In Genesis 1, the creation of humanity is marked off from God’s previous works of creation in several ways. One way the narrator does this is to describe the sexual differentiation of humanity in connection with the “image of God.” Of course, there are male and female birds, fish, and land animals; that much is implicit here and made explicit later in the narrative (Gen 6:19). But, why is humanity the only creature describe as male and female here? The narrator does not seem to view sexual distinctions (i.e. male and female) as simply a biological matter concerned with baby making. However, the narrator describes the sexual distinctions of humanity in connection with the “image of God.”
So God created human beings in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them (1:27).
In this way, the narrator ascribes sexuality solely to humanity, but does not elaborate upon the nature of human sexuality until Genesis 2.
In Genesis 2:18-25, human sexuality is expressed in a social or relational manner. God says in 2:18 that it is not good for the man to be alone. This seems to strike at the heart of human existence: man was formed to be a social creature. God’s statement expresses that man was not made to be a creature in solitude; moreover, this creates the sense of man’s incompleteness. This is developed by the next phrase: I will make a fitting helper for him. Two points emerge from this phrase which bears directly on our understanding of human sexuality.
First, the text notes that man needs a helper (this point will find swift affirmation if my wife is reading this or any wife for that matter). The idea communicated by helper here is not just help at work nor is it concerned merely with “baby making.” Rather, it denotes support in the broad sense. The word essentially describes one who provides what is lacking in the man, who can do what the man alone cannot do. Man was created in such a way that he needs the help of a partner. The point is that human beings cannot fulfill their destiny except through mutual assistance. Therefore, the idea communicated here is one of mutual support. Second, the text states that this helper is to be “suitable.” Rendered literally, the word translated suitable means, “according to what is in front of him.” The helper that the man needed was one who corresponded to him. He needed one like him physically, socially, and spiritually in order to be a proper or suitable helper. This brings to our understanding a second element of human sexuality, namely, mutual correspondence.
God’s first attempt, as it were, to make the man a suitable helper failed when he created animals and birds because from among them the man did not find a suitable helper. So then, YHWH sets out to put the situation to rights by creating a suitable helper for the man in 2:21, 22. He makes a creature from the man’s rib, which the man responds to in rapture: This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken (Gen. 2:23).
With the fashioning of the woman and the man’s expression of ecstasy, the narrator finally discloses the fundamentally sexual character of the man’s sense of isolation. It's only when the man is in the presence of the woman that he is able to determine that his solitude is related to his existence as a sexual being. It is only at this point that the man is even conscious of the fact that he is a man. For only as he sees one who mutually corresponds to him, is he referred to as “male,” and not man (adam). In short, only in relation to the woman is the man fully aware of his own sexuality, of the sexually based nature of his solitude, and of the liberation from his solitude now bestowed upon him by the presence of the woman.
Therefore, the creational design for human sexuality pertains to more than the act of sex. It is fundamentally linked to v.18 and the man’s solitude and his need for a suitable helper; one who will provide him mutual support and correspondence. It would then follow that human sexuality and sexual drive is fundamentally concerned with finding mutual support and correspondence, and not just concerned with physical sex appeal and a drive to have sex. The latter understanding is a perversion of human sexuality that prevails in our culture and tends to dominate the connotations of sexuality. However, the biological act of sex is not absent from a proper view of sexuality. In its proper place the act of sex seems to serve as a symbol for the totality of the bonding experience that takes place between a man and a woman when they become one flesh. Therefore, sexuality is fundamentally the desire for completion or wholeness through mutual support and correspondence in the opposite sex.