Radical Purity for Kingdom Sexuality

Why does God’s Word, the Bible, speak so strongly against sexual immorality? Why does God’s Word seem so demanding when it comes to our sexuality and marriage?

Last week we learned one reason, that is that our sexuality and marriage is holy expression of God’s love. It tells the story of how God invites us into and makes possible an intimate covenant relationship with himself. Therefore, our sexuality is something holy and spiritual. God designed and knows best.Any defilement of God’s design for our sexuality is sin against God. But there is more. 

1.  Our Bodies Belong to God

Another reason is that our bodies belong to God. 1 Cor. 6:12-20 — 

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

God designed and created our bodies for his glory and for our good. “God’s design for our bodies is good, and this is why God, in his love, gives us boundaries for our bodies: he loves us and knows what is best for us. He desires to protect us from harm. But when we ignore these boundaries, it’s as if we’re saying to God, “You don’t know how this body is to be used. I know better than you do.” It seems a bit arrogant, doesn’t it?” (Platt, 162-163)

2.  We Have a Problem

And that is the problem we have. “I have the right to do anything.” This is the message of today’s culture and society. “We are driven … by whatever can bring our bodies the most pleasure. What can we eat, touch, watch, do, listen to, or engage in to satisfy the cravings of our bodies? We are swimming in a cultural ocean that cries out with every wave, ‘Gratify your body!’” (Platt, 161) The world tells us, if you were born with a desire, then it’s essential to your nature to carry it out. (168)

We saw last week that our sexuality is the bull’s-eye target of Satan’s battle against God’s kingdom. And he uses an age-old, his original, proven strategy, the one he used in in Genesis 3:1 — Did God really say … ? This creates the idea that we as humans, as creatures, can judge, question, doubt God’s Word. We try to explain away God’s clear moral commands and teachings in the Bible because they do not fit the culture’s and our views. Basically we are saying we know better than God. David Platt asks a very good question — “If we are going to throw aside God’s Word in favor of human experience, then whose experience are we going to trust?”

The culture, the world tells us to trust our heart, and to be true to ourselves. But … How can we trust our hearts and ourselves because … we are sinners and sinful (Ps 51; Rom. 5:12-21). We all possess a heart of pride that tend to turn away from God. Romans 1 — “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. . . . Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves” (Romans 1:21, 24). Our hearts are in darkness. We are all sexually broken because we turned aside from God’s ways to do what we want. 

“All across our culture, people believe, ‘If only I have sexual freedom in this way or that way, then I will be happy.’ But this is not true. Sex is good, but sex is not God. It will not ultimately fulfill. Like anything else that becomes an idol, it will always take more than it gives while diverting the human heart away from the only one, God, who is able to give supreme joy.” (Platt, 166-167) Glorifying God is the only way to experience the greatest satisfaction, joy, and happiness in our bodies. (Platt, 161)

 3.  Our Bodies are God’s Temple

And that is because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, the living Lord, lives in us, in our bodies through the Holy Spirit. We are all sexually broken because we have all sinned sexually. But no matter how broken we are, there is hope and new life in Jesus Christ. God loves us as we are, but he does not accept our sin and he does not accept us to remain in sin. Our sin, whether sexual or other sin, is offensive to a holy God. But Gods’ love save us from sin. 

Rom 5:8 — “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 2 Cor. 5:21 — “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

On that cross Jesus died for us, not only to save our souls but also our bodies. God paid a tremendous price to save our bodies. 1 Cor. 6:14, “God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power” (see also 1 Cor 15). Just as God raised Jesus’ body from the dead, he will raise our bodies from the dead. God has made an eternal investment in our bodies. One day, God will raise our bodies up to be with him in the new creation. Our physical bodies on earth are therefore holy and important. In this life they are God’s temple. This is where and how Jesus Christ lives in us. In this body! And in the next life our bodies will exist forever with him in heaven. 

Therefore, we follow God’s rules, we strive for radical purity, not for our own sake, but for the sake of Christ, out of reverence for Christ. We choose sexual purity because we adore Christ and we want to magnify him, glorify him. That is just pure worship because he is Lord.

5.  Flee—Don’t Look, Don’t Do, Don’t Go

And that’s why we must “Flee from sexual immorality” (1 Cor. 6:18-20). That’s why Jesus teaches: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Mt. 5:27-30)

We may smugly and proudly think, “I am not an adulterer. I have not committed any sexual immorality.” However, as we commit murder in our hearts and minds with our angry thoughts and insulting words, so we commit adultery and sexual immorality in our hearts and minds when we look lustfully at someone else.

We must deal with the heart where all sin begins. And we must do so quickly and radically because all sin, including sexual sin, stands between us and God. Sexual sin destroys the holiness of our sexuality. It destroys the sanctity of the family. It destroys the soul, and leads to hell, eternal death. 

In Mark 9: 42-50 Jesus adds the feet. “And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.” Jesus’ point here is that radical action, drastic steps are needed. We need radical purity for kingdom sexuality. 

Radical purity requires that we die to self — again and again. To follow Jesus is a costly call. It costs everything. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23) Taking up our crosses to follow Jesus means to reject sinful practices so absolutely, so resolutely that we die to them, put them to death. It is liking pulling out your eye, cutting off your hand or feet.

We must cultivate hedges and post guards around our sexuality and marriages. How? Flee from sexual immorality. How? Don’t look! Don’t do! Don’t go!

Don’t Look — We must begin with our eyes, which are the windows of the heart. Sin enter into the heart through the eyes. Jesus does not forbid us to look, but to look lustfully. Just like anger, looking and desire are natural responses. Without looking and desire you would not have seen, desired, fell in love with the love of your life, and gotten married. The problem is what do we do with the look and desire. It becomes lust, immoral, and sin when we imagine and want a sexual experience with that person. Jesus says, these sexual thoughts are already sin. So, deal with it quickly, radically, drastically. Don’t hesitate. Don’t wait. Don’t rationalize. Don’t deny. Don’t make excuses.

We must discipline our eyes like Job — “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.” (Job 31:1) Don’t look.

When our hands or feet cause us to sin — Don’t do it! Don’t go! We must behave as if we have actually cut off our hands and feet so that we cannot do the things or go to the places which cause us to sin. 

We must put hedges around our minds. That’s where the battle is fought and where it is won or lost. Discipline our thoughts — Phil. 4:8-9 — “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice And the God of peace will be with you.”

Recognize your weaknesses — Be careful! Don’t overestimate yourself! Many Christians have fallen into immorality through overconfidence. Paul warns us, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Cor. 10:12)

Galatians 2:20—“We have been crucified with Christ and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. The life we now live in the body, we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us.”

David Platt—“when you turn to Christ, your entire identity is changed. You are in Christ, and Christ is in you. Your identity is no longer heterosexual or homosexual, bisexual or transsexual, addict or adulterer. Paul writes, “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 Co 6:11). (Platt, 181)

“Surrendering to Jesus as Lord means that we value His truth over our personal opinions and experiences … Because Jesus is my Lord and Savior, my thoughts, my beliefs, my opinions, and my choices must be surrendered to His authority. I trust that His knowledge, wisdom, and love are greater than mine.” (Slattery, 47-48)

Of course this is not easy, and we cannot do this on our own. Pure willpower, pure determination will not do this. We are too weak, too sinful. “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” (Rom. 8:13) “Therefore, … continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Phil. 2:12,13) We can do this only by the power of Jesus Christ that works so powerfully in us through the Holy Spirit.

So, do it today! Change your visual habits! Stop that wrong relationship! Go to Jesus Christ! Only he can help you get rid and do the right thing now. We cannot do it in our own will power. 

This is what we must do every day — “let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Rom. 13:12-13)

We need a new sexual revolution — a revolution where God’s kingdom people will commit to radical purity for kingdom sexuality for the sake of godly Christ-centered marriages and godly Christ-centered families so that our society can begin to be healed and restored. This is possible only in Jesus Christ. And through radical purity that lives out a kingdom sexuality for God’s glory.