Genesis 2

²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” ²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. ²⁵ And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

At this point in our nation’s ethical and moral history, it should be clear that Christians are faced with two very clear and contrasting choices: either we will allow the scriptures to shape our views of gender, marriage, and human sexuality or we will allow the culture to do so. I would compare these two choices to, respectively, a lighthouse and a sea-bound ship. The lighthouse does not move. It is unchanging and it gives light and, when heeded by those at sea, life as it steers us away from the deadly rocks. The sea-bound ship of the culture has set its back to the lighthouse and is speeding with narcissistic confidence into the great unknown of the deep. Those on this ship are calling out to those in the lighthouse to abandon the set light of scripture and to join them in the thrilling wilds of adventure. And many, tragically, are swimming frantically out to sea hoping to catch up. Others in the lighthouse remain inside, but only just so, and feel deeply conflicted. “Are those on the boat right after all?” they wonder. “Are we in the lighthouse out of touch and outdated?” Then there are others—and we would call these orthodox, biblical Christians—who realize that the lighthouse is very different from the seabound ship, but who believe that the light of the lighthouse is truth, that it is God-given, and that it is indeed the path to life and joy!

Our church wants to be a lighthouse church. Even now there are water-logged survivors of the speeding ship of culture who are climbing back onto shore after being thrown into the chaotic deep by the instability of the boat. These survivors are announcing that what was promised at sea was not what was actually at sea! Others on the boat remain defiant.

Even so, the church is a lighthouse and a lighthouse we must remain. We are founded on Christ. Our light is the gospel. The scriptures are our guide, for they are God-breathed. Therefore, when it comes to these crucial matters of gender and sexuality, we are fully aware of their unpopularity but fully convinced at the same time of their truthfulness.

The joining together of man and woman happens under the banner of God’s blessing and covenant binding.

We turn now to the great wedding in Eden. It has been noted by many Old Testament scholars that there are covenantal overtones, overtones of a binding and blessed union in this text. We can see it in the creation of Eve and in God’s presentation of her to Adam.

²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” ²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. ²⁵ And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Gerhard Von Rad has memorably written that these verses are intended to explain the powerful feelings that men and women have for one another.

A fact needs explanation, namely, the extremely powerful drive of the sexes to each other. Whence comes this love “strong as death” (S. of Sol. 8.6) and stronger than the tie to one’s own parents, whence this inner clinging to each other, this drive toward each other which does not rest until it again becomes one flesh in the child? It comes from the fact that God took woman from man, and they actually were originally oneflesh. Therefore they must come together again and thus by destiny they belong to each other.[1]

That is as true as it is beautifully said. Man yearns to be united to woman and woman to man. They are complementary parts, two halves of a whole, we might say. But there is more happening here than a mere explanation of desire. There is also a God-blessed union, a marriage. Notice:

• Adam and Eve are created to complete each other.
• God “brought” Eve to Adam after creating her.
• Adam proclaims the two of them to be complementary (“Flesh of my flesh!”).
• And, in verse 24, the reality of the two coming together for the creation of a new family unit and for divinely blessed one-enfleshment is pronounced.

This language is covenantal. Walter Brueggemann calls Adam’s “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” pronouncement in verse 23 a covenant formula.[2]It is a binding agreement blessed by God. There is nothing casual or flippant about this. The two become one. John Walton has offered some interesting insights concerning the idea of the man “leaving his father and mother and holding fast to his wife,” a fact that, at first glance, does not exactly vie with Israelite marriage customs.

In Israelite society, the woman became part of the man’s tribe, so she was the one leaving her parents. Counterbalancing that, in marriage procedures the woman often continued to live in the house of her parents for some months after the marriage was initially consummated and received conjugal visits from her husband. Here in 2:24 he is leaving his parents[’] home not just for sex but for conception.

            But the narrator’s comment need not be sociologically based. Two textual elements offer explanation. (a) The fact that the woman is made from the man establishes what I called a “flesh-line” that is stronger than a bloodline and causes him to seek her out. A part of him is missing and is, in effect, beckoning him. (b) The instinctive urges associated with the blessing lead him to seek out a reproductive partner. The verse does not speak exclusively of sexual desire, though sexual desire may be the mechanism that drives it. Conceiving children (being fruitful) is the idea.[3]

The most significant aspect of this union is that it is (a) God-created, (b) God-ordained, and (c) God-blessed. In other words, the joining together of man and woman happens under the banner of God’s blessing and covenant binding. It is no mere social contract. Neither it is merely a church-blessed recognition of intense emotional union or of two folks being really reallyinto each other. Neither is it to be a taxation maneuver! No, marriage, biblically defined, is a God-blessed union of two people who are walking in harmony with their creator. That is its definition.

This God-blessed binding together of a man and a woman results in a radical physical and spiritual union resulting in two becoming one flesh.

This God-created, God-ordained, God-blessed union is powerful and strong. Indeed, it is miraculous. It is so designed that it creates a context in which one man and one woman under God move from being twoto being one.

²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

This is an amazing image and it carries with it certain radical implications that simply must be grasped. The central miracle of marriage is the two-becoming-one miracle, a large part of which is sexual union, though, I hasten to add, the two-becoming-one cannot mean only sexual union. Even so, it is the most primary and most powerful way that two become one, not only physically but spiritually, as we will see.

1. The act of sex results in making two one whether it is in the context of God’s blessing or not. For this reason, sex should be reserved for marriage.

I want us to observe first that there is an inherent power of the two-becoming-one dynamic in sex whether or not the sexual union happens within the context of God’s covenant blessing, that is, within the context of marriage. We find this fact in an interesting place. We find it in 1 Corinthians 6 when Paul warns men about visiting prostitutes. In the midst of his warning, Paul evokes the language of Genesis 2. Consider:

¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶ Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” ¹⁷ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. ¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

This is really quite amazing. Paul tells us that sexual union is so powerful and so latent with the two-becoming-one intention of God, that it actually operates whether or not one is married. Meaning, whenever you have sex you are activating a two-becoming-one dynamic that goes beyond the physical and touches every aspect of life: physical, relational, emotional, and psychological. This is why sex can never be reduced to the merely physical.

I cannot stress this point enough for it has been utterly abandoned by our culture and, tragically, by many within the church today: the act of sex sets into motion the God-intended reality and process of two-becoming-one.In the sexual union, both people make a spiritual investment that was intended to be carried on into a lifetime together. This is why there are many people today who feel mentally and relationally and psychologically distressed: they have attempted to detach sex from the two-becoming-one lifetime dynamic and reduce it to a two-becoming-one brief physical moment.But Paul evokes the language of Genesis 2 when speaking of a man’s union to a prostitute!

¹⁶ Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”

I want you to think about this: every time you have sex, you are using a God-created and God-ordained gift that has an inherent power of two-becoming-one enfleshment and that is intended for a lifetime together. Sex is nevercasual. It is more powerful than that, more precious than that! You are setting in motion God-ordained forces of human unification that go far far beyond the mere moment of the act of sex.

1. When the physical act of sex is avoided but the lustful observation of it is indulged, the heart and mind are still trying to form a covenant connection. This leads to a spiritual distortion.

This dynamic within sex is so powerful that it applies even to mental and emotional investments into sex that are not physical. I am speaking here of voyeurism and of pornography in general. The two-becoming-one dynamic that is inherent in sexual union is so unbelievably strong that it seeks to pull us into its forward momentum even when we lustfully observe it without actually physically participating in it. Our hearts and minds still get caught up in that movement. Jesus made this very clear in Matthew 5

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Jesus is here pushing against any notion that sex and all of its two-becoming-one dynamicscan be reduced to mere physicality. No, even mental, emotional, and psychological investment in and involvement in sex—what is called lust—activates those two-becoming-one dynamics to such an extent that if you lust after a woman in your heart you have become one flesh with her. Do you see how powerful sexual union is? Even the observation of it, if this observation is indulged in with the sexual intent of the heart, brings us into its forward moving inertia.

Thus, sex while dating is not just an act of the body and watching pornography is not just an act of the eyes. Both are seeking to use a lifetime two-becoming-one dynamic for momentary detached pleasure…but that is not how sex works! Again, it is too powerful and too precious for that!

1. Two-becoming-one is dependent upon the male/female divine intent in creation. This is why only a marriage between a man and a woman can be rightly called “marriage.”

A third implication involves God’s intent as evidenced in the act of creation. The two-becoming-one dynamic is clearly intended for the complementary parts, the two halves, if you will, of male and female. God brings Eve to Adam and blesses their union. A male and female complete each other and become one flesh, and the clear thrust of Genesis is that only a male and female could. In Matthew 19 Jesus says:

⁴ He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

The “from the beginning” is important. “From the beginning [God] made them male and female.” This is the divine design and the divine intent. The maleness of Adam and the femaleness of Eve are not incidental and unimportant. Their maleness and femaleness are part of their union and are utterly necessary to the two-becoming-one dynamic, for it was a female who was made out of the male and for the male. Those two, the male and the female, are blessed by God to become one. This sets parameters around the definition of marriage and the definition of God-blessed sexual union. It also reveals the deep inadequacy of homosexuality.

Perhaps the leading biblical scholar today on the question of the Bible and homosexuality is Robert Gagnon. In his groundbreaking work, The Bible and Homosexual Practice, Gagnon reflects on the clear implications of the creation accounts of Genesis.

The sexual union of man and woman in marriage, of two complementary beings, in effect makes possible a single, composite human being. So great is the complementarity of male and female, so seriously is the notion of “attachment” and “joining” taken, that the marital bond between man and woman takes precedence even over the bond with the parents that physically produced them…It is important that in the Yahwist’s version of the creation of man and woman, attention is focused not on the goal of procreation (childbearing receives mention only in 3:16) but rather on the relational (including physical /sexual) complementarity of male and female, that is, on the companionship and support provided by heterosexual marriage.

It will not do to argue that nothing is said here about the legitimacy of homosexual relationships. Even though an evaluation of same-sex intercourse is not the point of the text, legitimation for homosexuality requires an entirely different kind of creation story. Only a being made from man can be a suitable and complementary counterpart for him…Male and female are “perfect fits” from the standpoint of divine design and blessing. Male and male, or female and female, are not.

Hence, already at the start of the canon, in the description of human origins in Genesis 1—3, a justification for male-female union is provided: the physical, interpersonal, and procreative sexual complementarity of male and female. As we shall see, this motif will reappear as a continuous thread in the Old Testament, early Jewish, and New Testament critiques of same-sex intercourse as “contrary to nature.”[4]

Gagnon is right. The creation account of Genesis, and Jesus’ confirming repetition of it, defines the biblical sexual ethic: monogamy within marriage between one man and one woman.For many within the church, especially in our permissive age, this is a hard word to hear. Undoubtedly many feel great shame over their sexual brokenness and their sexual pasts. Many perhaps feel great shame over their sexual present if they are currently violating God’s intention for human sexuality. Shame has its place, but it is to be a motivation, not a destination. For the Christian, shame resulting from our sin should drive us to the cross! Shame drives us but the cross draws us, for Christ crucified has the power to forgive us, to cleanse us, to take away our shame, and to give us a new life! Consider the following astonishing statement by Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:

⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

How beautiful is the “were” of verse 11? “And such were some of you.” You were sexually immoral. You werean idolater. You werean adulterer. You werea homosexual. You werea thief. You weregreedy. You werea drunkard. You werea reviler. You werea swindler. Yes, you wereall of these things…“But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

See the power of Christ crucified and risen! See the power of God’s grace received by faith! See the miracle of the new birth.

Brother, sister, bring your shame and brokenness to Jesus. Bring it and be made whole!

 

[1]Gerhard Von Rad, Genesis. The Old Testament Library. Revised Edition (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1972), p.84-85.

[2]Stanley J. Grenz, The Social God and the Relational Self. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Know Press, 2001), p.276.

[3]John H. Walton, Genesis. The NIV Application Commentary. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2011), Google Books Location: https://books.google.com/books?id=qNbx-84TAwQC&printsec= frontcover&dq =Genesis+commentary&hl= en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwikrsvK17LhAhUB1qwKHR__BeQQ6AEIWDAI #v= onepage&q=2%3A24&f=false

[4]Gagnon, Robert A. J.. Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics(Kindle Locations 691-709). Abingdon Press – A. Kindle Edition.