PURITY WORKBOOK II Chapter 3 ‘What God says about Gender and Sexuality’
Objectives:
In the areas of gender and sexuality: to learn greater discernment as we study the radically opposing answers given by popular culture versus the Bible.
To become very familiar with how God expects our bodies to be used so that we may better obey Him.
To understand the great beauty in the redemptive analogy of marriage and to realize what God’s gift of marriage says to the world about our Savior and about us as believers.
To be able to recognize and avoid the prevailing lies in our culture about gender and sexuality.
Mid-chapter questions:
- In terms of how we use our bodies, God’s definition of freedom means that: a.) each person has a free will to choose what is right for them. b.) we are most free when living according to God’s design. c.) our bodies aren’t that important, God is concerned with man’s spirit or soul. (Answer: “b”)
- How we use our bodies (and sexuality) reveals: a.) who our master is and what our worldview is. b.) our personal philosophy of happiness. c.) our level of independence as a person. (Answer: “a”)
- The unbelieving world in its rebellion regards God’s plan for gender and sexuality to be: a.) an imposition upon society by the church. b.) a violation of personal rights and freedom. c.) a dangerous repressive set of ideas that works against sexual fulfillment and equality. (Answer: “a, b, and c”)
- The cross of Christ gives believers the ability and desire to obey God’s plan for gender and sexuality. Why? a.) because of Christ’s example. b.) because we see what is really important. c.) because salvation gives believers a new nature enabling us to love God and do His will. (Answer: “c”)
End of chapter questions:
Think upon these things:
See end of chapter questions in the text of the chapter.
End of chapter ‘take away’ ideas:
When you think upon the infinite distinction between Creator and creature, it ought to make you humbly bow before God’s wisdom in designing us to operate by His plan.
The nations of the world (unbelievers) want to cast off God’s good and wise laws—they see these laws as chains, cords, and fetters (Ps 2).
Your body is not a blank canvas; it is for the Lord. He owns us, and He has a plan for the use of our bodies, and He regards your body as His sacred temple.
Glossary:
Culture war: the battle between Christian truth and the world’s false ideas
Creational identity: God demands the right to define our entire existence; He states that He created us in His image and likeness (our creational identity).
Deconstruct moral structures: the activity of sinful man as he tries to break apart God’s moral laws.
Democratization: the belief that whatever the public wants is a step toward a more democratic society.
Bounded-ness: the fact that God created humans to operate within specific limits and moral boundaries.
Darwinistic pantheism: a version of evolutionary theory that allows for the existence of gods, and spirits within the universe.
Eroticize the body: to treat the body as a sexual object to be used for sensual purposes contrary to God’s commandments.
Covenantal sexual relations: God’s gift of sexual oneness in marriage is part of the marriage covenant which God recognizes as holy.
Dualism inherent in secularism and pagan worldview: the false idea that hard measureable facts (time, space, weight, etc.) are more real than God’s truths and moral laws.
Complementarity: part of the glorious plan of God that a man and woman ‘complete’ one another—male and female differences form a perfect combination, or ‘complement’ in marriage.