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Sex as Divine Presence
Sex is beautiful art; it is poetry in motion of a husband and wife creating – and re-creating - their own unique love story. The graceful flow of their bodies in intimate embrace is wordless rhyme. Beautiful sex is harmonious melody of two impassioned lovers. Sometimes it is jazz – spontaneously creative. Sometimes, for the young at heart, it is rock – rowdy and rambunctious. The rising and falling of the music is like their bodies. Other times, it may be classical – carefully orchestrated, subtle, diverse. Beautiful sex is the companionship of two artists whose breath and bodies compose musical passion.
Christians ought to recapture the richness of God's great grace that is sex. Contrary to popular opinion that society glamorizes sex too much, it actually does not honor it enough. For all its ecstatic pleasures, sex is a soul encounter, and for the Christian a union of the Spirit as well.
Believing couples are members of Christ himself. Therefore, a woman is considered one in spirit with the Creator and Savior when she consummates the one-flesh union with her husband. We are temples of the Holy Spirit whose attribute is love. By the love we are giving and receiving from each other, we are participating in an authentic spiritual relationship. A couple that is not inhabited by the Holy Spirit can still enjoy a transcendent, ‘divine-like' union, for God is love. In other words, even the love (however incomplete) of unbelievers is a kind of gift from God, as his ‘common grace' extends even to them.
For us as God's ‘Spirit-people', sex is even more sacred. For example where two are gathered in his name in the marriage bed – not three God forbid! – Christ himself is thus present with us (Matthew 18:20).
Moreover, God, who escorted Eve to Adam, is the divine initiator of the one-flesh relationship and in a way, is present as well. The Father, Son, and Spirit are all present during the sexual union.
For Christians sex occupies a place of great honor, a sanctuary of divine presence. Therefore, we must not be prurient, but we must also not be prude. As Christians we can rightfully – and indeed ought – to rejoice in the wonder of sex. We even extol the virtue of sexual art such as literature, having the Scripture always as our principle and guide. As people who profess to love and obey Jesus Christ, we have a responsibility and privilege to enjoy and extol sex as God created it. We also encourage our neighbors, whom we are to love, to invite the Lord and his Spirit so that they might genuinely experience divine presence and power.
Sex is the paramount physical pleasure that we enjoy. However, we do not worship the gift, but the giver. And we must not be imprisoned by lust or enslaved by desire as some are; rather, we pursue passion in the presence and power of God. It is God who makes sex beautiful, lyrical and energetic - and endlessly enjoyable.
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