Transcript:

Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!

There is so much controversy over sex, gender, and marriage in our day. And it seems that the greater the controversy, the louder the conversation. Our cultural debates generate a lot of heat, but very little light.

So, why so much controversy? Well, I think that part of the reason comes from not knowing the right questions to ask. For example, very rarely if ever, have I heard anyone ask the question: What is the purpose of our sexuality? Until we know the purpose of sex, it’s design, we really don’t know how to use it. And to answer that question, we need to ask the One who created it. Anytime you get a new product, the first thing you do—or at least should do—is read the owner’s manual to make sure you’re using it properly.

Once Jesus was asked a controversial question about sex and marriage. Instead of taking the bait of controversy, He simply went to the owner’s manual and restated what the designer said. Fully acknowledging the brokenness of our world, Jesus pointed out that it has not always been that way—the world’s not always been broken. Listen to Jesus:

“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one….” (Matthew 19:4-6a)

You see, according to Jesus, marriage and sex is for the permanent uniting of a man and a woman into the beautiful joy of marital oneness. He goes on to emphasize that it is a union created by God Himself. “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate” (Matthew 19:6b).

Now, we can be comforted with the fact that despite our misuse of God’s design, God is merciful and forgiving. His grace has the power to restore us. But we mustn’t use this to excuse our continued misuse of His design.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

~Matthew 19:3-9 (ESV)