heterosexuality – Authentic Hope for Answers

The alternative to having moral absolutes is either total hedonism – everyone does whatever he wants, or standards imposed by dictators or politicians – the politically correct. Moral absolutes can only come from our Creator God who, logically, knows what is good and right for his created species.

Our secular Western society has followed the path of rejection of God with his moral absolutes and is trying out the other options. As time goes by, the results of these options is causing a lot of confusion, both in society and in the personal lifestyles of numerous people. The problem is that while humans can discern what is good and evil – we have that moral capacity – we are unable, without Heaven’s aid, to determine what are absolutes that apply to all people everywhere. Yet clarity here is a profound human need, for it is bound up with feelings of guilt which may or may not be authentic, and which can cause serious psychological health issues.

It seems that our bodies and consciousness are fashioned in such a way that we feel guilt when our conscience tells us we have transgressed our own personal moral code. No-one likes to feel guilty! It is an unpleasant emotion – and yet it is universal. Whatever may be our understanding of good and evil, we know when we have contravened our own moral standards. This raises the issue as to how to deal with this bad feeling. Some repress such disturbing thoughts, and press on regardless, but that leads to hardening of the heart and inability to wisely judge between right and wrong. Others are overwhelmed with self-condemnation and remorse; their self-image goes through the floor, and they suffer psychologically, unable to forgive themselves. So how to deal with guilt is a major concern for many people, as psychologists can testify.

This is especially the case with sexual misconduct, which takes many forms. If we have no clarity about moral absolutes here, we flounder in all kinds of guilt feelings with the attendant psychological pain and confusion.

This morning I read in the Bible the list of sexual sins that God prohibited in Leviticus chapters 18 and 20. It is quite an impressive and detailed list of forbidden sexual acts. Some, including homosexual acts, are described as “abominations” in God’s eyes. Others proscribe sex between close relatives. But what struck me was who was giving these absolute prescriptions. At the beginning of each chapter, it says, “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them…” In other words, these were not merely human ideas coming from the prophet Moses: he was told by the Lord God, the Creator of sex (!), how this special gift of sexuality was to be properly experienced. When God uses the word “abomination”, that indicates a serious misuse of the sacred gift of sexuality.

Back in the beginning, when God made man in his own image (Genesis 1.26-28), he made them “male and female” and encouraged them to have sexual relations so as to “be fruitful and multiply”. God instituted the family by creating a wife for Adam and presenting her to him (Genesis chapter 2). These facts are the basis for justifiable moral absolutes. God, who created us in his image, serves humanity in providing such clear moral guidance that prevents our guilt if we follow his law. To depart from those guidelines, to disobey the “Maker’s instructions”, is to bring upon ourselves the terrible discomfort of real guilt before a holy God to whom one day we will have to give account.

Clive Every-Clayton

As we think about our major existential preoccupations, sex is not far from our thoughts. If you’re just zeroing in on this blog without the context of what I have written already on a more general note, it would be well if you looked back on those earlier posts.

Those who read the one about distinguishing good from evil, will have noted that in the biblical lists of sins, “sexual immorality” holds a predominant place. Now, God is not against sex: let us be clear – he invented it, after all. He it is who has endowed us with this most powerful – and pleasurable – of instincts; God is not against sex per se. In fact, our wise and holy Creator made us as sexual beings – indeed, from the moment of the creation of our human species, he ordered humans to have sex: “Be fruitful and multiply” were his words.

So right from the start, our intelligent Creator had in mind the ordering of this precious gift of human sexuality. Not only did he encourage sexual intimacy, he set in place guidelines that lead those who follow them into the fullest enjoyment of sexual pleasure. So when Jesus and the New Testament include “sexual immorality” in a list of sins, the reference is to the misuse of this wonderful gift that God has given us.

The original Greek word used by Jesus was porneia which basically covers all sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage. According to much-loved biblical scholar William Barclay, it is “quite a general word for unlawful sexual intercourse and relationships”. He refers (in “Flesh and Spirit”, a book published in 1962) to the “unnatural vice” of incest, such as that of Caligula and his sister Drusilla. Furthermore, “From the highest to the lowest, society was riddled with homosexuality”, Barclay informs us, “which was a vice which Rome learned from Greece”. Furthermore, “evidence… for the unspeakable sexual immorality of the world contemporary with the New Testament”, Barclay tells us, comes “not from Christian writers, but from pagans who were disgusted with themselves”.

But let’s be positive. The marriage union between one man and one woman is God’s prescription for blessing, deep satisfaction, and joy in bringing into the world little humans made in the image of their parents. Every engineer who creates some technology or machinery has in mind its functioning, and writes instructions for its proper use. So it is with our Creator whose very clear instructions channel the human sexual impulse for the good of the couple and of society. Jesus quotes Genesis chapter 2 to teach that God instituted marriage in which “a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh”. They are a couple whom “God has joined together” and therefore, he adds, “let not man separate” (Matthew 19.5-6).

This ideal remains the best way to use and enjoy the wondrous gift of sexual instinct that God has given us. Obviously, there is a lot more that could be said. But let me close with something important: since this is an area where many are tempted to launch out into ways not prescribed by God, and consequently may feel – and try to repress – a deep and serious burden of guilt, we should know that our gracious and wise God has made a way for our sins – yes, even our sexual sins – to be wiped away, totally forgiven, and a new start to be offered to those who turn to the Saviour whose sacrificial death makes forgiveness possible.

Clive Every-Clayton

Tag: heterosexuality

Moral absolutes?

Good, evil, and sex