the battle
Recently, I've been reading Future Grace by John Piper. I'm really learning from his chapter on lust. In my own life, the struggle against lust is very real. I must continually guard myself against sexual temptation.
In Matt. 5, Jesus gives a severe warning against lust. He says, "You have heard that is was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Let's stop here for a moment. This is often quoted in discussions on lust, but we normally stop here. We usually forget about the next part. "If your right eye causes you to sin, 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." Now that's radical. Jesus warns us that eternity is at stake here. In other words, lust can eternally destroy your soul.
At first, this gave me trouble because it seems to be contrary to other passages in the Bible that teach that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. However, Piper helped me to connect these two thoughts. Lust is basically a faith issue. Do I really believe God's promise of eternal life? Do I live for heaven, a superior satisfaction? Or am I like Esau who traded his inheritance for a bowl of soup? In other words, lust offers temporary satisfaction, while Christ offers eternal pleasure.
The other day I was listening to an online sermon by Ravi Zacharias, when suddenly something he said jumped out at me. He said, "Is it possible that somewhere in the deepest recesses of the human heart, we are really not battling intellectual ideas as much as we are fighting for the right of our own sexual proclivities and our passionate indulgences?"
Let me put it another way. Unbelief is not primarily an intellectual problem; rather, it is a moral problem. People refuse to believe in Christ because that would hold them morally accountable. They want to be their own god. They don't want any boundaries to be placed around their sexual passions. So the subconscious mind, consumed with lust, fights furiously against faith. This means that if we genuinely want to know God, we must kill sexual sin. We need to be willing to maim ourselves for the kingdom.
In Matt. 5, Jesus gives a severe warning against lust. He says, "You have heard that is was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Let's stop here for a moment. This is often quoted in discussions on lust, but we normally stop here. We usually forget about the next part. "If your right eye causes you to sin, 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." Now that's radical. Jesus warns us that eternity is at stake here. In other words, lust can eternally destroy your soul.
At first, this gave me trouble because it seems to be contrary to other passages in the Bible that teach that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. However, Piper helped me to connect these two thoughts. Lust is basically a faith issue. Do I really believe God's promise of eternal life? Do I live for heaven, a superior satisfaction? Or am I like Esau who traded his inheritance for a bowl of soup? In other words, lust offers temporary satisfaction, while Christ offers eternal pleasure.
The other day I was listening to an online sermon by Ravi Zacharias, when suddenly something he said jumped out at me. He said, "Is it possible that somewhere in the deepest recesses of the human heart, we are really not battling intellectual ideas as much as we are fighting for the right of our own sexual proclivities and our passionate indulgences?"
Let me put it another way. Unbelief is not primarily an intellectual problem; rather, it is a moral problem. People refuse to believe in Christ because that would hold them morally accountable. They want to be their own god. They don't want any boundaries to be placed around their sexual passions. So the subconscious mind, consumed with lust, fights furiously against faith. This means that if we genuinely want to know God, we must kill sexual sin. We need to be willing to maim ourselves for the kingdom.
posted by Daniel | 10:45 AM
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