In our previous lesson, we moved through Part 2 of the New Reformation Catechism on Human Sexuality. Those questions focused upon the effects of humanity’s fall into sin upon our natural desires and the temptations that now arise from within our deceitful hearts. Although their subject matter is far from pleasant, it is essential for understanding ourselves and the world around us. Now as we move through the questions of Part 3, we focus upon the gospel, the good news of what Christ has done to rescue us from our sin. Since we began by calling Question 2 the table of contents for the remainder of the catechism, we should also rightly use it to properly orient our discussion. Just as the goal of Part 2 was to know “how great my unholy desires and sexual sins are,” the goal of Part 3 before us is to know “how I am set free from bondage to my unholy desires and sexual sins.”

QUESTION 23

What has Jesus accomplished for me in the gospel with regard to all forms of sexual sin?

Through true faith in the promise of God’s Word, and wholehearted trust in Christ, by the gospel, God has freely granted—not only to others but to me also—the forgiveness of all my sexual trespasses, canceling all my guilt and meriting for me eternal life and salvation.

The central subject of the previous set of questions is ourselves, our own hearts, desires, and temptations. In bringing us to the gospel, Gordon rightly shifts the subject onto Jesus, which is the significance behind how the very question is phrased: What has Jesus accomplished for me… That distinction lies at the heart of the gospel, which is fundamentally about what Jesus has accomplished for us and not about anything that we contribute to our own salvation.

While it probably goes without saying, we should note that Gordon specifically addresses sexual sins here and elsewhere because that is the particular focus of this catechism, but the glories what Jesus has accomplished for us, of course, applies to all of our sins, not simply our sexual ones.

In the gospel of Jesus Christ, “God has freely granted… the forgiveness of all my sexual trespasses, canceling all my guilt and meriting for me eternal righteousness and salvation.” Forgiveness is the central accomplishment of Christ for us. Indeed, as the author of Hebrews makes clear from his citation of Jeremiah 31, forgiveness of sins is one of the chief promises of the new covenant that God would enact through His Son. In fact, it is only through having our sins forgiven that the other promises could be fulfilled. Here is the promise as cited in Hebrews 8:10-12, which comes from Jeremiah 31:33-34:

 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
            after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
            and write them on their hearts;
and I will be their God,
            and they shall be my people.
And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
            and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
            from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
            and I will remember their sins no more.”

This is the fourth promise of forgiveness that makes the first three promises possible. It is our iniquities and sins that blind us from being able to know God (and to even see the delight of knowing Him). It is our sin that keeps us separated from Him since His perfect goodness can tolerate no wickedness. It is our sin that makes God’s law a terror and a burden, for by it we see our sin more clearly. It is our sin that makes us incapable of receiving the blessings of the old covenant but only storing up its curses.

Notice that Gordon then gives two components of our forgiveness: “canceling all my guilt and meriting for me eternal righteousness and salvation.” In theology, this is often called double imputation. The debt and guilt of our sins has been canceled because Jesus paid the debt on our behalf. All of our sins were imputed onto Him. Amen!

But that is not where our salvation stops. There is another imputation that Christ has accomplished for us. He also imputes His perfect righteousness onto us. That is what Luther called the “glorious exchange,” and that is what we ought to mean whenever we talk about the forgiveness of sins.

This is freely granted to us through faith. Gordon rightly mentions both the God’s Word and Christ here because although it is our faith in Christ alone that saves, Romans 10 clearly teaches that such faith comes through hearing God’s Word, which is also where we now behold Christ. The early church was right to include forgiveness of sins as a doctrine to be believed and confessed within the summary of the Christian faith known as the Apostles’ Creed. Each time we say or read the Creed we ought to remind ourselves that the forgiveness of sins is a doctrine to be believed, not a work that we must accomplish.

Furthermore, we should repeat to ourselves with wonder what Gordon expresses here: “not only to others but to me also.”

QUESTION 24

How does the truth of the gospel set us free with regard to sexual sin?

Since I died, was buried, and have been raised with Christ through his death and resurrection, I am set free from slavery to any form of sexual sin.

Christ has broken its dominion over me, and I now live with a renewed desire to reckon myself dead to my old way of sexual immorality, but alive to God in pursuing a sexually pure life for his glory.

Nearly all of Gordon’s Scriptural footnotes refer to Romans 6, and for good reason. Gordon’s answer essentially follows Paul’s chain of thought in that chapter. Let us take a moment and read it together.

[read Romans 6]

We walk in the newness of life by rejecting sin and obeying God. Although we will still war against sin, sin will have no dominion over those who are in Christ. Why? Because we are under grace rather than the law. The grace of Christ is not a freedom from obeying God and a liberty to sin; instead, it is a liberty from sin and a freedom to obey God. Living under the law inevitably strengthens sins control over us by heaping condemnation upon us. The grace of our forgiveness in Christ does away with our rightful condemnation once for all, freeing us to actually want to obey and to delight in obeying Him. Indeed, those who have died with Christ can do no less.

We are slaves to whatever we submit ourselves to in obedience. Despite what the world continues to declare, obeying only your own wants and desires is not the path to freedom. Obeying yourself inevitably means that you will be obeying your own sin, and death is the outcome. Our glad submission to Christ means that we are slaves to Him, but it also means life and true freedom.

QUESTION 25

Since I am no longer my own but have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, what new identity has Christ achieved for me?

By faith I am joined to Christ as a new creature, and so I share in his identity.

In my new identity, I am satisfied in God’s love as his adopted child; I am to think of myself as purchased, accepted, valued, and protected; and I am to find it a great delight to be remade in the image of Christ in true righteousness and holiness.

The first sentence expresses the glorious truth of our union with Christ or our being in Christ, as the Apostle Paul was so fond of saying. It is in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that we have the powerful statement: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Galatians 3:28 also expresses that thought, saying, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Yet Paul’s great run-on sentence of Ephesians 1:3-14 is rich beyond measure:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

That is who we are in Christ, as we share in His identity. We are blessed, chosen, holy, blameless, predestined, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, enlightened, and sealed. Or as Gordon says, “I am satisfied in God’s love as his adopted child; I am to think of myself as purchased, accepted, valued, and protected.” Indeed, the wonder of the Son of God dying to redeem not only others but me also should be sufficient meditation for lifting our gaze beyond the very darkest of clouds. We need no greater display of God’s love than what He has already given to us in the cross of Christ.

Nevertheless, we should “find it a great delight to be remade in the image of Christ in true righteousness and holiness.” Making us like His Son is the greatest good that the Father could ever give to us. Yet we should remember that that remaking will often come through our Father’s loving hand of discipline. Therefore, we should learn to rejoice in our trials and sufferings as our Father uses them to make us more like Christ.  

QUESTION 26

Why are all forms of sexual immorality incompatible with my union with Jesus Christ?

Since I have become one with Christ in body and spirit, any form of sexual immorality invites that which is profane into my holy union with Christ.

Therefore, I am called to be one with Christ by fleeing all forms of sexual immorality.

For this question, Gordon cites 1 Corinthians 6, and it is worth reflecting on verses 12-20:

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Here Paul is pushing back against the argument that what we do with our bodies is unimportant, which he vehemently denies. Notice Paul’s statements that our body is “for the Lord” and to be joined to the Lord is to become “one spirit with him.” Indeed, Paul goes so far as to say that our bodies are now temples of the Holy Spirit, which means that any sexual sin that we commit, which is against our own bodies, is also a defilement and profaning of God’s temple. Therefore, though it is contrary everything that our present culture believes, Andrew Naselli is correct to summarize:

We do not own our bodies (vv. 19b-20a). We do not have the right to do whatever we want with our bodies. God has redeemed us at the cost of his Son’s death, so God owns our bodies.

Thus, Gordon’s conclusion is also the central point of 1 Corinthians 6:12-20: “Flee from sexual immorality” (v. 18). Although Christians are not immune from committing such sins, a Christian must never be at peace with them but, as we will see next week, should confess our sins to God, “eagerly turn away from all sexual sin, and seek to walk in the newness of life.”