We are only prepared to receive and comprehend the grace of God when we have understood His infinite holiness and our incredible sinfulness. ~James MacDonald
I have been attempting for months to help someone understand just what the big deal is about our sin, and sexual sin in particular. I was struggling to bring to light just how badly our sin breaks the heart of God, and 1 Corinthians 6:5-20 is the passage I ended up returning to several times.
This passage gives us a clear explanation of the connection found in mind, body and soul specifically; each is intricately involved in the health and welfare of the other. Sins actively committed in our body impact our souls and minds; thoughts lead to actions which lead to spiritual disconnect from the Father. Spiritual brokenness can cause mental and physical side effects like depression, anger, apathy, even physical pain.
So, according to this passage, our physical actions impact us mentally and spiritually as well. We use our bodies and train our minds to respond a certain way, leading to addictive behavior. Most people today watch enough Dr. Phil to understand the mind/body connection.
But what about the spiritual aspect of sin? How does that impact us? How does our sin impact our relationship with the Triune God? According to this passage, our sin effects Christ intimately and directly. He tells us that, at the time of salvation, we become joined in one Spirit with Christ. He is a part of us, we are a part of Him. This is why the marriage relationship is a picture of our relationship with Christ; separate beings, joined together to become one while still remaining unique beings. One of the greatest mysteries of how we as spiritual beings function.
Follow this logic for a moment; as believers, we are joined to Jesus, being one in Spirit. He is with us and a part of us, present and actively involved in all that we think, say and do. That’s a pretty convicting thought.
But Paul then immediately uses an extreme illustration to make his point; he asks who in his right mind would ask Jesus to sleep with a prostitute? The answer to that rhetorical question is, “No one!” Jesus was tempted in every way, yet without sin. Jesus doesn’t want to engage in illicit sexual activity; his one goal is to glorify His Father in Heaven in mind, body and spirit.
So, following Paul’s graphic illustration, what are we doing when, as believers, we force Jesus, with whom we are joined in one Spirit, to join us in immoral sexual behavior? We are essentially raping Jesus. We are forcing him to participate in sexual activity He wholeheartedly desires to avoid because it brings no glory to the Father in Heaven.
Some statics claim that by the end of college (or age 22) as many as 20% of all women have been at least convinced to participate in a sex act she would otherwise have avoided. Ask any woman who’s been in that situation, and she will tell you how it made her feel. Dirty. Shameful. Used. Broken. Brokenhearted.
Sometimes it’s difficult as believers to understand how our sin breaks the heart of God. In following Paul’s logic in this passage, it should be abundantly clear; to engage in immoral sexual activity is to force Jesus to engage in sexual activity against His will. Our selfish momentary pleasure is equal to the rape of Christ.
Looking at it from that point of view, how do you think our sin breaks the heart of God? How would your heart break knowing that a loved one had been raped, abused, molested? How did you feel if it’s happened to you? What steps do you take to protect yourself from being in a situation in which those things could happen? How do you teach and train the young boys and girls in your life to avoid those situations? Shouldn’t we do the same for Christ?
If we are one in Spirit with Him, shouldn’t we live our lives in such a way that we do everything within our power to keep Him from being involved in activities He desperately wants to avoid?
Bekah Mason 
Heart sobbering and soul breaking when we accept the reality of responsibility for sin. Thankful again for Grace and Mercy.
This is the biggest load of Crap! Paul the self loathing homo sexual only preached that sex was only for the creation of children and to be only done for that purpose! Not to show love in marriage!Christ did not teach this! God made everyone perfect for his own plans and gave us free will to either live by the Ten Commandments or not! But sent Christ as the redeemer if accepted to save us from those sins!There is nothing in the Ten about sex but Adultery with means to go out of any committed relationship!There was no legal marriages in his time or way after!The rest of the Bible is History not to be taken out of context!Another sick view to put Christ in people private sex lives!God warn against Zealots that use his word to make up their own Laws and scare people into abiding by their own so called perceived laws! Rape! OMG That’s taking the Bible to another all time low!
Danny,
Let me first assure you that I do understand where you are coming from. I spent many years feeling the same way, making the same arguments you make here. But these arguments all come from silence in Scripture. At a certain point in my search for truth and understanding, I stopped looking at what the Bible didn’t say, and began looking at what it did say.
All of the statements I have made in the past two posts come from the Bible and my research of the Bible in their original languages. Where in Scripture (or in secular historical writings) is there any indication that Paul was a self-loathing homosexual? In which of his letters does he state that sex was to be used only for procreation? Paul in fact states the exact opposite in 1 Corinthians 7:5. “Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” The people in Corinth had actually begun limiting sex to only for procreation and Paul said to stop!
Scripture specifically tells of sex in marriage bringing comfort to a couple. When David and Bathsheba’s first child died, Scripture specifically says in 2 Samuel 12:24 that David comforted his wife by making love to her.
The entire book of the Song of Solomon is a love story of a young couple enjoying one another’s bodies for joy and fun and pleasure, all the while thanking God for the blessing of being able to do so.
I’m not sure what in this post is me making up my own zealous laws. I have learned how to use the Bible to teach me how to relate to all people in life, how to control myself and my thoughts, my interactions with others.
Tell me, Danny, how do you use the Bible in instructing your daily life? I know that men and women communicate and relate to one another differently because the two genders are different. God was gracious enough to instruct me on how to treat my husband if and when I am ever married to a man, but the one thing that always tripped me up was that He never once instructed me how to maintain a holy relationship with the woman with whom I was in a loving, committed relationship.
This type of angry response from you occurs every time I write anything related to homosexuality, yet you never respond with anything beyond angry rants of how my interpretation of Scripture is wrong. I would love to be able to sit down with you sometime with the Bible and hear how you interpret it and use it to guide you in your daily life. I am interested to know what Scripture you use that supports your lifestyle, because, like I said in the post yesterday, when God blesses something, He tells us how to do it.
E-mail me and I would be honored to sit down over dinner or coffee (my treat!) sometime and talk these important issues out face to face. That was the start of my journey from where you are to where I am now; I was just angry enough to dare someone to prove to me their understanding of God was right. If you took the time to put aside your anger and talk through some of these things with someone who has a differing view from you, you just might find that we aren’t so different, and aren’t so far apart on what we believe about the Bible.
I don’t believe homosexuality is worse than any other misuse of sexuality. They all fall short of God’s standard, as you will notice I said in the previous post. I wholeheartedly believe that it’s loving, pleasurable, fulfilling, enjoyable. It’s also inherently self-centered and self-fulfilling. It’s settling for less than what God has for us. All sin is settling, not just the sin you and I prefer. Let’s talk sometime.
Excellent!
Danny,
Your wrong about this being a load of CRAP! I know 1st had what this feels like and know it is the truth!!! I believe that the bible does condiem all sex out side of marriage. It took me a long time to get to this point!! But know that I do I want nothing to do with sexual stuff until I get married if I ever do. I too have gotten angry over this issue, but God was and is still giving me mercy and Grace. B/C of this my life has taken a major turn of freedom that only Christ can give! I’m not ashamed to say I am probly the gobber that she is refering to that took so long to get it. I am proud to serve the Lord with all of me not just by words. I want my live to reflect Christ, not what the world things he says but what he actualy does say in his word. Even if we don’t like it. If the word says it then thats it!! no question!!! It’s not what man says but what God says!!
I would love to read the “pro” biblical response should you choose to present such, Danny.
Bekah lays out a very compelling biblical stance on what God’s word DOES say, but, unfortunately in reading your response..I hear lots of anger without biblical justification.
That’s been going on for years.