stephen R Harrison

Chastity outside of marriage and fidelity inside marriage have always been Christian values. God created marriage for one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24), and it was affirmed by Jesus (Matthew 19:6) and the Apostle Paul (Ephesians 5:31). The Bible teaches that any transgression or perversion of that is sin. It also teaches God created humans male and female in His image (Genesis 1:27; 5:2), and any perversion, distortion, or reassigning of that truth is an affront and attack to the very image and nature of God Himself (imago Dei). Jesus affirmed the male and female creation in God’s image and the sanctity of marriage of one man and one woman with His own words (Matthew 19:6; Mark 10:6).

The word “Pornea” includes about ten different sexual sins – all antithetical to Biblical sexuality. Any sexual act outside the marriage of a man and woman is sin. To believe or act otherwise would be hypocritical and sinful for the Christian as a new way of life is found in Christ and His word. We are now new creations (2 Cor 5:17) and are not our own anymore (1 Cor. 6:20). Our bodies belong to Christ (1 Cor. 6:19) and to our spouses (1 Cor. 7:4) and we should glorify Him with our bodies. There is a corrupt human nature because of sin that seeks out fleshly passions and desires (Psalm 51:5, Romans 5:12). The New Testament affirms this corruption of humanity even to the extent of affecting sexual desires that invents and applauds new ways to sin (Romans 1:18–32).

Biblically correct always trumps politically correct thus preceding the free speech issue by thousands of years. I’m not free to say or do anything I want as a believer (Col. 3:17). I’ve crucified flesh with its passions, desires, and lusts to Christ (Galatians 5:24). Sin so offends God He banished Adam and Eve for it (Genesis 3:23), but He so longed to rescue us from it He sent Jesus to us (John 3:16-17). Because God is holy and I now belong to Him and see my life as His, I “put to death what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On the account of these God’s wrath is coming” (Colossians 3:5-6).

Sin hates to be confronted no matter the sin, and every sin is offensive to a holy God. Paul spoke of his struggle with sin and freedom that came only through Christ in Romans 7:15-25. It’s in the confronting of and repenting from (changing ones mind and turning away from sin to God) that’s where true freedom is found (1 John 1:9-10). I know because I rebelled against my sins being confronted and convicted by the Lord. But God’s true love won. Real love does confront sin with truth and grace (e.g. Gal. 6:1, Luke 17:3, James 5:19-20). Real love became sin and was crucified to free us from the destructive power of it. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).

Thank you Lord for loving me while I was a sinner (Romans 5:8), but You don’t leave us in our sins. You love us out of sin having confronted and defeated it on the Cross so I could be a new creation: finding my identity in You and not sin. “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11)