Posted on by Jack Kilcrease

Marriage and Sexuality: The Estate of the Family

In his Genesis Commentary, Martin Luther recognizes that there are three great estates: the family, the Church, and the state.1 God established each of these estates to channel creational goods to his creatures. Luther terms these primal and universal institutions of human life the “three estates” (status, ordines, regimina, stände). Later Lutherans, following the early-nineteenth century theologian Adolf von Harless, began calling them the “Orders of Creation” (schöpfungsordnung).2 Other modern theologians, however, divided the estates somewhat differently. When economic production split from the home during the industrial revolution, many Lutherans (including Dietrich Bonhoeffer) designated the “economy” as its own separate order.3  

For Luther, the most primal Order of Creation is the Church, since it began when God gave Adam the Word before he had created Eve.4 This being said, it could be argued that there is no real estate of the Church until Adam could preach to Eve. For this reason, we will begin with the Order of the Family.5 The discussion below will provide an opportunity to flesh out many of the issues regarding the theology of gender as well as marriage and the family.

The Purpose of Marriage

In Eden, God established marriage for the propagation of the human race in order to fulfill the mandate of creation. Bearing and raising children was part of primal humans’ priestly calling. As John Walton notes, the first couple would be able to cultivate more and more land as they had more children. Eventually, the first family could have expanded the Garden until the garden-temple enveloped the whole of creation.6  

In any case, marriage raises the issue of human sexuality and its proper exercise. As Jesus himself states in Matthew 19:1-12, God’s mandates in Eden are his will for human life. Anything that deviates from the primal order is sin (i.e., fornication, same-sex activity, etc.). Examples exist of God permitting deviant activities in later salvation history (i.e., patriarchy, slavery, divorce, polygamy). But this permission was a concession to sin and, therefore, lacks ultimate moral force, as Jesus himself directly affirms (Matt. 19:3-9).7  

Sexuality and Procreation

Human sexuality has two main purposes, both ordered toward the care and propagation of the family. The first is generative, namely, the production of children. God clearly teaches this in Genesis 1 as we have already observed. The second function of marital sex is pleasure and intimacy. While this may surprise some readers, the inclusion of the Song of Songs in the canon of Scripture gives clear biblical witness to the importance of emotional and physical sexual pleasure. The desire for pleasure with one’s spouse is part of the original creation and blessed by God, as Melanchthon affirmed in the Apology to the Augsburg Confession:

Gen. 1:28 teaches that men were created to be fruitful, and that one sex in a proper way should desire the other. For we are speaking not of concupiscence, which is sin, but of that appetite which was to have been in nature in its integrity [which would have existed in nature even if it had remained uncorrupted], which they call physical love. And this love of one sex for the other is truly a divine ordinance.8  

Despite this, some claim sex is exclusively for procreation. Often, these theologians also believe artificial contraception is intrinsically sinful. In doing so, they frequently appeal to arguments from natural law.9 In response to this, Lutherans should remember that that which is beyond the letter of Scripture or a clear direct extrapolation from scriptural principles cannot bind the conscience. 

Sexuality and Pleasure

Secondly, as noted above, the inclusion of the Song of Songs in the canon very clearly shows that God celebrates human sexuality as a genuine good in itself. Thirdly, it should not go unnoticed that there is a good natural law argument in favor of the importance of sexual pleasure in married life. The existence of certain human anatomical features exist for pleasure…. This suggests that God has structured the human body to make sexual pleasure an important dimension of human sexuality. Likewise, there are also only a small number of days in a month that a couple’s sexual activity will likely result in procreation. One might infer from this fact that God’s design for human sexuality entails more than procreation.  

Sexual pleasure in marriage is a genuine good for its own sake. Yet, it must not become disconnected from the need to build and maintain the order of the family. Contemporary Western culture has turned sexual pleasure into a consumer good among other consumer goods. Indeed, like any other consumer product, humans often now pursue sex on the basis of their own autonomous preferences. But sex is not and cannot be a consumer good.

Rather, sexual pleasure exists to the ultimate end of building up and stabilizing the family. The reciprocal giving and sharing of sexual pleasure builds up intimacy within marriage. This, in turn, creates a safe space for raising of children. Paul also mentions that after the Fall, when sexual desire has become indiscriminate, sex in marriage also functions as an antidote to lust (1 Cor. 7:9).

Be Fruitful and Multiply

Beyond the natural law argument, Roman Catholics and some others usually cite the command/blessing to be “fruitful and multiply” as an argument against artificial contraception. First, this is not a particularly convincing argument. Although as the mandate of creation teaches that one of the functions of marriage is the propagation of the human race, this passage does not teach the responsibility to have unlimited children. There were forms of artificial contraception in the ancient world (i.e., primitive condoms, etc.)11 and the Biblical authors felt no need to condemn them.  

Secondly, and more importantly, the second blessing/command of creation is conditioned by the first: “have dominion in the earth” (i.e., cultivate and build up creation). The goal is not to have an as many children as is biologically possible, but to have children to assist in establishing dominion. Rather than law, God’s word to be fruitful and multiply functions primarily as a gracious blessing to enable stewardship of the earth. At different points in history, there might be a need to have a greater or lesser number of children depending on the exigencies of building up human society and maintaining the created orders. 

Contrary to the claims of many Roman Catholics and some Lutherans, responsible use of contraception (i.e., to engage in family planning by timing births, not to reject the possibility of children altogether) does not break the unitive and procreative aspects of sex. Sexual pleasure pursued within marriage for its own sake is a good in that, as mentioned above, it creates relational intimacy. This intimacy expresses itself in marital harmony, which will invariably contribute to the raising of children if God so wills. 

  1. Lectures on Genesis (1535-1545); LW 1:103-106. ↩︎
  2. See: Adolf von Harless, A System of Christian Ethics, trans. A.W. Morrison (Brighton, IA: Just & Sinner, 2014), 416-499.  Also see American Lutheran interpretation in: Johann Michael Reu, Christian Ethics (Columbus: The Wartburg Press, 1935), 256-354. ↩︎
  3. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics, trans. Neville Horton Smith (New York: Touchstone Books, 1995), 204-210. ↩︎
  4. Lectures on Genesis (1535-1545); LW 1:103. ↩︎
  5. Lectures on Genesis (1535-1545); LW 1:104-105. ↩︎
  6. John Walton, Genesis (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 186-187. Also see G.K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1999), 1111. ↩︎
  7. See such an approach in: William Webb, Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009).  ↩︎
  8. Ap 23; CT, 365. ↩︎
  9. See: Germain Gabriel Grisez, Contraception and Natural Law (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing, 1964).  Also see: Pope John Paul II, Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, trans. Michael Waldstein (Toronto: Pauline Books, 2006); Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae: Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Pope Paul VI on the Regulation of Births (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1978). ↩︎
  10. Pooja Soni Deol, Anatomy Physiology of the Female Reproductive System (London: Bluerose Publishers, 2023), 11. ↩︎
  11. Robert Jütte, Contraception: A History (Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2008), 11-105; Angus McLaren, A History of Contraception: From Antiquity to the Present Day (Malden, MA: Wiley, 1992).  ↩︎

From the draft manuscript for Lutheran Dogmatics: The Evangelical-Catholic Faith for an Age of Contested Truth (Lexham Press).

Cover image from Giotto di Bondone, “No. 24 Scenes from the Life of Christ: 8. Marriage at Cana,” 1304-1306, Wikipedia, accessed June 20, 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Giotto_di_Bondone_-No._24_Scenes_from_the_Life_of_Christ–8._Marriage_at_Cana-_WGA09202.jpg; other image from Antonio Fuentes, “Song of Songs,” Catholic Answers Magazine, January 1, 1996, accessed June 20, 2024, https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/song-of-songs; Kelly Schumacher, detail of certificate of Holy Matrimony for Jack and Bethany Kilcrease, 2024.