What if Sex Reveals God’s Covenant Love?
Part 3 of a three-part series on Dr. Juli Slattery’s book, Rethinking Sexuality.
If you missed part one, read HERE and part two, read HERE.
What if God designed sex to help us understand the enormous biblical truth of God’s covenant love?
There are many purposes of sex: procreation, pleasure, a deepening union relationally and spiritually, and living a life of integrity. To this Dr. Juli Slattery adds understanding God’s covenant love. This perspective calls us to a loyalty and commitment that is based on God’s commitment toward us. I have been living with this following thought for a while now, and it is revolutionizing my view of marriage:
I must be as faithful to my wife as God is faithful to me.
I must be as committed to my wife as Christ is committed to the church.
God can use our sexual desire to draw us into promising and practicing covenant love toward our spouse. And then the act of sex within marriage celebrates this covenant love. “If you have sex inside a covenant, then the sex becomes a covenant renewal ceremony.”
A covenant love speaks of passion as well as sacrifice. “Over the years,” Juli writes, “I have learned that long term sexual fulfillment between two people is impossible without sacrifice.” This is a reflection of the fact that God’s love for us required a great sacrifice.
Continue reading this blog over on Substack HERE.