Biblical Foundations

The links under “Biblical Foundations” offer a discussion of the biblical foundations of human sexuality. We want to show parents how biblical teachings about all of life, but particularly about sexuality, have immediate implications for our parenting and for what we teach our children.

In the menu below, we present separately discussion of foundational discussion of the biblical standards regarding the purposes and ultimate goals of sexuality, and then cluster other foundational biblical material under a single subheading.

Some content taken from HOW AND WHEN TO TELL YOUR KIDS ABOUT SEX, by Stan and Brenna Jones. Copyright © 1993, 2007, 2019. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. To purchase books in the GOD’S DESIGN FOR SEX book series, go to https://www.navpress.com.

There are four major “acts” in the biblical drama of God’s dealing with His people: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Glorification. The curtain has not been raised on the final act as yet. In this drama, we never finish an earlier act before we move into the next; rather, the new chapter unfolds as the previous act continues.

God began with His good work of Creation. The Fall marred the creation, but the reality of God’s marvelous Creation continues on The Fall modifies it but never destroys it.  Then, through Jesus Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection, God’s work of Redemption intrudes on the drama and changes the reality of both Creation and the Fall. God’s redemptive work changes everything, and yet creation is still an underlying reality, as is the Fall. The Glorification at the end of all things here on earth is yet to come, but the reality that God will make all things new changes our understanding of our existence here and now. Creation-Fall-Redemption-Glorification is an important order through which to see all of life, but it is an essential part of seeing our sexuality through God’s eyes.

This is the proper order for parents as well. In teaching children about sex, start the fundamental reality of Creation. Then move through the effect of the Fall upon Creation, and then to the healing effect of Christ’s work of Redemption upon our sexuality. All along the way, we teach in light of the coming Glorification. We are out of order if we start, as so many Christians do, with the Fall in teaching our children about sex. It’s too easy to let teaching focus only on the dangers and evils of sex when it is misused. Equally tragic is starting and ending with Creation, as if sin is not a reality for each of us and we can simply trust all our instincts and follow all of our whims.