Making All Things New E-Book

David Powlison

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 146

Beschreibung

Sexuality was a part of God's good creation from the beginning. But with sin came a world filled with sexual brokenness. Thankfully, God is always in the business of restoration. This book offers hope for both the sexually immoral and the sexually victimized, pointing us all to the grace of Jesus Christ, who mercifully intervenes each moment in our lifelong journey toward renewal. Author David Powlison casts a vision for the key to deep transformation, better than anything the world has to offer—not just fresh resolve, not just flimsy forgiveness, not just simple formulas, but true, lasting mercy from God, who is Making All Things New.

Leseprobe

Thank you for downloading this Crossway book.

Sign up for the Crossway Newsletter for updates on special offers, new resources, and exciting global ministry initiatives:

Crossway Newsletter

Or, if you prefer, we would love to connect with you online:

“In Making All Things New, David Powlison offers us a gem, a helping hand, and a sure bet. True to the Bible, he is a realist. He shows us how a Christ-redefined life changes what sex means. This book is not pie in the sky. It is feet on the floor. Where do you or people you love struggle? Take David’s hand and walk this road with the Lord. He shows us all how besetting sexual sin is symptomatic of something yet hidden. Repentance of sin commences sexual repatterning, and this accessible book will take you into that dark place with the light of Christ. As the world clamors about sexual rights and privileges, the people of God must show up with something beyond moral platitudes or behavioral modification programs. We already have a Savior who knows how to rescue his people. And now we have an accessible guidebook, one that helps the sexual sinner recognize the deeper battle, and one that helps parents and allies apply faith to the dire facts of being held captive.”

Rosaria Butterfield, former professor of English, Syracuse University; author, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert

“Sexual sin can seem like a trap from which one can never escape. David Powlison brings good news to those caught in sexual sin, and to those who have been sinned against. This book addresses sexual sin not with shame and moralizing but with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We all need to hear the message of this book.”

Russell D. Moore, president, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention

“David Powlison’s ministry to all fallen humanity is evident in this book. He calls those impacted by the pain and sorrow of sexual struggle and sin to repentance while finding refuge in the arms of our faithful Savior. Likewise, he presents to all who bear God’s image a picture of what God is doing to restore the beauty of sexual intimacy in the lives of his people.”

Timothy Geiger, president, Harvest USA; author, What to Do When Your Child Says, “I’m Gay”

“Finally, a gospel-centered book for both genders that beautifully brings the hope of Christ to bear upon broken sexuality. Women, like men, have been sinned against sexually and have pursued their own expressions of sinful sexual behavior. Making All Things New masterfully achieves the author’s vision to be candid and hopeful regarding the real possibility of life transformation and to restored joy to women and men bound up in the shame and pain of sexual brokenness.”

Ellen Mary Dykas, women’s ministry coordinator, Harvest USA; author, Sexual Sanity for Women: Healing from Sexual and Relational Brokenness

“I love David Powlison. Few living authors have shaped my approach to gospel growth, and even preaching, more than he has. Gifted Christian counselors like Powlison read the Bible in a unique way, laying open both the truth of Scripture and the foundations of the human heart, showing where one intersects the other. I have to think that if you heard Jesus preach in the first century, you would have assumed you were listening to a very gifted counselor. In this remarkably insightful book, Powlison offers gospel hope to those who have sinned through sex and those who have suffered through it. I am excited to provide this resource to people dealing with an area in which many first experience their need of the gospel.”

J. D. Greear, pastor, The Summit Church, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; author, Gaining by Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches That Send

“Making All Things New is a helpful perspective for understanding a common theme in life. David Powlison will help you to see sexual transgression and sexual affliction under the unique lens of the gospel, and will guide you to find hope in the purity and the cleanness of Christ. Jesus makes all things new, even our sexual experience.”

Alexandre Chiaradia Mendes, pastor, Maranatha Baptist Church, São José dos Campos, Brazil; director of vision and expansion, Brazilian Association of Biblical Counselors; coauthor, Dating and Engagement That God Desires

“Nothing hinders joy more than sexual misuse and abuse, and nothing troubles more people more profoundly today than sexual deception, corruption, and brokenness. This easy-to-read book is compassionate yet uncompromising, practical yet principled. It shines light into darkness for those seeking a way out, and extends hope to those needing it most desperately.”

Daniel R. Heimbach, senior professor of Christian ethics, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; author, True Sexual Morality: Recovering Biblical Standards for a Culture in Crisis

Making All Things New

Restoring Joy to the Sexually Broken

David Powlison

Making All Things New: Restoring Joy to the Sexually Broken

Copyright © 2017 by David Powlison

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Some portions of this book appeared as David Powlison, “Making All Things New: Restoring Pure Joy to the Sexually Broken,” chapter 4 in Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, ed. John Piper and Justin Taylor (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005).

Cover design: Micah Lanier

Cover image: Quilt provided by Nan Powlison

First printing 2017

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from The New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

Scripture references marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-5614-2ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-5617-3PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-5615-9Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-5616-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Powlison, David, 1949– author.

Title: Making all things new: restoring joy to the sexually broken / David Powlison.

Description: Wheaton: Crossway, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016055822 (print) | LCCN 2017026211 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433556159 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433556166 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433556173 (epub) | ISBN 9781433556142 (tp)

Subjects: LCSH: Sex—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Consolation.

Classification: LCC BT708 (ebook) | LCC BT708 .P69 2017 (print) | DDC 261.8/357—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016055822

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2022-03-02 02:53:44 PM

To Nan

Contents

Introduction

 1  Getting Oriented

 2  Making Renewal Personal

 3  Renewing All That Darkens Sex

 4  Renewal Is Lifelong

 5  Renewal Is a Wider Battle

 6  Renewal Is a Deeper Battle

 7  Renewal Brings an Increasingly Subtle Struggle

 8  Remembering the Goal of Renewal

 9  Getting Down to Today’s Skirmish in the Great War

Notes

General Index

Scripture Index

Introduction

A vibrant quilt has adorned a wall in our home for many years. The artist took bright swatches of fabric and cut hundreds of tiny squares and triangles. She created a lattice pattern through which you gaze into a luminous, iridescent garden. I view her quilt as an invitation to pause and catch a glimpse into a paradise. The latticework encloses, protects, provides structure, and reveals wonders. The garden within creates an impression of flower and color, air and light, life and pleasure. It gives a small picture of our God’s two great works: the goodness of his creation and the goodness of his salvation.

Both creation and salvation embrace human sexuality. Sex is an elemental good in God’s fruitful work in creation. Our sexuality is a renewed good by his fruitful working in salvation. Imagine sexuality transformed into a garden of wise love, safety, wisdom, self-control, and delight.

Imagine growing up within the protection of the lattice. Children are protected from the stains of betrayal, molestation, and assault. Sons and daughters are not defiled and sexualized by exposure to lewd humor and to suggestive or pornographic images. The sexually immature are cared for.

Imagine the dignity of sexual restraint as the first lesson of budding adulthood. We enter sexual maturity as singles, not marrieds. Friends, brothers, sisters, children, parents, and strangers are never meant to become objects of sexualized attention. Every willing learner must learn (and often relearn) broad-spectrumself-control as a core expression of love. And those who eventually marry will find that there are seasons where sexual restraint is the form love takes.

Imagine sexual desire freed and focused within the union of husband and wife. There is love, pleasure, and beauty in sexual expression during those seasons when it is a core facet of marital fidelity and love. Our sexuality was designed to be a willing servant of love. It becomes distorted by our willfulness or our fear. It is being remade into a willing servant of love. Love makes sexuality like a laser beam: its power under control, its intensity focused, nothing wasted or promiscuously scattered.

God began a comprehensive good work in you. He will complete what he has begun. Wrongs are made right, and, to quote Julian of Norwich, “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”1You will flourish in a garden of safety and joy.

How can this ever be? We become so stained with lewd desire and our own transgressions. And the transgressions of others so darken us with hurt and fear. How can all wrongs be made right? Jesus, the merciful, steadily intervenes. To the indulgent, he brings forgiveness, covering perverse pleasures with new innocence. To the frightened, he brings refuge, the name that calms our fears and bids our sorrows cease. There is pleasure and protection in Christ, God’s inexpressible gift. Sexuality becomes wise, and wisdom is that gift of God to which nothing else you desire can compare (Prov. 3:13–15).

The lovely quilt is an object lesson in creation and re-creation.

• • •

Needing a contrasting object lesson, I stopped in to talk with my auto mechanic. He fished a greasy rag from the trash bin at the back of his garage and handed it to me. Unnamable filth had soaked through that scrap of fabric. Ground-in, oily dirt. If your hands are clean, you don’t really feel like touching such a sordid rag. If you must handle such an object, you pick it up by one corner between thumb and forefinger, holding it out away from you at arm’s length. The filthy rag gives us a second, all-too-familiar picture of sexuality. Sex soaks up dark, dirty stains. We must face ground-in evils if we are to repair what’s wrong with us and help others with what’s wrong with them. You understand why Jude evokes an unpleasant sense of wariness even amid his call to generous-hearted love: “To others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh” (Jude 23 NIV).

Greasy-rag experiences turn sex itself into a darkness of renegade desires, lingering hurts, haunting shame. The darkness and stain reside not in being created sexual beings but in the doubled evil of the human condition. Evils arise from within us; evils fall upon us. We misuse our bodies, and our bodies are misused by others.

How is your life turning out with regard to sexuality? A garden in the lattice? A greasy rag from the trash bin? Here is Jesus’s personal purpose statement as he goes about his good work in us: “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5). This book explores that making new. But before we delve into the processes of that renewal, let me begin by identifying three orienting realities.

1

Getting Oriented

In order to renew anything, we must have a vision for what it is intended to be, for what’s gone wrong, and for how to bring about transformation. This chapter will establish that threefold vision for sexuality and then orient you to particular emphases in how I am coming at the issues.

A Threefold Vision

Christian Faith Revels in Sexual Fidelity

The Bible is frank about sexual joy within the circle of faithfulness. Fidelity first orients you as a child of God in relationship to your Father. You come under his care and oversight. Fidelity then orients you as a steward of your own body. We all enter adult life with the gift of singleness; many of us continue with the gift of singleness for many years, even a lifetime; and a majority of us will end life with the gift of singleness. We must be stewards of ourselves. Fidelity then orients you in relationship to your husband or wife, if God subsequently gives the gift of marriage. God made sex, defines sex, evaluates sex—just as he made communication, food, family, work, money, health, and every other good thing. In his design, the man and the woman went unclothed and celebrated a unity that was frankly physical. The blessing “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:22, 28) would be realized by knowing one another “in the biblical sense,” as sex used to be whimsically described. Passing this vision on, a wise father encourages his son:

Let yourfountain be blessed,

and rejoice inthe wife of your youth,

a lovelydeer, a graceful doe.

Let her breastsfill you at all times with delight;

be intoxicatedalways in her love. (Prov. 5:18–19)

The Song of Solomon then sings with rhythms and images of sensual pleasure in the union of husband and wife. The Word of God chooses to spend whole chapters gazing in delight at male and female anatomy. Felicity and fidelity become one flesh.

When husband and wife join in intercourse, the One who sees in the dark sees exactly what they are doing and says, “It is very good.” The private intimacy of marriage is public before the God who made male and female, who made their union good. Sexual intimacy is intended to flourish within trustworthy fidelity. It is meant to express love in the generosity and gladness of mutual giving. It bears fruit in children, if God gives that gift. The “one flesh” of marriage is such a good thing that it serves as a central metaphor for the relationship between Jesus Christ and his people. To see sexual immoralities as wrong is not to be nervous about sexuality. Christian faith envisions sexual joy before the eyes of the holy God. Neither immorality nor prudishness understands that.

Christian Faith Is Candid about Sexual Wrongs

The Bible discusses many forms of sexual immorality and sexual victimization. A vision for fidelity does not drive honesty about infidelity and betrayal underground. Prudish? Not Scripture. Squeamish about the sordid details of human life? The biblical authors frequently (though not always) eschew photographic description and details when they speak of sex and sexual organs. They often model a certain delicacy of generic description. Nonetheless, they speak openly, sometimes even graphically, of rape, adultery, voyeurism, seduction, fornication, prostitution, homosexuality, gender bending, bestiality, incest, and the like.

When Tamar experienced betrayal, rape, and humiliation from her half-brotherAmnon, we are not given videographic details. But we know what was done to her. When David played the voyeur from the palace walls, we are not given an itemized description of what his eyes took in. But we know what he was doing, and what he and Bathsheba subsequently did together.

To complain about the “sex and violence” in popular culture is to complain about the glorification, mislabeling, and voyeuristic detailing of such evils. It is not the fact that these dark human realities are on the table. The Word of God does not stint in describing sex, violence, and sexual violence. Genesis, Judges, 2 Samuel, and Proverbs capture sordid moments. But God labels sin and suffering accurately. He freely speaks of the sordid—as sordid. He does not titillate us with alluring lies and excessive pictorial detail. And God freely speaks of how alluring the sordid can be.

For example, Proverbs 7 tells a seduction story in vivid detail. But Scripture tells such a story to warn us of the allure. And whether the wrong is one-sided (e.g., rape) or two-sided (e.g., consensual immorality), sexual sin always proves suicidal. Genesis 19, Judges 19–20, and Proverbs 5–7 unpack that not just in principle but also through stories.

Scripture teaches constructive candor—the opposite of euphemism and evasiveness. It teaches accuracy—the opposite of titillation and brazen exhibitionism.

Christian Faith Brings Genuine Transformation

Jesus comes forgiving and changing the immoral. He bridges the chasm between sordid and glorious. He invites us to cross over from death to life. What was perverted can be converted. To disagree with immorality is not simply to condemn the immoral. It is to identify particular forms of lostness that need finding. We worship a seeking and finding God. We have been sought out and found by a Savior. He reproves the unruly in order to invite us to come seek help.