Sex Sermon

Yesterday I listened to a sermon on sex which was given this past Sunday at Trinity Grace Church here in the city. Delivering the sermon was Scott Sauls, a teaching pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. I think Rev. Sauls offers an enlightening and powerful perspective on the topic from a Christian standpoint. His sermon includes meaningful insights for single people who desire to abstain from sex, for married people who desire to experience sex the way God intended, and for anyone who – for whatever reason – struggles with how to regard and behave towards sex. Ultimately, it struck me as a great example of how persuasive and motivating the argument against the abuse of sex is when it is based on the true nature of sex as God created it.

The first thing Sauls does is address common misconceptions about sex. The first misconception is that it’s not a big deal; that we should treat sex casually. I find this especially relevant in the world we live in – a world where abstinence is a rarity and sex is viewed as a natural appetite we have the freedom to fulfill. Personally, I have doubted the importance of treating sex delicately, because my world isn’t one where people abstain from sex (or have conviction to do so) outside of marriage. On the contrary, we have sex whenever, however, and with whomever we want and don’t seem to suffer any consequences because of it. But Sauls asserts that sex has a unique power over us, that it is the most dangerous and the most amazing of all human capacities. God designed it to be a transcendent experience; the most infinite encounter humans can have this side of heaven. This means it is not only a physical act, and so to take it out of its context is to permanently mar our souls.

The second misconception Sauls addresses is that sex is a necessary evil for the purposes of procreation… and nothing more. Many Christians have a negative attitude towards sex: it wasn’t addressed properly in their childhood homes, and they aren’t comfortable accepting that the purpose of sex extends beyond practicality to pleasure. Sauls responds to this by making a distinction between lust and sexual desire. Sexual desire is built into us by God: it is holy and right to want someone sexually… as long as you also desire them in every other way. Lust, on the other hand, is a perversion of sexual desire: it desires someone sexually without desiring them as a person; it is impersonal and objectifying. True love and holy sexual desire conceive the need to be naked with someone in every way possible – to be vulnerable and intimate physically, emotionally, and spiritually; to be joined as one in every sense.

Sauls also says that "lust in the broadest sense is to try to get from creation what you can only get from God", and that "taking a created thing and turning it into the ultimate is idolatry". This is why lust can occur even within a marriage. If you desire sex in and of itself, and not for the sake of the person you're with or the spiritual reality that it represents, you deviate from holy desire and are in danger of lusting after your spouse.

Jesus modeled this type of all-encompassing vulnerability on the cross. He died naked, full of shame, and entirely vulnerable in the very face of our unfaithfulness to him. That moment was his act of commitment to us, his vow to the human race. And because we are made in his image, Sauls emphasizes, we must also combine all-encompassing vulnerability with the lifelong commitment of marriage.

Sauls calls sex “the art of God”, and in order to fully respect and enjoy a work of art, you must treat it the way the artist intended. So what is God’s intention for sex within that lifelong commitment? Sauls purports that it is a kind of sacrament, similar in nature to the Eucharist. In both, the engagement of our physical senses is a reminder and a representation of the spiritual reality. Sex within marriage represents your spiritual and emotional nakedness and vulnerability to one another. According to Sauls, every time a married couple comes together, it is a covenant renewal ceremony. Sex is a tangible reminder of the spiritual oneness of marriage, which is in turn a symbol of the oneness of Christ and his church. The act of sex is riddled with symbolism and meaning; it should be a celebration and an expression of your marriage commitment. That is the gift of sex as God created it to be… nothing less.

The point is made, in Sauls sermon, that this gift of sex God offers us is available even to those who are sexually broken, even to sexual failures. He points out that the genealogy of Jesus is peppered with those whose sexual stories were long and ugly: Tamar, an incestuous seductress; Rahab, a prostitute; and David, a king who abused his power and raped his neighbor. These people belong to the line of Jesus… they were redeemed. Also, there’s the story of the prostitute in the last part of Luke 7: she used the tools of her trade (her hair, kisses, perfume) to worship Jesus and he said to the religious people watching, “This woman knows how to truly love and worship me… learn from her!” Jesus offers redemption to those of us who haven’t handled sex the way he created it to be handled; he offers us the same incredible and transcendent gift of sex in its holiness.

This sermon challenges me to renew my mindset about sex: to regard sex the way that God intended it to be regarded, and to conduct myself towards it in a manner which honors it as God's artwork and protects my soul from the danger of abusing his gift.