpose, in Genesis and throughout the Bible, is the bearing and raising of children. Marriage was meant, in the words of God, to be fruitful. Husband and wife were to multiply.
And this gives marriage its shape: one man, and one woman, in lifelong covenant together. It must be heterosexual for the obvious physical reasons. And it is intended to be one man and one woman for reasons which become obvious as soon as that pattern is deviated from: the introduction of others leads to jealousy, hatred, and divisions within the family. The raising of godly offspring does need the input of more than two, but the bedrock framework which God designed for the raising of such offspring is a home structured by the covenant of marriage. This is what God says in Malachi 2:15, “Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.”
It’s important to note here that monogamous heterosexual marriage bears witness to this, even when the couple is childless, or has their children by adoption, or gets married beyond the age of childbearing. The having of children is not the only purpose of marriage; companionship is an important part, as is what Hebrews 13 calls the “honorable” marriage bed. But the purpose of childbearing fruitfulness remains foundational. And every one man one woman marriage points to this reality, by its very shape. The shape testifies to the design.
And this understanding of Adam and Eve’s union provides our foundation not only for all following human behavior, but for our understanding of the gospel itself. In Ephesians 5:31, Paul quotes Genesis 2:24.
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. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Here, in his marriage instructions for the church in Ephesus, Paul reaches back to the beginning. But then he takes an unexpected turn in verse 32, when he says that the profound mystery of the man-woman union in marriage is not ultimately about the man and the woman. It’s about the gospel. When we come to Christ, we are brought into the covenant body of his church. And the church is taking part in a divine drama, with the role of: the wife. The church, corporately, is to submit to the Lordship of Christ. Jesus’ role, we learn earlier in Ephesians 5, was to sacrificially love - to the point of death - his bride, laying his life down for hers. He leads her, first of all by gladly assuming responsibility for her sins.
What is Sexual Sin?
So, if that’s the pattern of marriage - and in Scripture, such marriage is the only legitimate context for any sexual activity - how should we understand straying from that standard? How should we view sexual sin? Fundamentally, a denial of the gospel.
Further, because it is a denial of the gospel, blasphemous. This is part of what makes sexual sin different from other sins. Some sins are things we do based on lies about God (Eve took the fruit, believing the lie that God was holding out and that she could find happiness apart from him). Sexual sins are lies about God (viewing pornography, for example, tells the lie that there is pleasure apart from commitment and sacrifice. But Christ, in taking a bride for himself, went to the cross and took her sin, punishment, and shame in his own body.)
Paul specifically tells us that sexual sins are different than other sins: 1 Corinthians 6:18 says, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
Against his own body - what does that mean? Certainly, this could include the potential harm to your body through disease or sickness. But there are other sins which carry risks in terms of being perilous to your health. Sexual sin, however, violates the very purpose and ordering of your body. Your body is designed for certain purposes, and when you pervert that by going outside God’s boundaries for satisfaction, you sin against your body. You are, in a real sense, violating yourself.
We are, Lord willing, going to talk more in coming weeks about the natural limits of our bodies, and the authority God intends our physical bodies to have over us. But some things about how we are supposed to operate really are pretty clear. The procreative orientation of sexuality is part of that.
Homosexuality in Particular
We’ll pick up on that thread in regards to procreation - technologies around having babies, the limits of the body, birth control, abortion - in a future sermon. But I want to turn with the rest of our time to consider another current issue: homosexuality. Is homosexuality a sin? Yes, as we’ll shortly see. But is it different from other sexual sins? Yes and no.
No in the sense that, as we’ve already discussed, all sexual sin is against your own body. Yes in the sense that, from the beginning, the Scriptures picture this as a sin which is contrary to nature. That is seen in the portrayal of Sodom’s wickedness in Genesis 19:5. Two angels, appearing as men, came to rescue Lot and his family from the destruction of the city. And that night, the men of the city nearly break down Lot’s door trying to get into his house to “know” the two strangers. And they don’t mean to have a cup of coffee and chat.
But maybe what’s wrong there is simply the violence? I think that would be a stretch, even from that text, but Leviticus 18:22 makes explicit that homosexuality itself is an abomination to God: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” Our society wants us to believe that this behavior is normal. Some Christians want us to believe that we must cave to the culture on this point, “that’s just an Old Testament way of thinking.” But Paul says that on account of such sins the wrath of God is coming. Not only on those who practice these sins, but on those who approve of them.
Romans 1:26–32: “26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”
Many Christians have joined the world in approving of what God calls wicked. Even those of us who don’t “approve” are often too timid and unsure concerning what God says. We have become like Lot: desensitized to the sin around us, in our families, and even in our hearts.
We really do need to understand what a big deal this is in God’s sight. We’re not talking about something trivial. Sexuality really is closer to the core of who we are than many other areas of our lives - this much the culture is correct about. But when we give in to false ideas about what constitutes true or good expressions of sexuality, we do not promote human flourishing. This is an area where a desire to be nice can lead us away from being loving. Love doesn’t say what others want to hear. Love says what’s true. Love doesn’t want to be mean or cruel, but it also recognizes that leaving someone in sin is not kind: it’s the worst cruelty possible.
This is why the idea of “gay Christianity” is by definition false. Even the language of sexual orientation should be brought into questions. Not because people don’t have real feelings - they do. But we reject the idea that your feelings are the truest things about you. No Christian should identify themselves by their sin. We should not speak of alcoholic Christians, or porn-addict Christians, or greedy Christians, or gay Christians. You may struggle with a particular sin. But if you are in Christ, your identity is not that sin, it is this: you are a blood-bought Child of God. And so you should not glory in your sin or wear it like a badge of honor. You should humbly admit your sin, and confess it to God. You should walk in community with other believers who will call you to live in holiness.
But what about those outside the church? How do we relate to those in the grip of homosexual sin? Like any other sinner. We don’t hide from the topic; we also don’t browbeat with it. It doesn’t need to be the center of every conversation, but it also can’t be a thing where you just change the subject when it comes up. You are in their life to speak the truth.
1 Timothy 1:8-11: “8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality [note: both active/passive partners], enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, 11 in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”
As Christians, many of us have this backward. We think that the law is only for us. The outside world doesn’t have the Spirit, so they can’t obey: why tell them about it? They just need Jesus. But Paul says the law is for those outside of Christ: the ungodly and sinners. The reason is because apart from understanding sin - and how genuinely stuck you are in your sin - you won’t ever see a need for Jesus. If you think what you’re doing is just fine, or even positively good and noble, why would you think you needed Jesus’ forgiveness and grace? It’s only in understanding your desperate need for forgiveness that you see the cross as genuinely Good News.
What this means is that we must be honest with sinners: from liars and disobedient children, to lustful and harsh men, to murderers, to those who teach false doctrine, to those living in sexual sin - including the sin of homosexuality.
To take what may be a real-life example for some here: one way this works out is if you’re invited to participate in a same-sex wedding - through a creative service or simply as an attendee - I think Biblical love would call for you to turn down that invitation or request. And, depending upon your relationship with the person, to explain why. This is the sort of thing that could land you in court literally, and you will certainly be tried in the court of public opinion when people find out you weren’t “affirming.” But again, remember that real love points people toward flourishing: which is found in being known and forgiven by God, and set free by his Spirit to follow him.
True life is not found by expressing whatever your feelings may be at the current moment. True life is found by bringing your actions, words, and yes, feelings, into conformity with God’s standards and design. The Psalmist says in Psalm 119:24, “your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.”
Gospel Hope and Challenge
So, back to the purpose in this series: understanding the implications of the image of God. When it comes to applying this truth today, I want to finish with three exhortations:
* live into God’s design. Marry and have children. Pursue fruitfulness. Understand the biblical picture of man as head of the home and wife as the necessary and immeasurably valuable help-meet. Each marriage has the opportunity to picture what Adam and Eve should have as King and Queen of creation, and even moreso, to reflect the reality of Christ and the church. For those who are married, be all the way committed to your spouse and their eternal good.
* When thinking through how to understand the ideologies and sins of our culture, remember that biblical love prioritizes truth over socially acceptable niceness. That doesn’t mean we should be harsh or abrasive or jerks. It does mean that sometimes speaking the truth will seem harsh to those who hate the truth, And you have to be okay with that. Matthew 5:11 says, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
* For those struggling with sin, homosexual sin, heterosexual sin, or any sin (remember those lists include everything from greed and envy to disobedience to parents): there is hope in Jesus. Sin is serious, and has eternal consequences. But if you will repent of your sins, turn from them, and trust in Jesus, you will be forgiven. Washed. Made clean.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
