The Shoreline of Wonder

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32). The Bible calls few things a mystery, and no book in the New Testament speaks more of mystery than Ephesians. The mystery of how, or why God would describe His relationship with us in marital terms, and even in sexual terms, is certainly a mystery that I will not embarrass myself by trying to write about. Huston Smith said in The World's Religions of mystery: “A mystery is that special kind of problem for which the human mind has no solution; the more we understand it, the more we become aware of additional factors relating to it that we do not understand. In mysteries what we know, and our realization of what we do not know, proceed together; the larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder” (p. 389)

Ultimately, the reason God gave us hearts that needed relationship was not so we could relate and love humans, but so that we could love Him. We are sexual so we can begin to understand the level of intimacy God desires from us. John Piper has said that “we were given the power to know each other sexually so that we might have some hint of what it will be like to know Christ supremely.” Sexual imagery is able to articulate what it looks like to long for Him, to pursue and take hold of His love and promises, as well as what it looks like to turn from him and embrace other idols.

John Piper, Sex and the Supremacy of Christ P30