Let’s Talk About *Ahem*, Baby
Now, if you got Salt-N-Peppa’s song stuck in your head, I’m sorry. Not intentional, believe me, because now I got the song stuck in my mind, too.
My vicarage supervisor, Pastor Allyn, told of this one time earlier on in his ministry, he was preaching on the Ten Commandments. The sixth week of the series featured the Sixth Commandment. While he was preaching, Pastor Allyn noticed some of the young men hung their heads in apparent shame. After the service, many of those men walked through the line, puzzled, asking, “How did you know?” Curiosity finally won out, and Pastor Allyn finally asked the next man who asked how he knew. The response was, “We were at a bachelor’s party and…”
Not knowing of the event in advance of the sermon, this pastor needed to faithfully preach God’s Word. Often times, it is to call sin a sin in hopes to bring about repentance. And then to follow it up with the sweet Gospel good news of Jesus’ love and forgiveness that He brings. And sometimes a pastor observes such a response, the work of the Holy Spirit to convict and to forgive.
Be honest, if there were a Bible study class offered at church, “What the Bible Says About Sex,” how many of you would come? My guess is we would more or less think, “I already know what the Bible says about sex” You probably wouldn’t come. Or you might be thinking of someone who needs such a class and go just to arm yourself, which ends up being a self-righteous maneuver.
Sex is a wonderful thing. God built it into the very fibers of creation. It is to be honored and kept as a sacred act. As God’s Word says so.
Unfortunately, in our broken world, sex is broken. The intimate environment in which sex is to be observed is broken. The reproductive nature associated to sex has been broken; in some cases, divorced from the equation. Even in the context of Biblical marriage, sex isn’t what it should be.
Should we even be surprised? Not really.
Everything that we do according to our own will, apart from Christ, has strayed from God’s design. Illness, greed, hate, injustice, racism, violence, death…these are all things of a broken world and are evidences of a broken world that is different from God’s design. And the culture around us seems to saturate us with false promises and empty expectations for our sexuality.
Yet, in Jesus, there is a renewed understanding of sex. It is taking the inadequacies, the selfishness, the bragging, the hurt, etc. of sex away. We are renewed to see sex in light of the Sixth Commandment, a way of living a pure and decent life in what we say and do.
For married folks, there is redemption for any lack of intimacy or distrust found under the Cross of Jesus.
For those who have used sex to manipulate, or to force upon another, there is forgiveness found in the shed blood of Jesus.
For those who have used sex outside of the context of God’s design, heterosexually or homosexually, or otherwise, there is a new path in Christ which offers a pure sexuality!
For those who are victims of sex, there is hope in the Resurrection of Jesus. One may still see the scars and feel the effects of the trauma. In Christ, sexual healing is found.
No matter what, your identity is not bound up in your sexuality. As a Christian, your identity is found in Christ. Forgiveness, hope, healing, redemption for anything and everything, including sex, is at the foot of the Cross. Christ stands there with an open embrace to accept you as you are, where you are. He came to find you and to love you. He gave His life for your sexuality. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends,” says Jesus (John 15:13-14a).
Written by: Pastor Bartholomew