Beyond Ourselves
A culture that regards sex in the manner ours does, no longer values the foundation on which society is built. Such a culture has been replaced by a “neosexual” revolution. This neosexual revolution harkens back to a post-1960’s shift in human sexuality, towards a more individualized view of sex.
Sociologists call this a shift towards “neosexualites.” Rather than a union between a male and a female, there is a shift towards “modified” “different” and “new” forms of sex. Sex has become hyper-individualized.
The purpose of this blog is not to condemn this shift but to celebrate the faith on which marriage between a male and female is based. As a biblical apologist would say, marriage is a confession. For those chosen of God, marriage is ordained by God and those who enter into it confess together their faith in God. Confession is the answer they give to the Word spoken to them. Faith places the confessor inside the church across every stage of life. The confession of faith fixes the chosen of God outside the instability of the heart. In other words, one cannot depend upon the feelings of their heart to rule marriage.
Martin Luther said that “the human heart is like a ship on a wild sea, driven by the winds from the four corners of the world.” Luther regarded the heart as being of one’s own will. One never holds the reins to one’s own will; one is captive to their will. God frees us from our wills when we become born again, the theme of the Second Sunday lent gospel.
To be born again is to be led by the Holy Spirit and not by my own reason or strength. We are led by faith.Please allow me to use a blog by Donavan Riley to help explain what this means.
The Christian church on earth does not begin with the creed of confession; confession is faith’s response after God has spoken. And God speaks to faith in the Scriptures. Christ is then proclaimed in the spoken word (the sermon) and then the congregation stands, not to read an opinion or to declare some certainty; the chosen of God rise to confess their reliance on God, never themselves. Paul writes For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. Romans 10:10
The earliest Christians learned quickly that faith must be spoken together in the waters of baptism and continually spoken together in response to the Gospel, not out of establishing clarity but out of faith confessed and proclaimed together, not because of individualized conviction.
I firmly believe that it must be made certain that far too much preaching and teaching is done to clarify God’s ways to His people. It must be made certain that He came to seek and to save the lost–those with bound wills. For that reason Christian confession is never a solitary possession.
Let’s put this in perspective. When the chosen of God speak to one another, the old speak for the young in the purposes of marriage. This has never changed since God spoke His condemnation to Adam and Eve. The strong speak for the weak as Moses spoke to the erring Israelites. The clear-voiced speak to the helpless as Jesus spoke healing to the blind, deaf and the crippled. When the church has lost its voice, speaking to the young concerning their sexuality, faith must speak to them again with the voice of faith—together. St Augustine said that when the chosen spoke the creed together they were looking in a mirror; not to see their selves, but to see their mutual reality much more realistically than the individual heart can. This is not because the Christian imagines him/herself important enough to do this but because Jesus, Himself, placed the world in His hands. Faith is never meant to remain internal, individual and personal.
Faith expressed together fixes the heart and then opens the mouth not in belief but in petition. Riley writes that this is the faith that prepares the table. By that he means that the one who believes is ready to receive, the one who prays is made ready to be given to. We confess because God has spoken; we pray because God has already heard. And standing together with one voice, the chosen of God realize they have never stood alone, especially in matters of marriage and sexuality.
The psalmist wrote My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” Psalm 73:26 Norman J. Clayton in his hymn, Now I Belong to Jesus sings the glorious promise that Jesus belongs to us not for the years of time alone, but for eternity.
Having lived for so many years witnessing the changes is marriage and sexuality, it is comforting to our hearts, minds and souls that God will never fail us.
After these many years of marriage we know our human hearts will soon stop beating, but we eagerly await the great marriage feast in heaven.
