the Vicious Cycle of Sexual Sin
Romans 1:24-27
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 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.
One of the consequences of idolatry is sexual sin. Sexual sin is the worship of the human body rather than the Creator of the human body; sexual sin is what happens when we want pleasure on our own terms, that which is right in our own eyes. Because idolatry is a both a result of foolish rebellion and a cause of further foolishness, Paul sees “unnatural” sexual activity—sexual activity outside of the covenant of marriage, founded on the male/female union—as the paradigmatic example of pagan sin. Paul is talking about homosexual activity here, but I think the implication is larger than that and includes all forms of sexual sin. (Pornography is about the purest form of idolatry that there is, because it is about the focused desire of another person’s image.) The brokenness that results from sexual sin is both its consequence and the proof that it’s wrong. There is a reason why so many of today’s cultural arguments have to do with sex, and that's because sex is fundamental to human life. If we get sex wrong, it deforms everything else; sexual sin deforms the human person in a fundamental way. I always say that one of the consequences of sexual sin is that it retards human maturity. And unrepentant sexual sin hardens the heart, making it harder and harder for a person to hear the Gospel and repent.
But let us not forget Paul’s thesis statement earlier in the chapter:
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. [1:16]
The Gospel is more powerful than sin, and there is no sinner that cannot be saved.
Who seems so far gone that only a miracle would save him or her? Pray for that person!