Sex and the Supremacy of Christ

So the last couple days have found me watching a couple videos from a conference that Desiring God did back in 2004, interestingly titled "sex and the supremacy of Christ"

I have been challenged with this question and I'd ask you to ask yourselves:

"Does knowing the supremacy of Christ govern my sexuality?"

If I'm honest with myself, historically... it hasn't. Sexual sin is something that I have struggled with a lot in my life... what between pornography, masturbation, lustful thoughts, lustful actions... I have run quite the gauntlet... and I would presume that it's not necessarily going to get any easier as time goes on.

Two points that I found refreshing, and were set out as the heart of this conference were as follows:

1 - Sexuality is designed by God as a way to know God in Christ more fully.
2 - Knowing God in Christ more fully is designed as a way to knowing/guarding our sexuality.

Said in a different, slightly more convicting way:

Misuses of our sexuality distort our knowledge of God and are a direct result of our lack of understanding of WHO God IS.

Scripture to consider:
Ezekiel 16.

To summaraize, it basically lays out another tragic story of Israel's unfaithfulness. It starts at the beginning, with God coming across a sinner. Someone broken and bloody on the street; someone completely worthless.

God comes along and sees and appreciates that person (in this case the example made is of a woman)... clothes her, brings her up, makes her beautiful.

But as time goes on, she starts to use her worth selfishly and abandons God... becoming a whore - as we all have in our lives.

Now... the JUST thing to do... the FAIR thing to do, would be for God to give her the punishment she deserves and leave her to her own, sinful desires.

But that's not the story we're apart of. We, as Christians -read: unfaithful whore-, are treated with such UNfairness that the story almost seems to not make sense. Not for anything we've done, nor anything we have the ability in ourselves to do... we are granted mercy. We are given grace.

The story WE are a part of... is one of love. It's a story of redemption.

Jump with me to the last verses of chapter 16...

v.59-63
For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I WILL ESTABLISH FOR YOU AN EVERLASTING COVENANT.
Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you. I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I ATONE FOR YOU AND ALL THAT YOU HAVE DONE, declares the Lord God.

Isn't that compelling?! Isn't that a beautiful thought?!

Even though we are faithless, selfish, prideful WHORES with our affections towards God... HE atones for US and ALL we have done.

THIS is the love that I aspire to live for in my life. THIS is the love that one day I hope to be able to exemplify in my marriage -should that be God's will for my life-.

We are given our sexuality to use it, within marriage, to glorify Christ... to show a most beautiful example of the relationship between Christ and His church.

But how often we do not live up to that responsibility. How often we parade ourselves around like we're something worth looking at.

Outside of the righteousness of Christ, which we are clothed in ONLY through His divine provision... we are worthless rags.

I want know know God as a lover. I want to know God from the inside out and to have Him know me in the same way. I want to trust that His word, and being daily enveloped in it, will keep me pure and holy in His sight.

1 Peter 1: 14-15
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

The passions of my flesh are a product of my FORMER ignorance. At one point in my life, I had an excuse for my unfaithfulness... it didn't justify me, but I had an excuse. I was ignorant of God's magnificent glory!!! I had no idea just what I was made in the image of.

But now... as a self-professed follower of Christ, saved not by anything I've done but only by His grace, I have NO excuse to be living in sexual sin. I have NO excuse to be indulging in that which is not rightfully mine to indulge.

This road we are on is not an easy one to walk... it's only through the strength of another that we are even given the grace to stand in the presence of greatness... but by that grace, I believe that purity IS possible.

We must abide in His word EVERY day! We must become living sacrifices for His will and His will alone... leaving our former selves aside.

It is my belief that the good, the beautiful and the truth are the same thing. (not my thoughts, I stole that from a much smarter man than I)

So if sexuality is to be good... let it be based in truth. Then and only then will it truly be beautiful.
If sexuality is to be beautiful... let it be based again in truth. Then it will become good.
And it then follows that if our sexuality is based in truth, it will be both good and beautiful.

I long for a sexuality that is God honoring, and can feel the Holy Spirit stripping my iniquities away and bringing about a long for purity and a desire for holiness. I long for my sexuality, as a man after God's heart, to bring glory to Christ and set an example for those outside of the church of just what that is meant to look like.

Many people today fall in love and then consider the idea of marriage.

I feel now, that it should be the other way around. We should consider our readiness for marriage before we allow ourselves to fall in love. Because if we are not ready to live up to our responsibilities within marriage, we are taking our affections away from God.

Now, that's not to say that I think it is sin to operate the other way around, for I am a man who is deeply in love, and I pray that God gives me the grace to keep that love alive through hell or high water... but can you imagine what Christian marriages would look like... what the WORLD would look like if we considered our readiness to represent Christ in the most sacred way BEFORE we allowed our emotions to take over?

Emotions can cloud our vision of truth, and at the same point, in the right ways, they can most certainly enhance it. But our eyes MUST be focused on truth... Scripture first. Experience second.

The heart is deceitful and concealment is Satan's greatest advantage. We must be open about our inadequacies in our sexuality and fervently pray against them.

ALL pleasure in our lives should be subordinate to those pleasures that we find in Christ.

I believe that true, intimate love, is a bi-product of an intimate understanding of who Christ is and what He's done.

If we find our foundations in Christ, not our selfish emotions, we will stand stronger going into marriages.

Not sure if all that made any sense, but these are thoughts that are fervently in my mind as of late.

May God bless you all with a heart after His will, and may He grant you the grace to live up to His expectations of purity in all our lives. God, I pray that you would accept this prayer, coming from a sinner clothed in the righteousness of Christ... I pray that you would accept my body as a living sacrifice, wholly devoted to following your will.

You are an amazing God and I am forever in debt to your mercy that you've shown me. Thank you for surrounding me with amazing friends and family and a fellowship that truly cares where my heart is at, even though I might not always appreciate it at the time.

Bonus Scriptures:
1 Corinthians 6
Colossians 3:10
2 Peter 1:3-4
John 8:31
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
Hosea 2:14-20

May we be open about our sins to those who will hold us truly accountable. May we be ready for the fire that is needed to refine our dirty hearts. May we forever delight in the amazing grace of Jesus Christ, our Savior... who died for our sins, and rose from the dead that we might triumph over sin through His righteousness.

God, I ask forgiveness for the sexual sins that have been ever so present in my life for as long as I can remember. I pray that you might remember them no more, and strip them from my heart and mind. Thank you for the cross, in which I can find peace in and amongst all of my selfishness.