Biblical Sexuality Pt. 9

Weekly Update – August 29th, 2024

Over the last year, we have been slowly walking through our newly adopted statement on Biblical Sexuality.  There are nine points to this statement.  This week we will look at the final point.  Point one can before found HERE.  Point two, HERE.  Point three, HERE.  Point four, HERE.  Point five, HERE. Point six, HERE. Point seven, HERE.  Point eight, HERE.  Point nine is as follows:

Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, forgiveness of sins and eternal life are available to every person who repents of sin and trusts in Christ alone as Savior, Lord, and supreme treasure.

This final statement may sound like it has nothing to do with Biblical sexuality, but in reality, it has everything to do with it.  On the one hand, we could say that it is impossible to change and that we should embrace the desires and temptations that may lead to sexual immorality or to same sex attraction.  On the other hand, we could say that we should set in place rules and laws to repress these desires, but never seek true heart change.  The apostle Paul tells us something completely different from these two perspectives though.  Instead, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15)

How does Christ save sinners?  The next part of the statement above explains.  Through Christ’s death and resurrection, he offers forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all who repent of sin and trust in Christ alone.  That is how Christ saves sinners.  This means that there is true hope in the midst of sin, whether it be heterosexual or homosexual perversion/immorality.  Forgiveness of sins and eternal life are available to all who come to Christ.  Therefore, sin doesn’t have to be the last word in our situation.  Not only can we be made right with God, but we can be changed as well.

The very last part of the statement above says that there is forgiveness of sins and eternal life to every person who repents of sin and trusts in Christ alone as Savior, Lord, and supreme treasure.  Don’t overlook those last two words.  For seeing Christ as our supreme treasure is more than just a look away at sin, and it is more than just wanting forgiveness of sins.  This is speaking of the desire to want Christ.  In Matthew 13:44, this desire for Christ is compared to a man who finds a treasure in a field.  To obtain this treasure, he “in his joy, goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”  It is this joy, this desire for something greater, that is not only necessary to see Christ as all sufficient, but to be transformed away from sin. 

Our hearts are only truly transformed when they find something better than sin.  That means that we shouldn’t be content in whatever sin we might be in, denying that change is possible.  At the same time, we shouldn’t seek change through rules and regulations.  The hope that we all have in the midst of sin, is Jesus Christ.  Therefore, to the one who struggles to display a proper biblical sexuality, whether it be faithfulness in marriage, homosexual pursuits, or any sort of sexual immorality, the call is to come to Jesus and find him as your supreme treasure. 

What a great way to end a statement on Biblical sexuality.  Jesus Christ came to save us, if we will repent of our sins and trust in him, seeing our savior as not a way to merely avoid punishment, as we live our lives in continued sin, but Jesus as our treasure, as we turn from sin, and pursue someone greater, someone better, someone more worthy than any distortion of pleasure that this world or our corrupted desires can offer us. 

Serving Him with You,
Pastor Michael Nelson