Torah and sex

James Rogers of Texas A&M writes with some notes on the charity of the law, which I reflected on earlier this week with a post on Matthew Levering’s book on Aquinas:

“For this age, I suspect that we have most difficulty thinking of the Mosaic laws on sex as having any charitable telos, but consider the following. (I should add that I think the OT laws regulating sex need to be taken just as Christologically as the laws on sacrifice & etc.):

“Obligation to marry after sex between an unmarried man and women – relationships must be self-giving; cannot exploit the “other” purely for self-gratification.

“Proscription on adultery – [a] the jealousy of particular love. (What wife would warm to this compliment, “I married her because I love all women equally, and she just happened to be one who responded to my love. No, that I Iove her by name – i.e., individually — means that there is an appropriate jealousy if she turns her affections to another, precisely because she cannot be generically replaced. I think this, incidentally, also motivates the doctrine of election.) [b] Also, love toward the other husband, in not seeking to steal what his unique love.

“Proscriptions on homosexuality, incest, and bestiality – On the one hand, love properly reaches out only to the “other” rather than to the self; on the other hand, the “other” must be “suitable” for us, and God gives us an “other” who is “suitable” for us. (That Jesus’ bride be “suitable” to him, means that we need to be redeemed, re-created out of his side through blood and water, Jn 19.34, and God’s image re-created in us. Like Adam, Jesus’ is not betrothed to a beast. Jesus reaches out to the “other” – i.e., to those who are initially not of his family, and makes us suitable to be joined to his flesh by re-creating God’s image in us through baptism and the Supper.)

“Sequence of Monogamy (creation) to polygamy (OT toleration) to monogamy (NT) – renewal of creation in the new Adam, Jesus Christ. Gentiles incorporated into Israel in NT (the resolution of polygamy into monogamy in the move from Moses to Christ).”