11/01/2018
How do you treat your sexual body, and how does it impact your spirituality? The greatest bodily temptation is sexual immorality, and God understands this... He is no prude, and knows the desire that we have; after all, He created us with it. Sex is meant to be pleasurable, and by so being, to insure procreation, but when Satan gets hold of it then it loses the purpose that God intended, and becomes misdirected and immoral. Do you have control over your body, your desires, and your sexuality?
“"...The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”
1 Corinthians 6:13 ESV
God gave us bodies to glorify Himself; we were created for Him, and He created us as sexual beings and told us to multiply. Then after our creation He gave us dominion over the earth and over every living thing. Once He had done this He looked at us and said “it was very good”. So what happened to us, and what is the solution for our bodily fall?
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
Genesis 1:27-28, 31 ESV
Before man’s fall in the Garden of Eden, he was sexually pure, His body, like his spirit, knew no sin, but once Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the first thing they did was to hide and cover themselves... this wasn’t because they were cold, it was because of their shame, and sexuality. So now there was temptation to be sexually immoral, but God put measures in place to protect this very basic design characteristic of sexuality... He gave us marriage, and then dominion over one another in a very specific way.
“But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.”
1 Corinthians 7:2-4 ESV
No, God is no prude, and He understands the nature of men, women, and sex... He created us with it! He also created it to be good! Then sin came into the world, and it touched mankind in every way... including sex and sexual immorality. The sin of sexual immorality destroys the purity of the body (that was created specifically for God’s Glory) just as it most certainly destroys the purity of man’s spirit. When a man or woman participates in adulterous sex it might feel good for a moment, but then comes the shame, and following that a confusion as to love, marriage, and how it applies to this immoral relationship. God however understands it very well, and tells us so in scripture...
“Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh." But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
1 Corinthians 6:16-18 ESV
There is no doubt as to what happens when a person commits adultery (sexual immorality)... it undermines sanctified marriage, and does more than imitate it; it assumes one of its primary characteristics... the mystery of one flesh.
God gave us laws for the spirit, and the body. He told us to put no other God before Him, and He told us not to covet another man’s wife. Man who had fallen completely, in both body and spirit, needed a solution to sexual temptation that was just as powerful and complete as the solution necessary for spiritual cleansing. After all, the penalty for this bodily sin is just as grave as the penalty for spiritual sin...
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV
So is all lost for those who have sinned bodily? Are you lost forever? No! Jesus defeated sin... not spiritual sin, or sins of one type or another, but SIN! Listen to the very next verse...
“And such were some of you. 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 ESV
God created an immediate fix for sexual sins by establishing marriage, and giving husbands and wives dominion over one another’s bodies, but he solved the greater issue of the SIN that is involved here by sending His Son Jesus Christ. The law called for the stoning of an adulteress, but Jesus says “Go and sin no more.” So there is forgiveness, but does that open the door to promiscuity, and sexual immorality of other types... no! Just as in spiritual sins, we are told to go and sin no more, and the penalty is just as severe when we fail.
So, have you felt trapped by sexual immorality? Have you thought that you had crossed a boundary that you couldn’t find forgiveness for? Well, the truth is scriptural, and powerful... Jesus died and was resurrected to cleanse you from bodily sins just as completely as the spiritual variety! Satan might try to convince you otherwise by sending a mob to convict and stone you, but Jesus will ask you a most revealing question, and give you His answer. Listen as He responds when an adulteress is brought before Him...
“The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?"
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."
But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."
John 8:3-5, 7, 9-11 ESV
If you have felt that you committed a sexually immoral sin for which there was no forgiveness... you are wrong! Jesus has made provision for you, but are you willing to accept Him, are you willing to change the behavior that imprisons you, are you willing to go and sin no more? Your body, like your spirit is meant to glorify God... can you ask forgiveness and allow Jesus to remove the stain of your sin today? Are you ready to move into righteousness as provided by the grace of God?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, and the sacrifice He has made to defeat sin and death for us. Thank you Holy Father for separating even the most egregious of sins from us, and allowing us to appear pure before you. Thank you Merciful Lord for separating our bodily sins from us, and remembering them no more. Help us Heavenly Father to be strong against the temptation of sexual immorality, and other sins pertaining to the perversion of our nature. Help us to bring these desires under subjugation, and once again glorify you in our body. You are merciful Father, and your grace knows no bounds. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God, who will raise us from the dust once more when Jesus comes to claim His bride. Praised be your name for eternity, and all glory be yours forever.
“as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”
Psalms 103:12-14 ESV
Rich Forbes