2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;” (1 Thessalonians 4:2–3 (ESV)
The following article is Pastor Alastair Begg. Dr. Begg is senior pastor of Parkside Church in Cleveland, where he has served since 1983. He is also host of the radio program Truth for Life.
A little over a decade ago, English journalist Melanie Phillips, writing on the state of Western civilization, observed, “Society seems to be in the grip of a mass derangement.” There is, she writes, a “sense that the world has slipped off the axis of reason,” causing many to wonder, “How is anyone to work out who is right in such a babble of ‘experts’ and with so much conflicting information?”1
As I started to reread this book a few weeks ago, I was struck once again by what’s missing in her writing. Phillips writes as an agnostic but observant Jew, and many of the points she makes are profoundly helpful. But noticeably absent from her analysis, I find, is any recognition of the Bible’s account of how the world that God made in its entirety and perfection could have gone so haywire (à la Gen. 3)—particularly, in our day, in the realm of human sexuality.
Sexuality as described and prescribed by Scripture is not just a difficult topic; to address it is also unpopular and in large measure offensive. I come to it somewhat fearful, with caution and, I hope, with a measure of compassion—but also with the conviction that God’s Word and way are absolutely perfect and that God knew exactly what He was doing when He put humanity together. And thankfully, one of the passages that speaks most pointedly to the way in which God’s wrath is revealed against sin, Romans 1:16–28, is also preceded by and followed by the amazing offer of God’s grace.
Living in a Runaway World
Paul’s argument in Romans 1 unfolds from his great declaration in verse 16 that he is “not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Why, we might ask, is the gospel for “everyone”? Because, as Paul goes on to explain, everyone needs the gospel. Every one of us is born in the same hopeless and helpless situation: “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:18).
Mankind, in other words, lives in a runaway world. Some of us like to suggest that God is hiding, but we are the ones who have done the hiding since nearly the beginning of time (Gen. 3:8–10). We “suppress the truth”—the truth that He has shown us about Himself (Rom. 1:19). We deny the fact that He has made Himself known clearly in the universe in which we live—that “his eternal power and divine nature” (Rom. 1:20) are evident all around us—and as a result, we are absolutely “without excuse” (v. 20) when we choose not to worship Him or to thank Him. When we refuse to know God as He has made Himself known, we don’t give up on worship; we actually just worship something or someone else.
All of this brings us to the matter of human sexuality—not because it is some sort of hobby horse or because we get some (perverse) sense of satisfaction out of being controversial but because that’s what comes next in God’s Word. And if we simply choose the parts of the Bible we like and reject the parts that we don’t like, then we don’t believe the Bible; we believe ourselves.
Why would we ever want to consider a passage like Romans 1 unless we absolutely believe that the Bible is God’s Word, that it is unerring, and it speaks life-giving truth, even in our twenty-first-century Western world? We are not at liberty to rewrite the Bible to accommodate godless perspectives on abortion, on euthanasia, on same-sex marriage, on transgenderism, and more. We are not free to tamper with God’s Word.
And so, as we continue reading Paul’s inspired words, it is clear that having broken our connection with the Creator, who made us purposefully for Himself, we struggle to actually know who we are. As Paul goes on to explain, when men turned away from God and toward idols (including, as we do in our day, the idol of self),
God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. . . . God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Rom. 1:24, 26–27)
It’s important that we note here that the exchange of the normal, natural function of human sexuality for that which is contrary is not the first “exchange” mentioned by Paul. He has already described mankind as exchanging “the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Rom. 1:23)—the exchange of the creator God for created idols.
They have also “exchanged the truth about God for a lie” (Rom. 1:25)—the exchange of knowledge for ignorance. And it is because they refuse to believe in Him, to worship Him, that God gives men and women up to their “dishonorable passions.” He has given them up to something which contemporary society regards as an alternative lifestyle but which the Bible pronounces to be an abomination, to be a perversion. Idolatry, in other words, leads to all sorts of immorality—and the immorality gets deeper as it goes.
More to come from Dr. Begg. May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here. Have a God-honoring day in the Lord.
Soli deo Gloria!
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Alistair Begg at Truth for Life on December 14, 2022.
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