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"Will there be male and female in Heaven?"
| John Hoole | July 20, 2003 |
Here is the next questions I would like to discuss. I don't believe I have ever been asked it in a public Question and Answer session. But I've been asked it privately - always by men.
WILL THERE BE SEX IN HEAVEN?
It shouldn't surprise us that people today are interested in this issue. We are bombarded by sexual messages every day.
The answer to this touchy question is yes and no. The reason for this double answer is that sex is both something we are as well as something we do. We have to consider each of these separately.
Some think the answer to both of these is "NO!," based on what Jesus says in Matthew 22:30.
Matthew 22:30 (NIV)
30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.Firstly, sex is an act that is performed between husband and wife for pleasure and for procreation. It is doubtful that sex as a physical act will be present in heaven. Sex is an act of intimacy and pleasure reserved for married couples. Since, according the verse we just read, there will be no marriages in Heaven, the act of sex will not persist as an expression of love. And there will also be no need for procreation.
In heaven there will undoubtedly be something far greater to enjoy than sexual intercourse. Men and women will enjoy each other in a much deeper way than imagined possible on earth. But it won't take sex to reach that relationship.
MALE AND FEMALE IN HEAVEN?
Sex - gender - is what we are in essence or nature: male and female. How often have you filled out a form or questionnaire that had a blank to fill in asking for your sex? Gender is a part of the essence of our being.
I don't see that this Passage teaches lack of gender. Gender is a God-created aspect of humanity. Jesus is simply stating that will be no marriage in heaven, except for the marriage of Christ and His bride.
We will be like the angels in that we will not marry and bear children. But as for you being a man or woman, what else would you be. God may unmake what man makes, but He doesn't unmake what He makes.
Before going further, we need to see what else the Bible says on this subject. We know, from the Scriptures, that our resurrected bodies will be like that of Christ following His resurrection. In John 20, we find Mary Magdalene distraught because the tomb was empty and she did not know where they had taken his body. At that instant, Jesus comes walking up. Before Mary recognized Jesus in his new resurrected body, she addressed him as "Sir," showing she saw him as being male.
In verse 15, she says;
"Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."If the disciples recognized Jesus after his resurrection, and if the disciples also recognized Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration, I think there is a strong argument that we will look our gender in heaven.
During the time of Christ on Earth, the Greeks were a proponent of the philosophy of Plato. Platonic belief was that the body is evil, and the spirit's highest destiny is to be free forever from the body. But the Bible teaches something Plato didn't grasp - that God is the Creator of both body and spirit. Jesus taught that both the body and spirit have been marred by sin, but both were redeemed by Christ.
It is true that I need to be delivered from my earthly body, which is subject to sin and decay (Romans 7:24) But the promise of heaven isn't the absence of body. Rather, it is the attainment of a new and sinless body and spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul regards the new body - not simply the new spirit - as essential to our redemption. If the body is not redeemed, man is not redeemed, since man is by nature body as well as spirit. A spirit without a body, like a body without a spirit, is not the highest human destiny. Our bodies will be changed to be like Christ's glorious body, but we will still be recognized as male and female in Heaven.
So, will there be sex in Heaven? Yes and No. Yes to gender, but no in the sense of the physical act.
In answering the question about sex in heaven, we touched on the subject of marriages in heaven. Earlier we read Matthew 22:30, which specifically says people will not marry or be given in marriage.
Romans 7:1-3 and 1 Corinthians 7:39 also state that marriage as a physical union is terminated at the death of either spouse. Even the wedding vow says "until death do us part." We will recognize our spouse in heaven as having been our partner on earth.
The verse does not say we will not have a special and close relationship with our partner from earth. Couples who shared the closest intimacy on earth will continue to know, enjoy, and appreciate each other forever. I plan to spend all of eternity with Paula, but it will be in a relationship that goes far beyond anything we have experienced here on earth. I believe I will recognize Paula as having been my wife on earth. And I believe that our relationship in Heaven will be thousands of time greater than the great relationship we have had here on earth. But we won't be married to each other in the sense of being joined together at the exclusion of everyone else. Instead, we will both be part of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will together be married to the Heavenly Bridegroom.
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