God’s Design for Human Sexuality
Dr. Cory Gonyo
(all Scriptures NASB 1995)
- God’s Good Creation
Gen. 1:27 God created man ain His own image, in the image of God He created him; bmale and female He created them.
- God’s institution of marriage and sexual relationships
Gen. 2:18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; aI will make him a helper 1suitable for him.” 19 aOut of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the 1sky, and bbrought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the 1sky, and to every beast of the field, but for 2Adam there was not found aa helper 3suitable for him. 21 So the LORD God caused a adeep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The LORD God 1fashioned into a woman athe rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
23 The man said, “aThis is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; 1She shall be called 2Woman, Because 1she was taken out of 3Man.”
24 aFor this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 aAnd the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Ephesians 5:22 aWives, bbe subject to your own husbands, cas to the Lord. 23 For athe husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the bhead of the church, He Himself cbeing the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. 25 aHusbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and bgave Himself up for her, 26 aso that He might sanctify her, having bcleansed her by the cwashing of water with dthe word, 27 that He might apresent to Himself the church 1in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be bholy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to alove their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are amembers of His bbody. 31 aFOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to alove his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she 1brespects her husband.
Matt. 19:3 Some Pharisees came to 1Jesus, testing Him and asking, “aIs it lawful for a man to 2divorce his wife for any reason at all?” 4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read athat He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, 5 and said, ‘aFOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND bTHE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? 6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
1Tim. 3:2 1aAn overseer, then, must be above reproach, bthe husband of one wife, ctemperate, prudent, respectable, dhospitable, eable to teach,
- God’s Design: Marred by Sinful Man, Upheld in the Old Covenant
- Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19-20)
Jude 7 just as aSodom and Gomorrah and the bcities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and cwent after 1strange flesh, are exhibited as an 2dexample in undergoing the epunishment of eternal fire.
- The Levitical sexual code (Lev 18 & 20)
In this OT law, “every sexual relationship except that between a heterosexual couple in marriage is prohibited.”[1]
“Keeping the creation ideal of the family intact and free from undermining influences was considered central to the preservation of Israel as a society set apart as God’s holy nation (Ex. 19:6).”[2] And since the NT church is now God’s holy people and nation, we are to live to the same standard and teaching.[3]
- One of the Ten Commandments of the Covenant
Ex. 20:14 “aYou shall not commit adultery.
Deut. 5:18 ‘aYou shall not commit adultery.
“The proverbs speak to the easy availability of sexual temptation, and insist that the beauty and satisfaction of sex be enjoyed only with one’s spouse (Prov. 5:1-23; 6:20-29; 7:1-27).”[4]
- New Testament Christianity
**KEY VERSE: 1 Thess 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you aabstain from 1sexual immorality; 4 that aeach of you know how to 1possess his own 2bvessel in sanctification and chonor, 5 not in 1alustful passion, like the Gentiles who bdo not know God;
Eph. 5:3 But aimmorality 1or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among 2saints;
Col. 3:5 aTherefore 1consider bthe members of your earthly body as dead to 2cimmorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which 3amounts to idolatry.
1Cor. 5:9 I wrote you in my letter anot to associate with immoral people;
Heb. 13:4 aMarriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; bfor fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
- The NT “Vice Lists”
Matt. 15:19 “aFor out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, 1fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
Mark 7:21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, 1fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, 1aenvy, slander, 2pride and foolishness. 23 “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
1Cor. 6:9 Or ado you not know that the unrighteous will not binherit the kingdom of God? cDo not be deceived; dneither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor 1effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will ainherit the kingdom of God.
Gal. 5:19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: 1aimmorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, asorcery, enmities, bstrife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, cdisputes, dissensions, 1dfactions, 21 envying, adrunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not binherit the kingdom of God.
Rev. 21:8 “aBut for the cowardly and 1unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in bthe lake that burns with fire and 2brimstone, which is the csecond death.”
1Cor. 6:18 aFlee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the 1immoral man sins against his own body.
- Scott Rae’s Summary Points from 1 Corinthians 5-7[5]
First, God the Father will raise the body to immortality in eternity (1 Cor 6:14)… Thus a person’s body is to be maintained with the utmost purity and care since God will redeem it at Christ’s second coming.
Second, believers are one with Christ the Son (1 Cor 6:15-17). Since believers are “members of Christ” (v. 15) and one with [H]im, a believer should never become one with someone other than his or her spouse…Not only does immorality result in breaking the one-flesh relationship with one’s spouse, but it also violates a person’s relationship with Christ by joining [H]im to the person with whom one has sex.
Third, …the believer’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19)… ultimately the body does not belong to the believer because God has purchased it at the cost of the Son’s death. Therefore, the believer does not have the right to do with his or her body whatever he or she desires… Thus, in 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, sexual immorality is prohibited because it violates the believer’s relationship with all three members of the Trinity. God the Father will raise the body (v. 14), thus it is to be considered sacred. The believer is one with Christ the Son (v. 15), and thus should not join a part of him sexually to someone other than one’s spouse. The believer is also a temple of the Holy Spirit (v. 19), and thus the body is to be used for [H]is honor.
- Same-Sex Sin & Idolatry
Rom. 1:20 For asince the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, bbeing understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not 1honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became afutile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 aProfessing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and aexchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and 1crawling creatures. 24 Therefore aGod gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be bdishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for 1a alie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, bwho is blessed 2forever. Amen. 26 For this reason aGod gave them over to bdegrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is 1unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, amen with men committing 1indecent acts and receiving in 2their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit 1to acknowledge God any longer, aGod gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are agossips, 30 slanderers, 1ahaters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, bdisobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, aunloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of adeath, they not only do the same, but also bgive hearty approval to those who practice them.
1Cor. 6:9 Or ado you not know that the unrighteous will not binherit the kingdom of God? cDo not be deceived; dneither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor 1effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will ainherit the kingdom of God. 11 aSuch were some of you; but you were bwashed, but you were csanctified, but you were djustified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
1Tim. 1:9 realizing the fact that alaw is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and brebellious, for the cungodly and sinners, for the unholy and dprofane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers 10 1and 2aimmoral men 1and bhomosexuals 1and ckidnappers 1and dliars 1and eperjurers, and whatever else is contrary to fsound teaching,
Reflecting on Romans 1, Rae writes: “Those who reject the available knowledge of God and choose instead to worship the Greek and Roman idols have lifestyle consequences that they cannot avoid. Same-sex sexual behavior, among other things, indicates this idolatry.”[6]
Rae on 1 Corinthians 6:9-11: “Had Paul wanted to restrict the text to prohibit sex with boys only, he could have used more accurate and commonly used terms (such as paiderastes or paidophthoros), rather than this unusual compound [arsenokoitai, which also appears in 1 Tim 1:10 list of behavior inconsistent with the kingdom of God], which refers to males of any age. What this suggests is that, contrary to Greco-Roman culture, both the active and passive partners in a same-sex sexual relationship were involved in sexual immorality.”[7]
- No Such Thing as a Hyphenated Christian
Dean Inserra writes: “The Bible does not discriminate against any particular kind of sinner – we all must come and fall at the feet of Christ. For the Christian, sinful desires are not inherent to one’s identity; rather they present a daily battle as we seek to ‘walk by the Spirit, and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh’ (Gal. 5:16). For this reason, I think we must reject the title of ‘gay Christian.’ When you’re in Christ, no other thing forms your identity. I cannot find any justification in the Scriptures for any sinful lifestyle to be used as a modifier or qualification of what kind of believer you are – we don’t (or at least should never) have ‘adulterous Christians’ or ‘murderous Christians,’ as though those two things can actively coexist. Yet there are people who desire to normalize the tension between Christian beliefs and gay lifestyles by creating an environment in which one can be both.”[8]
Inserra again: “My primary point is that the Bible is clear that homosexuality is a sin, but that does not mean that those with same-sex desires are disqualified from partaking in God’s kingdom, so long as they – like every other Christian – submit their desires to the lordship of Christ. In regard to sex, every Christian has the same two options: celibacy or monogamous, heterosexual, covenantal marriage. We must hold fast to the truth of Galatians 5: ‘For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other’ (v. 17). No Christian can identify with desires that are out of step with what God has declared to be sinful… because ‘those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires’ (Gal. 5:24)… Rather than living as a ‘gay Christian,’ someone experiencing same-sex attraction should work out his or her salvation by crucifying the flesh out of a daily, growing affection for Christ.”[9]
Alan Branch on Romans 1:18-32 and born-this-way Arguments: “First, central to Paul’s argument in Romans 1:18-32 is that God has designed sex to be experienced between the male and female genders and that homosexuality is a distortion of God’s creation as described in Genesis 1:26-28…The idea of ‘natural use’ here infers a degree of mutuality, meaning that males and females have a natural sexual use for each other, a use distorted by homosexual acts… Homosexual behavior is a fundamental rejection of God’s design and purposes.”[10]
Branch continues: “Second, Romans 1:18-32 declares homosexual behavior to be idolatrous. Romans 1:18 stresses the idolatrous nature of human sinfulness, saying humanity ‘exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.’ In context, homosexuality serves as an example of how this idolatry is lived out in ethics… In this light, born-this-way arguments are a form of idolatry: one’s libido becomes the central organizing principle of life with no regard for God’s original design.”[11]
Branch: “Third, Romans 1:18-32 gives a sobering warning about the degree to which surrender to temptation can lead to dire consequences. Specifically, three times in Romans 1:24-28 Paul says God ‘gave them over’ to sin… The language is stern and jarring. God actively hands people over to the consequences of sin, and in context homosexuality is the immediate reference. The idea is that God does not merely passively hand people over to the natural consequences of their sin, but [H]e is actively and judicially involved… Born-this-way arguments dangerously overlook the manner in which complete surrender on one’s part to sin can lead to being handed over to the idolatrous passions one worships.”[12]
Branch’s conclusion: “With the warnings of Romans 1:18-32 in mind, we must reject the notion of so-called gay-Christians… [whose movement] appeals to vague forms of God’s love and justice to substantiate their claim that God created them as homosexuals… Christians do not hyphenate their identity: their identity is found in Christ alone… [quoting Eph 1:7] Our identity is found only in Christ and His redemption. For many, the hyphen in gay-Christian is being used to purchase a freedom to participate in sins for which Christ died. To be faithful to Scripture, we must insist we are simply Christians: people purchased by [H]is blood. Our primary identity is not found in our sexuality; our primary identity is found in our redemption and relationship with Jesus Christ. When a person insists on calling himself a gay-Christian, he has made an idol of his sexual desires.”[13]
Conclusion: Salvation is Available for All Who Repent and Believe in Jesus Christ!
1Cor. 6:9 Or ado you not know that the unrighteous will not binherit the kingdom of God? cDo not be deceived; dneither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor 1effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will ainherit the kingdom of God. 11 aSuch were some of you; but you were bwashed, but you were csanctified, but you were djustified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
[1] Scott Rae, Moral Choices: An introduction to Ethics, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 318.
[2] Ibid.
[3] The covenant language used by Moses describing Israel as “a people for My/His own possession” is directly applied by Paul and Peter to the new covenant people of God in Christ (Ex 19:5; 34:9; Dt. 4:20; 7:6; 14:2; Ti 2:14; 1 Pt 2:9-10). This is not mere proof-texting, but rather a central use of God's covenant language in both the old and new, to describe both Israel and the church as "His possession,” His covenant people. The moniker is used without further differentiation, suggesting full inclusion of the Gentiles in the people of God of the old covenant, however it is now accomplished in the new covenant church.
[4] Rae, Moral Choices, 319.
[5] Summarization adapted and largely quoted from Rae, Moral Choices, 320-321.
[6] Rae, Moral Choices, 327.
[7] Ibid., 328.
[8] Dean Inserra, Pure: Why the Bible’s Plan for Sexuality Isn’t Outdated, Irrelevant, or Oppressive (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2022), 93.
[9] Ibid., 94-94; see also his summary of Jackie Hill Perry’s story, pp. 95-96.
[10] J. Alan Branch, Born This Way?: Homosexuality, Science, and the Scriptures (Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2016), 147.
[11] Branch, Born this Way?, 147-148.
[12] Ibid., 148.
[13] Ibid., 148-149. See also J. Alan Branch, Affirming God’s Image: Addressing the Transgender Question with Science and Scripture (Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2019), 51 where Branch likewise affirms, “Transgenderism upends the biblical view of gender appropriate roles connected with our natural sex.”
