God's Plans for Sexual Intimacy

 

 *God’s Plans for Sexual Intimacy?*

•Sexual intimacy in marriage is for God’s glory.

•Sexual intimacy in marriage unites couples.

•Sexual intimacy in marriage is to be regular.

•Sexual intimacy in marriage is to be other-oriented.

*Sexual intimacy in marriage is for God's glory.* Sexual intimacy in marriage is for pleasure, procreation, love! Not only that, it should also be used to bring glory to God. God created man to bring Him glory in everything including sexual intimacy. God created Adam and Eve in His image, placed them in the garden, and told them to be fruitful and multiply, bringing Him glory in everything.

People  exist as men and as women, bringing their gendered selves into every situation they encounter. This means your sexuality is not a mistake. There is a goodness to how God created and designed man and woman.

Adam and Eve were specially created to bring their Maker the glory He deserved in every activity, in every conversation, with no division between the soul and the body, and all for God’s glory. 

In *1 Corinthians 10:31*, Paul instructs them that even the activities; eating and drinking  should be done to God’s glory. If God has a plan for our eating and drinking to be done for His glory, then it should not surprise us that He would provide a way for sexual intimacy to be good and glorifying too.

Earlier, Paul goes to great lengths to teach them about glorifying God with their bodies. Paul writes, “The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. . . . Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” *1 Cor. 6:13, 19–20.*

*Sexual Intimacy in Marriage Unites Couples Together.*

Listen to the words of *Genesis 2:22–25;* “Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.’”

This intimacy between man and woman was always designed to happen within a particular context. It wasn’t supposed to happen between just anyone, but between a man and a woman committed together in a covenantal relationship with God.

Indeed, sex is perhaps the most powerful God-created way to help you give your entire self to another human being. Sex is God’s appointed way for two people to say to one another, ‘I belong completely, permanently and exclusively to you.’ Sex is your covenant renewal service.

As husband and wife are joined together in marriage, something unique happens in their relationship. Two become one flesh. This union is more than just sexual intimacy.

*Sexual Intimacy in Marriage is to Be Regular.*

Sexual intimacy is for God’s glory and serves as a reminder of a couple’s one-flesh relationship. Thus, it makes sense that sexual intimacy should be a regular part of married life. Let's see the apostle Paul’s teaching in *1 Corinthians 7:2–5;*

“Each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband.

“In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”

*Sexual Intimacy in Marriage is to be Other-Oriented.*

Paul goes on in *1Corinthians 7:2-3,* Paul says; neither husband nor wife possess authority over their own body.

Each partner, male and female, has the right to mutual sexual relations. 

Both husband and wife are to give to one another; they are to willingly yield their bodies to one another.

When husbands and wives practice this principle in their sexual intimacy, couples tell a  story of self-denial and self-sacrifice. No longer is the focus on me and my needs, but on the other and their needs and desires.

When this happens, the opportunities for mutual pleasure, enjoyment, and joy are endless. When sex  moves to how you can serve your spouse, sexual intimacy is completely transformed from a mere physical act to an actual display of the gospel story.

*Hallelujah!