It may be about the numbers with God – so we need to let Him be the one who is looking for a number: “Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.” Revelation 6:11
For us, however, it’s about intimacy in Christ.
When I first began to study the Scriptures, the ‘begats’ were a big problem for me like they seem to be for most, especially most Christians. But, then one day I discovered that the life is in the begats, and life is what Jesus came to bring us, ‘more abundant life.’
What I would like to comment on, however, has to do with origin and destiny. For me these are fairly practical concerns.
We were made male and female in God’s image. For me the irreducible meaning of this is that male and female is all about relationship. There was relationship in the Godhead before the world began, and we were made male and female in the image of that relationship. It is written that we were created for fellowship with Him. Ultimately, male and female speaks of that fellowship. That fellowship is the point of everything. Not to get the point is to be dead-ended in our sexuality, hung up on chemicals and plumbing. The problem is so bad that to say ‘sexual hang up’ is to be redundant. To be sexual without getting the point is to be hung up.
Ultimately, sex is about relationship, and intimacy, not about reproduction. For the present, reproduction is a fringe benefit of intimacy, an intimacy which is so compelling we would have been extinct by now without it.
Where continence is concerned, getting the point is the most important thing. And so, from the perspective of the New Testament, we look back on Genesis, and see that becoming ‘one flesh’ is all about Christ and the Church.
Is she reproductive? Probably not as much as He died to make her, but however long it takes, in the end, she is the completion – or as you prefer -the perfection of Him. He is The Great Lover of our souls, and even when we are not faithful, like Hosea, He is faithful.
Relationship with Him is what it’s all about. If it’s working right, that will make me reproductive, but first, and last, it is relationship He is after, and intimacy, which is the cry of the human heart.
By Jay Ferris.
Originally posted on March 20, 2012
Loving Like God 
As Lisa shared in the last message of hers, we are reposting some of Jay’s older posts again. This one is a great start to a new season! I’ve read this before but not in this light: the Song of Songs is a book that is all about intimacy, between the basic of “two” (male and female) that God has made to be a picture of “Christ and the church.” And interestingly – the focus is NOT on children. In fact none are mentioned. Were they a result of their union? Likely. But the focus is not there for this time.
It is a good picture lesson. My background in religion was all about the numbers. Bring more people to church, do evangelism, grow the church. And tithing, I guess that is about numbers too. :-/
But all of this grieves God’s heart, who sees His people running around doing anything BUT spending intimate time with Him.