Why Wait to Have Sex?

          Being at Liberty University, I've been exposed to so many more "types" of people than I thought I would be. I naively thought that everyone I met would be a passionate Christian Republican who loved the NRA and Ronald Reagan. Boy, was I wrong. I've met those kinds of people (like my boyfriend — praise the Lord), but I've also met people who aren't Christians at all. My best friend at Liberty (and my future roommate!) is a Christian, but tends to lean to the left sometimes. Being in a Christian environment, our discussions never escalate into yelling matches or ignorance. That's something I've grown far too comfortable with at Liberty -- rational, sensible people who are (for the most part) working toward one goal, and that is making much of Jesus Christ. 
          With this unexpected diversity, I've had multiple occasions to learn about different people's viewpoints on different topics, and when confronted with a view that is different than my own, I have an opportunity to question my own belief and either come out with a better understanding of God or a more firmly held one. One of these beliefs is abstinence from sex until marriage. I've ran into more than a few people who struggle with lust, and don't see a real reason for waiting until marriage to have sex with their significant others, especially if they have every intention of being married one day. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that lust isn't a struggle for every teenager or young adult, including myself. This isn't some crazy unusual thing that only the worst sinners deal with. God has built our bodies to be attracted to members of the opposite sex in a sexual way.
          He also designed us for marriage. Sure, there are those who are predestined to remain unmarried for the sake of their ministries (1 Corinthians 7:32), but look at the Garden of Eden. Adam was alone in the Garden, and the Lord took a look at what He had created and said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. (Gen. 2:18)" And Eve was Adam's partner for the rest of his life. So we're called into a lifelong, loving relationship with one member of the opposite sex, which includes having sex with that person. (Fun fact, the book Kama Sutra, which many claim to be the book on sex, was written between 400 BCE and 200 CE, but the Bible's longest passage about sex, Song of Solomon, was written some time between 971 and 931 BC. So take that, Kama Sutra.)
          So what's the difference between having sex with someone you're married to, and having sex with someone you know you're going to marry? The difference is in God's sovereignty. God specifically commands us to wait until we're married to have sex. While He doesn't specifically give us a reason for it, He has proven Himself to be good. And not just good but absolute goodness. God is the standard for perfect goodness. And Romans 8:28 tells us that He's always working for our good. So why would God command us to wait until we're married to have sex if it wasn't for our good? Science is slowly catching up, and more and more the scientific community is leaning towards monogamous relationships being the most healthy physically and sociologically, and one way to guarantee that you only have sex with one person is to make a covenant before God that this one person will be your only person.
          Regardless of scientific backing for God's design being the best design, the fact still stands that God is good, and His plan is always better than ours. I refer back to Isaiah 55:8-9 quite a bit when I come to something I don't quite understand, "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'" And most importantly, "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved." Ephesians 2:4-5 puts it all into perspective. God loves us above all. Everything that He does, everything that He's planned, it's all because of His love for us. God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.