“Sex is much more than just a personal, autonomous experience. It is two people taking pleasure in God’s creation in a myriad of fun and exciting ways.” —The Problem of God (p.153)

Genesis 2:25 – Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

Proverbs 5:18-19 – Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. She is a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love.

Song of Solomon 1:2 – Kiss me and kiss me again, for your love is sweeter than wine.

1 Corinthians 7:3 – The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs.

“Marriage is patterned after Christ’s covenant relationship to his redeemed people, the church. And therefore, the highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the covenant relationship of Christ and his church on display.” —John Piper, This Momentary Marriage

“You see, sex, while not the most important thing in life, is not bad or something to be avoided. It is beautiful, God-given, and should be enjoyed in the context of marriage.” —The Problem of God (p.156)

“Sexuality and marriage are about self-giving. The focus for the spouses is to be, like Christ, aimed at accomplishing the good of the other.” —Sam Allberry, Why Does God Care Who I Sleep With?

“A survey of sexuality conducted jointly by researchers at State University of New York at Stony Brook and the University of Chicago—called the “most authoritative ever” by U. S. News & World Report—found that of all sexually active people the most physically pleased and emotionally satisfied were married couples.” —The Problem of God (p.159).

Hebrews 13:4 – Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. 

“The Bible is clear: sex was not just made for procreation but for pleasure. To redeem sex from all the dysfunctional ways it is abused and used means that we celebrate it as a gift given to us for our enjoyment to the glory of God.” —The Problem of God (p.163).

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John 1:12 – But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

“I don’t believe it is wise or truthful to the power of the gospel to identify oneself by the sins of one’s past or the temptations of one’s present but rather to only be defined by the Christ who’s overcome both for those he calls his own. All men and women, including myself, that are well acquainted with sexual temptation are ultimately not what our temptation says of us. We are what Christ had done for us; therefore, our ultimate identity is very simple: We are Christians.” —Jackie Hill Perry

“In this perspective, sex is seen not merely as a good but as an ultimate good. A defining good. It becomes the central component to our identity as human beings, and thus freely satisfying our sexual appetites in whatever way we want is essential to our emotional health and development.” —The Problem of God (p.164).

Matthew 6:33 – Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

"Highly happy couples tend to put God at the center of their marriage and focus on Him, rather than on their marriage or spouse, for fulfillment and happiness" —Shaunti Feldhahn, Highly Happy Marriages

“The biblical story is that God gives sex as a gift and stitches it into history as the greatest and most powerful nonverbal signal of unity, love, covenant, and commitment—even a picture of the gospel message itself (Ephesians 5:31–32). The meshing of two souls takes place and the unspoken message in that act is, “I belong completely, totally, and exclusively to you.” Our separate souls and personhoods create an entity and unity that did not exist before the act took place. Two become one.” —The Problem of God (pp.167-168)

“This, I propose, is precisely what has happened in the misuse of sex in Western culture. Turn on the television, search the internet, look at billboards, and read magazines. Our stories, questions, and praxis have changed. We misused and destroyed one of the central symbols God gave us to define meaning in the world and, in turn, have called into question and confused not just sexuality or personhood or marriage, but meaning itself.” —The Problem of God (pp.168-169)

Colossians 3:5 – So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 

“Desires for things God has forbidden are a reflection of how sin has distorted me, not how God has made me.” —Sam Allberry

Ephesians 5:31-32 – As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.

“The meaning of marriage is the display of the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his people.” —John Piper, This Momentary Marriage

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“A naturalistic approach that sanctions our biological appetites removes all moral culpability from our sexual choices.” —The Problem of God (p.173).

1 Corinthians 6:13 – But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies.

1 Corinthians 6:15-18 – Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Run from sexual sin!

“Sociologists argue that in contemporary Western society the marketplace has become so dominant that the consumer model increasingly characterizes most relationships that historically were covenantal, including marriage. Today we stay connected to people only as long as they are meeting our particular needs at an acceptable cost to us. When we cease to make a profit – that is, when the relationship appears to require more love and affirmation from us than we are getting back – then we “cut our loses” and drop the relationship. This has also been called “commodification,” a process by which social relationships are reduced to economic exchange relationships, and so the very idea of “covenant” is disappearing in our culture. Covenant is therefore a concept increasingly foreign to us, and yet the Bible says it is the essence of marriage” —Timothy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage

“That through this act we somehow transcend a mere physical unity and experience something deeper, something wonderful and mysterious. Christianity teaches that sex is holistic. We should never get naked and vulnerable with a person only physically without getting naked and vulnerable with them in every other way: socially, economically, geographically, spiritually, and emotionally. To do anything else will always end in catastrophe. In a culture of hookups, swinging, sexting, pornography, and one-night stands, the Bible says to have sex with someone is to know each other in every way.” —The Problem of God (p.174)

“The Christian position, in contrast to this ever-changing target model, is that the biblical definition of sexuality should not be redefined or challenged by a cultural ethos, no matter what culture it exists within, and no matter how much a culture “progresses,” because if the Bible is, in fact, trustworthy and true, it transcends any one culture or time, and all the sentiments of that place and moment. It is when we understand this that we see why the church has continued to preach and practice a biblically informed sexual ethic in the world, and why it must continue to do so. It is not because the church likes to “judge” people or infringe on rights or proselytize. It is about holding fast to the one expression of sex that God designed for our ultimate joy, pleasure, and flourishing, trusting that he knows better than us, and then holding that out to the world around us and offering it gladly. —The Problem of God (pp.175-176).

“The reason that marriage is so painful and yet wonderful is because it is a reflection of the gospel, which is painful and wonderful at once. The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. This is the only kind of relationship that will really transform us.” —Timothy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage

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