By: Shane James O’Neill
The gospel does a lot.
The Gospel has given explanation and meaning to our origin and our history, and it gives an incredible hope of restoration for the future. In this massive work, the gospel also speaks immediately into our lives. Into my life, and into yours. That’s important. If we can’t appreciate the Gospel on an intimate level then the big stuff will seem distant. And over time we’ll begin to think that Jesus came to save everyone … except us.
So here are 3 ways the Gospels speaks directly in your sexuality.
1. The Gospel Gives hope and purpose
“Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:12-13 (emphasis mine)
Whether your life is internally damaged by keeping your shame a secret, or your lust is actively destroying your family and everything else, you’re in a sinking boat that is chartered for the same storm
There is only so much good you can envision when the high of your day is getting alone with your smartphone. The idea of the good life doesn’t get more hallow than when our passionate ambitions are about one night stands and finding a sweet new porn site.
How empty.
The Gospel grants you hope by giving you a future you were never able to dream for yourself. A future where you are a father or mother to a generation, reshaping the earth for eternity, raising children of virtue and love, where every action of good sows’ infinite value, and you’re brought into such intimacy with God that He looks upon you as a friend and family member.
As the famous atheist-existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre once said: “Several hours or several years of waiting is all the same when you have lost the illusion of being eternal.”
Not having eternity takes the value from every second. But having eternity impregnates every moment of this life with immeasurable joy, purpose, and hope. Laughing with your kids, learning to protect them, learning to value the opposite sex, learning to be trustworthy, all of it matters.
2. The Gospel shows a God Who Knows our Lust
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15
Job, in his absolute misery, cries out a need to God that we all have — “If only there were a mediator between us, someone to bring us together”. Job felt unknown by God, and because Job felt unknown by God he didn’t know how to trust God.
Jesus brings God near to us – even into us – by allowing Himself to go through every temptation possible. Jesus wanted to know what it felt like to be you, so that as you hurt and are tempted He can feel with you and interpret [mediate] your soul to God.
The Gospel gives us Jesus as the perfect mediator, the one who translates God to the world and the world to God. Jesus knows your anguish, He knows your shame, He knows your lust.
The Gospel speaks into your shame and lust by giving you a Mediator who experientially knows your shame and your lust, so that there is nothing to hide from. Ultimately we won’t be judged for struggling, we’ll be judged for continuing to hide.
Let God into your weakness and He’ll let you into His strength.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18
3. The Gospel gives us the Power to Overcome
“The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. Just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.” Romans 8:11
The Gospel plays out humility in two ways:
First, we look at the Cross and see that we are more damaged and hideous than we could have imagined.
Then, we look at the resurrected Son of God, who is the firstborn among us, and realize that we are more loved, valued, and cherished than we ever dared hope. And Jesus wants to partner with us as we know our salvation in the moments of this life.
The empowering part is God took His Spirit from conquering death and then implanted Him inside of you. You’re stronger than you know, and the path to knowing that strength is through the humble confession of weakness (Jesus’ Cross) and the humble reception of dignity (perfect redemption).
(More on overcoming sin here.)
The Picture
What did Jesus go through to live life with you? Jesus didn’t just live for you, He needed to live as you. The hope and purpose of this Gospel gives us true redemption, and now every moment before us is an opportunity to become a new creation. Jesus’ terrible Cross and confounding Resurrection gives us the Spirit to overcome all of the darkness we find around us and all of the darkness we find within us.
Through the Gospel…
You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
No more hiding; embrace a hope-filled life with a God who knows you and will see you through every struggle — even (especially) your sexual struggles.
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Shane James O’Neill is the Editorial Director for ProvenMen Ministries. He is currently working on a graduate degree in apologetics at Liberty University’s Rawling School of Divinity.