Gengwall

Charis,
I suggest your fourth dimension differs little from the 4th dimension Ortlund sees things through. Where in the text do you discern that “There is another dimension in the Garden that we DON’T HAVE ANYMORE”? I see nothing to suggest that. What we know is that the result of the fall is that our relationships will be much harder because of our sinful tendancies. But I see nothing in the punishments and prophecies of Genesis 3:14-17 to suggest that pre-fall intimacy is impossible or that some component of it has been lost to us. Moreover, if you are correct, you have actually diminished sex post-fall into less than God intended it to be. In fact, you seem to suggest that frequent sex within marriage is actually a bad thing; part of the consequences of the fall.

Although scripture has a LOT to say about sex and its important, positive contribution to the marital relationship, it makes no mention of the idea that either sex was less frequent or good pre-fall, or that frequent, good sex post-fall is some kind of substitute for some mystical relational dimension we have subsequently lost.