If you would have told my adolescent self that you can have the words sex and Scripture in the same sentence, I would have thought you were crazy. I might have even looked at you weird, smiled politely, and giggled nervously. Deep down I wouldn’t have believed you unless I did the research and came to that conclusion on my own. It turns out, you can have these two words in the same sentence and not keel over.
There are three truths that women need to hear when it comes to sexual brokenness.
1) God loves His people with a covenant love that cannot be broken or severed by any sexual sin.
2) God extends His grace even when His people don’t deserve it.
3) God endlessly pursues His people, which affirms His covenantal love and grace.
God’s desire is to be in intimate relationship with His people, and that is seen in the Garden in Genesis 3, where we see God responding to Adam and Eve’s sin.
He calls them out of hiding and into the light. He wants to see them and wants them to come out of their shame. He doesn’t stop at calling them; He welcomes them out of hiding.[1]
Similarly, He calls into the light and welcomes women who are experiencing sexual brokenness. God created women as sexual beings, and their sexuality is not only about what they do but who they are.[2] God pursues who they are.
God’s love is seen throughout the Old and New Testaments. Amidst the sins of the Israelites in the Old Testament, God continued to keep the promises that He made to Abraham. Abraham reaffirmed his trust in God’s promises through an animal sacrifice, and the Lord passed between them, signifying He will be the one to fulfill and uphold the promises. This is the covenant that God established with Abraham (Genesis 15), and from that point in history, God continually reaffirmed it amidst the disobedience of a people and nation.[3]
You mean to tell me that God still upheld His promises to His people, even though they disobeyed Him? That’s exactly what I’m trying to tell you! Please don’t hear me incorrectly. The Israelites still faced consequences for their disobedience.
God’s mercy and grace were not a license for them to continue to disobey, but His mercy and grace communicated that He was the one upholding the promises and keeping the covenant, not them.
His covenant love bridges the Old and New Testaments. The New Covenant predicted in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament is God’s provision to atone for sin and receive sinners to Himself.[4]
His love covers all because of the price Christ paid once for all.
Women who are struggling with sexual brokenness can rest in God’s covenantal love. The promises He upholds date back to Abraham. He carried the weight of this covenant across generations; His promises and faithfulness are foundational to their faith.
I never knew His love reached back that far into biblical history. I never knew His love reached back that far into my own life. While I was still a sinner, He died for me. His covenantal love was being carried throughout my own journey.
The Israelites, kings, prophets, men and women, with the exception of Jesus Christ, were all sinners, yet many times God relented concerning disaster, gave second chances, and grace upon grace. God was prepared to destroy Israel but He relented.[5] King David deserved to die for abusing his power, but he repented of his sin and the Lord forgave him.[6] The Pharisees were focused on Law and judgment, but Jesus was showing sinners compassion.[7]
The depth of God’s grace reached and reaches to the perpetrator king, harlot, disobedient, unjust tax-collector, adulterer, sexually immoral, unrighteous judge, liar, and thief. There isn’t anyone His grace cannot reach.
Sin has made humans disgustingly ugly, but God loves them anyway; in grace He chose to love, and from before the foundation of the universe, He has set his affection on the creatures He made in His image.[8]
God has set His affection on the one whom He has made in His image. YOU. His grace extends to every area of life, including the deepest and most broken areas.
God endlessly pursues His people which affirms His covenantal love and grace. He desires to be in relationship with His creation and He goes to great lengths to show them His pursuit amidst their sin.
He doesn’t cover His daughters with shame when they struggle with sexual sin or when they approach Him in confession. He speaks words of life and, truth; and He always offers freedom.[9]
In Scripture we see that God continued to pursue His people when they decided to worship other gods or do things their own way. He knew the covenants He made with both Abraham and David and knew that His promises to them still stood, even in their disobedience. Regardless of their sin, His sovereign plan for salvation was going to come through David’s line.[10]
He still used David and He can still use you.
It took me a number of years to recognize this type of radical love existed. I thought I had to strive, perform, and prove. I believed the lie (for too long) that God only loved me when I wasn’t sinning. Here’s the truth…He loves sinners. He sent His only Son Jesus Christ to die for sinners, WHILE they were sinners (Romans 5:8).
Say it with me: “Sex and Scripture.”
Questions to Consider:
Is God inviting you out of hiding? What is it that He’s inviting you out of?
Do you believe that the love of God that reached Abraham and David also reaches to you? If not, why?
How have you seen God use you amidst your sin?
_________________________________
[1] Joy Pedrow Skarka , phone interview, October 7, 2019. [2] Smedes, Sex for Christians, 6. [3] Genesis 16:16-18, Genesis 26:3-4, Exodus 12:25, and Leviticus 26:41-45. [4] Pentecost, Thy Kingdom Come, 170. [5] Dr. William H. Marty, The Whole Bible Story (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2011), 52, 53. [6] Ibid., 104. [7] Ibid., 232. [8] D.A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2000), 63. [9] Dr. Juli Slattery, Abby Ludvigson, and Chelsey Nugteren, eds. Sex and the Single Girl (Chicago, IL: Moody, 2017), 134. [10] Dr. William H. Marty, The Whole Bible Story (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2011), 113.
Resources:
1. Phone interview with Joy Pedrow Skarka
2. Sex for Christians by Lewis B. Smedes
3. Thy Kingdom Come by Dwight J. Pentecost
4. The Whole Bible Story by William H. Marty
5. The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D.A. Carson
6. Sex and the Single Girl by Dr. Juli Slattery, Abby Ludvigson, and Chelsey Nugteren
Kommentare