Redeeming Redefined Sexuality

The Power of God for True Sexual Freedom

Scripture repeatedly exhorts us to honor marriage and sex as perfect gifts from God. To rebel against the biblical prescriptions for sex and marriage is not liberation, but confusion and slavery.

The Current Sexual Climate

In our contemporary Canadian culture, we are faced daily with the redefinition of something very intrinsic to us as human beings: our sexuality. From the media to the classroom, from the workplace to institutions of power, ideas and practices of sexuality are being expressed, debated, paraded and changed.

Traditional views are out, so-called ‘progressive’ views are in, and, despite the swirling discourse with its champions of sexual liberation on all fronts, people are confused – confused about who we are as human beings, what it means to be male and female, and what the parameters are for healthy relationships and sexual expression.

Deceived Culture and Deceived Church

In John 8, Scripture makes clear that Satan is a liar and the father of lies. There is no truth in him and he loves to deceive us. Confusion leads us away from the giver of life and truth, God, and instead to “teachers to suit [our] own passions” as we “turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4).

When the Church is deceived, it cannot fulfill its prophetic witness to the world to proclaim the Word of truth and the Kingdom of God which is at hand. A confused church loses its saltiness and ceases to be the light of the world and a city on a hill (Matt. 5:14).

The Christian Response

As Christians we must develop a view of human sexuality, manhood, and womanhood from an examination of Scripture. We need to begin with an understanding of who God is, and then we can know our identity and purpose in the world in relation to Him. Scripture provides all we need for this understanding.

To go along with the tide of ‘progressive’ and ever-changing philosophies of men or to rest on mere tradition is unacceptable. We must thoroughly probe the whole counsel of God to understand the purpose and parameters of sexuality. Scripture lays out plainly that human sexuality is intrinsic to the created order and that God’s intent for it is happiness, blessing, and offspring; it is a gift.

However, our rebellion against God destroys relationships and happiness; it is vandalism and not freedom. We need to identify the errors in belief, thought, and practice which allow us to justify our sexual deviance and sin. This edition of Jubilee points out many of these explicitly, so that we can see sin clearly and turn away from it in repentance.

The Goodness of Marriage

We seek not only to provide diagnosis but also to rejoice in the goodness of marriage. Marriage is strongly guarded in biblical law and celebrated in biblical songs and poetry. The author of Hebrews admonishes us toward the ideal: “let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled” (Heb. 13:4). As God’s people, may we create a culture which exalts and revels in the goodness of God’s blessing of male and female, protects our own chastity and that of others, supports and creates conditions for healthy God-centred marriages that are a witness to the world and a foretaste of heaven, and embraces the blessing and responsibility of raising children for God’s glory.

Freedom in Christ

The power of Christ’s shed blood can break the bond of sexual sin and no sin is too great to hold us in its grip: neither adultery, nor homosexuality, promiscuity, pornographic addiction nor any other. We are not freed from sin and addictions easily, but the Scriptures are efficacious in directing us to fulfill the task if we are willing to obey and do what we are called to do. Jesus commanded radical amputation as the antidote to lusting (Matt. 5:28-30). We must remove all sources of provocation far from us in order to put off the desires of the old man and present our members as instruments of righteousness to God (Rom. 6:12-13). It is never adequate to simply stop practicing a sin; we must replace it with appropriate godly living. This is God’s prescription for overcoming slavery to sin and is a tested method taught by truly biblical counsellors (Eph. 4:20-24).

As believers we are given the Holy Spirit to convict and empower us and we urge you not to quench the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19) but to embrace the Spirit’s work in your life to heal and sanctify you, molding you into the likeness of Christ. We recommend that those who struggle with ongoing sexual sin seek appropriate biblical accountability and support in the priesthood of believers to be set free from these struggles. For “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37).

In Christ Jesus alone can we find healing; only he can restore our broken sexuality and make us whole persons.  “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

 

For a more complete treatment of this subject, see the editorial in the Spring 2013 issue of Jubilee.