Where did sex come from? This intricate dimension to life is not an accident of evolution. It is beautifully designed by an intelligent, all-powerful Creator. God created sex, and intends it to be a wonderful blessing to us. His purposes for creating it are even inspiring when fully understood. For many people, though, sex is a curse, wrecking marriages and damaging lives.

This world is blind to God’s purposes for sex. And it is suffering as a result. You needn’t be blind. These purposes are provable from your Bible. You can also prove them by applying them in your life.

God created us male and female (Genesis 1:27). He created two sexes, and two types of sex apparatuses. He then commanded us to “replenish,” or populate, the Earth (verse 28). And He said that His creation, including the sex function, was “very good”! (verse 31).

Why did He make sex? He didn’t make angels male and female. Angels do not marry. They have no home life, family life or sex. These brilliant, dazzling spirit beings cannot reproduce (Matthew 22:30). Why, then, make humans able to reproduce?

Reproduction is certainly an important purpose of sex. But it is not the only purpose.

Educator Herbert W. Armstrong authored the greatest book about sex of all time, after the Bible. It is called The Missing Dimension in Sex. “Now comes the big truth!” he wrote. “Sex was designed and created in humans for purposes other than reproduction—for purposes totally foreign to animal or plant life! But the world has continued in unhappy and wretched ignorance of these glorious and God-bestowed purposes!”

Look around, and humans plainly use sex for reasons other than just reproduction. But if they are outside the laws God created to govern this act, then they will produce curses rather than blessings.

Reproduction is common to many animals and plants. But with humans alone, it points to a marvelous spiritual parallel. “[T]here is deep, spiritually transcendent meaning in human begettal, gestation and birth that raises it to an altogether and incomparably higher plane than mere animal reproduction,” Mr. Armstrong continued. “Human children are begotten through sex. And that very begettal, period of gestation, and birth of a human baby gives us the very picture of the spiritual salvation and gift of eternal life made possible through Jesus Christ!”

Humans are not animals. We can be spiritually begotten by receiving the Holy Spirit, then spiritually born as sons of God! No animal or even angel has such a potential!

Satan works diligently to hide God’s purposes for sex because they point to our salvation. He wants to hide God’s plan of salvation, which is all about family.

During His ministry on Earth, Jesus Christ was also dealing with ignorance about sex. He said to the Pharisees, “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:4-6). Reproduction is the first and most obvious purpose of sex. In rebuking the Pharisees, Jesus Christ revealed a second purpose: to be an expression of love between a man and a woman within marriage.

Christ said the reason a man shall marry is that God made them male and female—because God created sex. God ordained marriage. If reproduction were the only purpose, marriage wouldn’t be necessary. People have children outside of marriage all the time. Animals don’t marry, yet they reproduce.

Physical conception is a type of receiving the Holy Spirit. Physical gestation is a type of God’s chosen people being nurtured and protected inside the one true Church until the return of Jesus Christ. Physical birth is a type of our coming transition from mortal flesh to immortal sons of God. Human family is a type of the God Family. Human marriage is a type of the coming spiritual marriage between Jesus Christ and God’s loyal saints who do His Work today (Ephesians 5:22-33).

Mr. Armstrong wrote, “So grasp this colossal truth, if you can! Here is the greatest truth you can ever know! Man, and man only, of all life forms God has created, can be born into the God Family—the Kingdom of God! Animals have never been given family relationship. Angels have never enjoyed family status. The family relationship is a God-plane relationship—not an angel-plane relationship. And God bestowed it on man! Because man is to be born into the God Family.”

Only humans can become begotten and later born as God’s children. God is our Father. Christ is our Husband. This is all about family! Angels, as magnificent as they are, have never had the opportunity to be actual born sons of God (Hebrews 1:5).

Sex problems in this world are the result of broken laws. God’s laws on sex are invisible, like the law of gravity. You cannot defy gravity! Whether or not we understand these laws, we are still subject to the effects of breaking them. Sex outside of the marital union will never bring happiness.

Read Ephesians 5:22-33 to understand how to make your marriage truly happy. God clearly defines the man’s role and the woman’s role. The man must lead and be willing to die for his wife! (verse 25).

“This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (verse 32). These principles apply to physical marriage, but mainly they are about spiritual marriage (Revelation 19:7). We can marry Christ, if we obey Him today. Physical marriage and sex prepare us for that glorious future.

God’s purposes for sex are filled with beauty and inspiration. What incredible potential we have with marriage, family and sex! If only people would use sex for God’s intended purposes, they would find sex to be the real blessing—with no negative side effects—that God intends it to be!

To learn more, read The Missing Dimension in Sex.