October 9, 2019

If There Is No Marriage or Sex in Heaven, What Do We Have to Look Forward To?

Written by David White

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When you are with Jesus in glory, you will not look back on any pleasure in this world and think you’ve missed out.

Jesus teaches that there will be no marriage in heaven, but that doesn’t mean we are losing something precious—it means we are gaining something far greater. Earthly marriage was always meant to be a signpost, a shadow pointing us toward the ultimate union we will have with Christ Himself.

When we think about the idea of no marriage in heaven, it’s easy to imagine loss. But the reality is that every longing for intimacy, love, and belonging will be fulfilled more deeply and completely than we can comprehend. What marriage points to on earth—perfect love and complete joy—will be ours forever in the presence of God.

Understanding that there is no marriage in heaven helps us fix our eyes on the eternal rather than the temporary. We are being prepared even now for a future where our hearts will be fully satisfied in Christ, and where every earthly gift, including marriage, will be eclipsed by the overwhelming beauty of being united with our Savior.

The content of this video is based on David White’s new book, God, You, & Sex: A Profound Mystery, which is available now. When you buy God, You, & Sex from Harvest USA, 100% of your purchase will benefit our ministry.

I’ve heard people lament that there’ll be no sex in eternity. And I want to challenge you that that is really reflecting the lie from Genesis 3: that God isn’t good, that God’s holding out on us, that he doesn’t want to bless us.

All through Scripture we hear a radically different message: that God is good, that he has blessing in store. I’d point you to the end of Psalm 16, that at God’s right hand are pleasures forevermore, that God’s intention is to bless us and satisfy us. 1 Corinthians 2 says that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind can even conceive of what God has in store. He created us with imaginations and tells us, “Dream as big as you can. You’ll never actually reach what I have in store for you.”

Think about it like this. Philippians tells us that we will have a body like Jesus’ resurrection body. In order to experience those pleasures from Psalm 16 that we’ll have forevermore, we need a resurrection body. Our current fragile frame couldn’t even endure the pleasures that God has in store.

I love what C.S. Lewis says about no sex in heaven. He likens it to a boy who hears about sex for the first time and asks whether or not lovers get to eat chocolate. It’s the greatest pleasure he knows. He can’t conceive of a pleasure that wouldn’t include chocolate. He doesn’t realize that lovers in their raptures are not worried about chocolates, because they have something better. And Lewis’s point was, no sex in heaven is like that.

When you enter into the fullness of joy, when you see the one who is most glorious, majestic beyond your ability to comprehend, when you see his face turned towards you with love and delight, and your heart is satisfied with what it has always been longing for, you will not look back on any pleasure in this world and think you’ve missed out. You will have entered into what you were created to experience: your union with him.

And that’s ultimately what sex and marriage is. It’s a signpost beyond itself to something greater. He really invites us, through sexuality, to understand his longing, his desire, his delight in us, that he promises on that day will be fully satisfied.

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