Randy Alcorn joins us again, filling in for John Piper. Randy, we know from the Bible that there's no marriage in heaven, there's no childbearing either, but it appears resurrected bodies will retain their biological distinctions between the male and female sexes. So, the question is, will resurrected bodies be sexual bodies, capable of sexual activity?

If so, is heaven a place of perpetual celibacy, or is there sexual activity in heaven? What do you say? I believe that there is sex in heaven, sex on the new earth, in terms of sexuality, gender. But in terms of actual sexual relationships and sexual experiences between people, the very fact that Jesus said that there wouldn't be marriage in heaven, that in that respect we would be like the angels.

And we need to realize that's a very limited respect in which we will be like angels. It's not that we'll become like angels in most respects, but that's a specific one that we're told. And therefore, I would not expect there to be any physical sexual relationships. And when Jesus says what he says in Matthew 22, 30, then I think that that would, in my mind, close that door.

Though certainly I've read Peter Kreft and many others who have argued for there being sex in heaven. But I do think C.S. Lewis' insight was great. He talked about the boy who had heard about sex and people having sex and said, "Well, do they eat chocolate while they're having it?" because he was told it's this wonderful experience.

And to him, it was like nothing could be better than eating chocolate. And then Lewis makes the argument that perhaps our sense of loss about the idea of not being able to have sexual relationships is like that boy thinking that chocolate's the greatest joy and that there are greater joys that await us.

But one of the things that I emphasize to people is that I really think that we miss something when we say no marriage in heaven. The Bible does not teach there is no marriage in heaven. The Bible teaches there is one marriage in heaven, Christ married to his bride, the church.

So I remember when this dawned on me many years ago, and I said to Nancy, I said, "You know what? According to the Bible, we will be part of the same marriage forever. We're both part of the bride of Christ, and we will have as a bridegroom the only absolutely perfect, absolutely good, gracious spouse in all the history of the universe.

And we have that to look forward to, and we will enjoy that together." So I think those who are afraid, "Well, my wife, my husband's my best friend, we're going to lose that relationship." No, not at all. Everything about continuity from this life to the next, the shared experiences we've had here, I think we'll look back as we were like soldiers in the trenches together.

And we had great times, and we had hard times. And we should expect those relationships with family to be special and continue forever. But in couples with no marriage, it would seem to me that the sexual relationship would not be something we would expect. Interesting. But the sexual organs do remain.

I believe it is. And I think that the components of our sexuality that make us distinctly male and distinctly female are things that we have every reason to believe would carry over to our new bodies. The very fact that we are eating and drinking suggests stomachs and digestive systems strongly, I would think.

And so just as we would have our organs that help our bodies function in the distinct ways that they do, we could still have our sexual organs without having the sexual desires, but having still the sexuality that defines us as male and female. Excellent. Thank you, Randy. And for more on this and so many other topics, see Randy's bestselling book simply titled Heaven.

And be sure to check out Randy's ministry, Eternal Perspective Ministries, online at epm.org. I actually have that C.S. Lewis quote here in front of me from his book Miracles. Let me read it to close out this episode. This is so good. C.S. Lewis writes this, "The letter in the spirit of Scripture and of all Christianity forbid us to suppose that life in the new creation will be a sexual life.

And this reduces our imagination to the withering alternatives either of bodies which are hardly recognizable as human bodies at all, or else of a perpetual fast. As regards to the fast, I think our present outlook might be like that of a small boy who, on being told that the sexual act was the highest bodily pleasure, should immediately ask whether you ate chocolates at the same time.

On receiving the answer no, he might regard the absence of chocolates as the chief characteristic of sexuality. In vain would you tell him that the reason why lovers in their raptures don't bother about chocolates is that they have something better to think of. The boy knows chocolate. He does not know the positive thing that excludes it.

We are in the same position. We know the sexual life. We do not know, except in glimpses, the other thing which in heaven will leave no room for it." That's profound. So speaking of heaven, at what age will our resurrected bodies appear? Will there be children or elderly or will we appear to be 24 years old?

On that question, we will close out Heaven Week tomorrow. I'm your host Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John Podcast. . . .