Se3ual intimacy is neither profane nor peripheral to holiness; it is a sacred endowment woven into the very fabric of divine creation.

By Rev. Emmanuel Boachie

The Almighty, who formed male and female in His own image, consecrated the union of their bodies as the emblem of oneness and covenantal love. “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18).

Thus, conjugal intimacy was instituted not as a concession to human weakness but as a celebration of divine wisdom; “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).

Nature itself bears eloquent testimony to this divine principle. Among plants, the mystery of pollination; among animals, the instinct of mating; and even in the cosmic order; the attraction between matter and energy; all whisper the same truth of sacred union and generative harmony.

Yet the celestial realm transcends these temporal expressions. Angels and heavenly beings are sexless; their communion is purely spiritual, for sexuality is a gift reserved for embodied life on earth; an ordinance of divine fellowship within marriage.

The Divine Purposes of Sexual Intimacy

Holy Scripture delineates three principal purposes for sexual intimacy: companionship, pleasure, and procreation; each suffused with sanctity. In marriage, companionship mirrors divine fellowship; pleasure reflects divine goodness; and procreation participates in divine creativity.

“Let thy fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth” (Proverbs 5:18). The marriage bed is not a place of shame but of sanctified joy; it is a sanctuary where two souls meet under the benediction of heaven.

The divine intention for pleasure in marriage rebukes the false asceticism that deems the body unholy. God, who made the senses, delights in the joy of His creatures when expressed in purity. Within the covenant, s3xual delight becomes worshipful; an echo of Eden’s innocence and a foretaste of celestial communion.

The Jewish Reverence for Sexual Sanctity

In ancient Jewish tradition, sexuality was guarded with reverence. The emission of seed was considered sacred, never to be wasted or trivialized.

Boys were carefully instructed in bodily discipline that no seminal life be squandered. To the Hebrew mind, sexual intercourse was a divine duty; a holy act of covenantal faithfulness.

Widowhood or adolescence did not exempt one from its sanctified purpose, as seen in the account of Tamar and Onan (Genesis 38), where the duty to raise offspring was not merely familial but theological.

Jewish women, deeply conscious of prophetic destiny, approached their sexuality with spiritual intentionality. They prayed that through their wombs, God might bring forth prophets, deliverers, and ultimately the Messiah.

Virgin daughters of David’s lineage entreated the Almighty: “Let it be unto me to bear the Anointed One.” Thus, when the angel Gabriel saluted Mary;

“Hail, thou that art highly favoured” (Luke 1:28); he addressed the culmination of centuries of feminine faith and holy aspiration. Jewish womanhood embodied the mystery of divine cooperation through consecrated sexuality.

The Sanctity, Discipline, and Symbolism of Sexual Conduct

To preserve moral purity, the ancient Israelites erected strict boundaries between the sexes. Modesty was enshrined as law; decorum as devotion. Men and women, even within families, maintained measured propriety in public. Lewd conversation, suggestive dress, or public flirtation was abhorrent. Hence the poetic admonitions of Proverbs:

“Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well” (Proverbs 5:15); an elegant metaphor for marital fidelity.

Where Scripture employs explicit sexual imagery, it does so either as divine allegory or as moral indictment. When literal, it exposes corruption; when figurative, it unveils revelation.

Hosea’s marriage to Gomer, Ezekiel’s allegory of Israel’s infidelity, and the Song of Solomon’s passionate poetry each point beyond the physical to the spiritual; the covenantal romance between God and His people. Israel is depicted as Yahweh’s unfaithful spouse; the Church, as the spotless Bride of Christ.

The consummation of this sacred union awaits the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7–9), where redeemed humanity shall enter eternal intimacy with its Redeemer.

The Sacred Craving and the Call to Sanctification

As milk satisfies the infant, sweets delight the child, and bread sustains the adult, so sexual desire awakens in adolescence as a divine impulse toward communion. These urges, in themselves, are not sinful; they are signals of maturity and divine design.

Yet when detached from holiness, they become perversions of the sacred. Therefore, wise parents and spiritual leaders must not demonize desire but discipline it; guiding youth toward early, honourable marriage lest ungoverned passion degenerate into moral ruin. The apostle Paul rightly counsels, “It is better to marry than to burn” (1 Corinthians 7:9).

Beyond all human passion, however, lies a holier craving; the soul’s thirst for divine intimacy. Physical union is but a shadow of the spiritual union believers are called to enjoy with God.

Worship is the ultimate intimacy, the consummation of the soul with its Creator. “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for Thee, O God” (Psalm 42:1). Food gratifies the flesh, sex satisfies the senses, but worship alone fulfils the spirit.

The ecstasy of true adoration transcends the highest physical pleasure; it is divine, ineffable, and eternal.

Indeed, in the world to come, the redeemed shall graduate from human sexual passion to eternal spiritual worship; from temporal affection to everlasting communion; from the embrace of flesh to the radiance presence. What was once expressed physically in marriage shall be eternally fulfilled spiritually in union with Christ.

A Call to Redeem Human Sexuality

Therefore, let the redeemed of the Lord reclaim the sacredness of sexuality. “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4).

The modern world has desecrated what heaven has sanctified; trading covenant for convenience, and pleasure for perversion.

Let the promiscuous, the adulterous, and the profane hear this solemn warning: unbridled lust enslaves, but chastity liberates. The body was made not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body (1 Corinthians 6:13).

Let every husband cherish his wife as Christ loves the Church; sacrificially, tenderly, faithfully. Let every wife honor her husband as unto the Lord; in purity and devotion.

Let young men flee youthful lusts, and young women guard their virtue with holy vigilance. For every conjugal union sanctified in Christ is a living parable of the Gospel; God’s redeeming love mirrored in human affection.

When next you partake of the holy mystery of marital intimacy, remember: it is a divine reminder that your soul was made for a higher union; the eternal embrace of your Creator.

As a bride rejoices in her bridegroom, so the redeemed shall forever delight in the Lamb who loved them and gave Himself for them.

Your Maker is your Husband (Isaiah 54:5).
Honor your body; sanctify your passion; pursue holiness in love. For the greatest romance awaits; the eternal marriage of Christ and His redeemed Bride, where divine and human intimacy shall be perfectly and perpetually one.

“Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” (Revelation 19:9)
Amen.

Rev. Emmanuel Boachie PRESIDENT, Centre for Biblical-Historical Christianity Defence, COUNTRY DIRECTOR, International Awesome Ministerial Council of Churches and Bible Colleges and HEADPASTOR, Souls ‘ Pasture Church Ghana, Kumasi: +233240375959/[email protected].