Marriage, Sex and Sexuality 3 - Gen.1:26-2:3 & 2:18-25

Vast amounts have been written about the climactic creation of humanity, but our current series (engaging with LLF) is exploring questions of identity, gender, sexuality & marriage.  And so we start with a focussed observation about the ‘very good’-ness of a physical creation, and specifically of a physical humanity.  We are more than physical, but not less.

This is an important place to start because we are constantly tempted to undermine our physicality, and to see it as less than intrinsic to, or even in conflict with, who we really are.  In our culture we are growing used to hearing the idea that for someone to be true to who they really are, they may have to disregard, or change their body in a number of ways.  A dualistic view of humanity that separates who we really are from who we are physically is deeply problematic from a Christian perspective.

Our physicality, and with it our male- or female-ness, is not an accident, nor is it the result of cosmic pragmatism.  Still less is it a lifestyle choice.  Our bodies may be painfully confused or confusing (and increasingly so as this basic framework for understanding humanity is being lost) but that doesn’t mean they are anything less than vital and inherent to our being.  Our future, after all, focusses on resurrection bodies.

We are increasingly aware of the deep crisis that confronts our thinking about ourselves.  Never have we known so much about humanity, and so little about being human.  As we have suppressed our knowledge of God, we have been left with no worthier object of study than ourselves.  Paradoxically, as we lose our understanding of God and His purposes in our creation, we lose precisely the capacity to understand what we are and why.  Far from this Biblical vision being a source of oppression and repression, it is only from the Scriptures that we can expect liberty and joy.  Only here can we hope to understand humanity, who we are, how we are… and what has gone wrong. 

Do you agree that we are intrinsically physical?  What do you make of the Bible’s teaching about humans having a ‘soul’ and a ‘spirit’ that survives the death of the body?

What do you think is the defining characteristic(s) of being human?  What is it that separates us from the rest of creation (particularly the animal kingdom)?

Do you think the Bible’s teaching about our identity and sexuality is the road to fulfilment, freedom and joy?  What would you say to someone who argued the Bible’s teaching about marriage was oppressive and outdated?

As a Christian, what do you make of the gender revolution our culture is currently undergoing?  How do you navigate it?

What do you think is the ‘image of God’ in which we are made?  …how, if at all, is it different from His likeness?   Do you think it is significant that ‘likeness’ is not mentioned in Gen.1:27?  How does the fall affect this?

‘male and female He created them…’  What distinguishes ‘male’ and ‘female’?  Is it more than physical differences?  Do you think it is possible to change from ‘male’ to ‘female’, or vice versa? 

Why do you think Adam is created in the way that he is, and why is Eve created in the way that she is?  Why not create her directly from the dust of the ground as well? 

How does the sequence of events in 2:18-24 lay the foundation for our vision of marriage?  Within that context, what is the meaning of sex? How then does sexual sin affect our understanding of God?