The Gospel & Pornography

Russell D. Moore, Andrew T. Walker

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781433690457
• eBook ISBN: 9781433646577
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

The problem isn't sex. God designed sex; and sex is good. Sex is a powerful union that brings men and women together. But when sex is distorted by sin, the misuse of our sexuality can alienate us from one another, causing immense harm and pain. Enter pornography—the most prevalent distortion of sexual sin in America. Pornography is not only a problem in terms of personal morality, but a social epidemic that is making the possibility of sexually-fulfilled marriages harder to achieve. It is rewiring our brains to think about sexuality in destructive ways. We have a very serious problem, and it's not isolated to any one segment of culture. So, what now? Editors Russell Moore and Andrew T. Walker of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) assemble leading voices to frame the issue with a gospel-centered perspective. The Gospel for Life series gives every believer a biblically-saturated understanding of the most urgent issues facing our culture today, because the gospel is for all of life.

Chapter

What Are We For?

Trevin Wax

“Thou shalt not look at porn.”

If you dig into the Bible looking for a clear-cut prohibition of pornography, you’ll come up empty. That doesn’t mean God is okay with it, of course. A wise reader of Scripture sets the practice of viewing pornography next to multiple biblical principles, and it is those principles that lead us to the conclusion that God stands against this behavior.

Pornography is a vice that touches on many aspects of human sinfulness: the glorification of sex outside of marriage, the objectification of other human beings made in God’s image, the fanning of the flames of lust, and the indulgence of our worst instincts. Because of these aspects of human sin, most people have an undefined, yet accurate understanding that the Bible condemns pornographic imagery. It’s why we speak of pornography as something dangerous, something to avoid, an addictive indulgence that warps and distorts our sexuality.

“Keep Away” Is Not Enough

The response of the church is simple: “Keep away!” Discussions about pornography often resemble the skull and crossbones you see on bottles of poison, a warning about the damage that can be done by whatever is inside. Death is in this bottle, says the label.

I resonate with the starkness of this kind of warning. Like almost all men today (and an increasing number of women), I’ve seen pornography, felt the power of its allure, and have witnessed its devastating consequences. I’ve seen marriages dissolve under the weight of betrayal and distrust. I’ve walked alongside others who have asked for support in their struggle to overcome pornographic addiction. I’ve signed up myself, and others, for Internet filters and accountability programs.

But what if we’re missing an opportunity here? What if, in our “no” to pornography, we’re missing the chance to show what the Bible says “yes” to? What if our attention gets so focused on avoiding sexual sin that we fail to see the beauty of sexuality, as defined by our Creator?

I don’t recommend we soften our “no” to pornography in the least. The response to youthful temptation is to flee, just as the apostle Paul commanded and the Old Testament character Joseph demonstrated. There are times when you don’t fight or try to stay afloat, when temptation is not to be trifled with. You change the situation. You flee the place where temptation is hounding you. Pornography is that kind of temptation.

But alongside our “no” to pornography must come the Bible’s “yes” to sexual expression within the marital union. The Bible doesn’t start with “no.” The Bible doesn’t explicitly address pornography at all. Instead, God’s Word gives us a bigger story, and within that overarching story line, the use of pornography becomes something unthinkable.

No one who takes the Bible seriously will arrive at the conclusion that pornography is acceptable for Christians—something to shrug your shoulders at, as if it is something to be expected as boys come of age. No. “Boys will be boys” is not a phrase found in Scripture. The biblical command is to “act like men” and “flee youthful lusts.” The world sees porn as something to be managed; the Bible sees it as something to be killed.

Pornography within the Story of God’s Good World

The purpose of this opening chapter is to dig a little deeper into the story of God’s good world. Here we find a drama that unfolds from the first book of the Bible until the last. A glorious marriage between a man and woman opens the Bible’s story of humanity, and a glorious marriage of heaven and earth, and of Jesus and His bride brings about the closing of this age and the beginning of God’s never-ending sequel.

Within the context of this story, we come to understand why pornography makes no sense when compared to God’s good design. But we also discover the reasons why pornography maintains such a powerful pull on people today.

So, moving forward, we will start by looking at God’s design as set out at the creation of this world. Then, we will look at how humanity has fallen into sin, and how this sinfulness results in the distortion of beauty, sexuality, and human relationships. Finally, we will see the radical response to sexual sin that signifies the presence of God’s redemption in our lives. All this will prepare the way for the writers of the next chapters to dig deeper into how we can respond with the power of the gospel to the powerful allure of pornography.

Scan the dial on your radio or browse the music video channels on YouTube and you’ll hear song after song after song extolling the beauty of love. Pop songs, rock songs, country songs, and jazz—no matter the genre, we call them “love songs” for a reason. The romantic spark between a man and a woman ignites all the senses and stirs up the deepest emotions in us.

“Love songs” run the gamut of emotion. There are songs of puppy love, songs that express one’s initial desire, songs of rugged commitment, songs of exclusive devotion. Then, there are the “break-up songs”—lyrics about feeling alone, protests toward a cheating partner, laments of heartache and divorce, songs that long for reconciliation.

Love songs are everywhere, and as Christians, we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, the first recorded words of the first human being, Adam, were a love song.

When God saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone (Gen. 2:18), He made Eve as his helper and complement. And when Adam saw his match for the first time, he burst into song: “This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken from man” (Gen. 2:23). Adam was delighted with the woman God had made. One can almost hear Etta James’s voice filling the airwaves of the sky: “At last! My love has come along!”

Genesis 2:23 gives us the forerunner to all the other love songs of the world. You know the type—the never-ending supply of songs that focus on how suitable the lover is for the singer. “You were meant for me,” sang Jewel, “and I was meant for you.” There’s rich, biblical theology below all this singing about love.

Love and Marriage

Many of the world’s love songs go right from romance to sex (or in other, even more problematic cases, from sex to eventual romance). But the first love song recorded in the Bible is different. The biblical text moves from Adam’s burst of melodic delight into the truth about marriage: “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).

Here is a relationship that includes sexuality, yes, but this union extends to all aspects of the couple’s identity. The sexual partnership is the act that unites their bodies, but also intends to express and reestablish the covenant commitment that brings together the spiritual and emotional aspects of a man and woman into harmony. What’s his is hers; what’s hers is his. Out of the family of father, mother, and child, comes another family.

And so, Adam’s delight at seeing his perfect complement is reenacted every time a man sees the first glimpse of his bride walking down the aisle and knows deep down inside, “This is perfect.” All of those love songs that express in one way or another the truth that “we were made for each other” are mere signposts pointing toward the cosmic reality of marriage, where the two halves of humanity are joined together in glorious and mysterious bliss.

Naked and Unashamed

Genesis 2 ends on an interesting note. “Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame” (Gen. 2:25). In the garden of Eden, no clothes were necessary. There was nothing to hide, nothing to be embarrassed about. Because there was no sin, there was no vulnerability, and no awkwardness. The first husband and wife lived together in the garden, at peace with each other, and in the light of their Creator, without even a hint of shame and embarrassment. They were blissful in their love and devotion, perfect in their union.

Naked and unashamed. It’s important that we pause here for a moment and realize that the naked human body is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. Because we live in a fallen world where our lusts are easily aroused and our tendency to objectify others is so strong, it is easy for Christians to begin to think of nakedness as inherently evil. This overreaction can lead to theological problems, such as thinking of the human body itself as something sinful or bad.

Some of the earliest Christians struggled with their views of the body and of sexuality. The challenges to Christianity they encountered—from the Gnostics, in particular—denied the goodness of the body and led some believers to think that abstaining from marriage and sex was a higher and more noble calling than the more ordinary task of bearing fruit and having children.

We see no such hesitation in Genesis 2. Here, God gives Adam and Eve to one another, places them in a delightful garden, and fills their calendar with great and noble tasks—the first of which was to be fruitful and multiply, and thus fill the earth with more image-bearers of God. Adam and Eve were to come together, and in the overflow of their love for one another, bring forth new life. There was no shame because there was no sin.

In the garden, we see the first humans in perfect relationship with one another and with God. They loved and trusted each other, and they loved and trusted God. The text tells us they walked and talked with God in the cool of the day. No wonder Jesus would later say, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matt. 5:8). In the garden, there was no sin to cloud Adam and Eve’s vision of God, and no shame to cause them to hide their bodies from each other.

Pure in heart. Naked and unashamed. Fruitful bliss. This is God’s original design for humanity, a world where the peace of God flourishes and extends into new life and new tasks, and where sexuality finds its proper place in the unashamed love of a man and his wife.

Forbidden Delight and Desire

Adam saw his naked wife and was delighted. But the next time we see something described as “delightful,” and the next time we see a human desiring something, is when the serpent enters the garden to tempt Eve to eat from the forbidden tree. “The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom” (Gen. 3:6).

First, Eve saw that it was good. Nothing in the text indicates that she was wrong. It was a tree that God made. Of course, it was good. Even though it was forbidden to her, still the fruit was good. But n...

Table of contents

• Series Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: What Are We For? (Trevin Wax)
• Chapter 2: What Does the Gospel Say? (Russell Moore)
• Chapter 3: How Should the Christian Live? (Courtney Reissig)
• Chapter 4: How Should the Church Engage? (Jared C. Wilson)
• Chapter 5: What Does the Culture Say? (Matthew Lee Anderson)
• Additional Reading
• Acknowledgments
• About the ERLC
• About the Contributors
• Notes