Mankind has battled with lust, sexual immoralities of many kinds, since Adam and Eve’s fall into sin. We have considered God’s plan for sex in Genesis 1-2, the way the book of Genesis illustrates sexual deviation from God’s design for God’s gift, and how the rest of the Old Testament on through the Gospels show us that mankind’s sexual rebellion continued through the centuries.

We concluded that the abuse of human sexuality goes hand in hand with rebellion against God. Sexual purity is motivated by love for God and fear of Him. The next question to answer regards the new covenant that we now have in Jesus Christ. Has God’s hatred for sexual deviation from His created order changed? Now that we are not under the law but under grace, do God’s previous expectations for sexual purity remain the same, or are they now relaxed, or even different?

The Jerusalem Council Meets

It was really hard for Jewish converts to understand that Christ fulfilled the law and that all of the ceremonial and ritual laws of the old covenant were no longer necessary. Jesus is now our High Priest. He was the Perfect Sacrifice for sin. Jesus had sent His Spirit to immediately indwell every believer, so we are all priests. A temple building, priesthood, animal sacrifices, food laws, etc., are no longer required, or even beneficial. Even the Jewish apostles really struggled to embrace this new reality in Jesus (Galatians 1-2).

Though promises to Israel yet unfulfilled will come to pass, Jews and Gentiles are now one (Ephesians 2:11-22). In Christ, there is no distinction. Understanding this, the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) agreed before God that the Gentiles were not to be urged or forced to become Jewish through adherence to traditions or laws of the old covenant. Jewishness was not equal to Christianness/Christlikeness.

The early church worked through these things quickly as God’s Spirit was bringing salvation to the Gentiles. The Holy Spirit was still giving the apostles revelation that would provide more understanding. What should repentance look like for new converted pagans in this new era?

Christian Living 101

In that early council it was understood that, at the very least, God’s minimal moral expectation upon the new Gentiles believers was complete separation from idols and idolatrous practices, sexual immorality (often connected to idolatry), and to learn to love both Jews and Gentiles equally.

“Write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood” (Acts 15:20).

This love by Gentiles for the Jewish believers would be demonstrated by their agreement to not eat blood or meat with blood in it. This practice was strictly forbidden both before the old covenant and by the old covenant. Since many congregations of believers had both Jews and Gentiles that fellowshipped around food regularly, this very offensive practice (even if not a food law) needed to be in place at least for a time. 

If a man or woman repents of their sins and believes on Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, the most basic first-level expression of their conversion is forsaking idolatry and leading a sexually pure lifestyle. God’s wrath against deviation from His plan and purpose for sex has not changed. His will and expectations for His people to obtain and maintain sexual purity also remain the same. Elementary love and obedience to God requires sexual integrity. It is not insignificant that God’s Spirit chose this command for sexual purity as one of His first revelations to the early church.

Does this emphasis on repentance from sexual sin and maintaining sexual purity continue on throughout the New Testament?

Limitations of the Jerusalem Council

The book of Galatians was written, in large part, to defend the true Gospel of Jesus Christ against those that would require the Gentiles to adopt Jewish old covenant practices in order to follow Jesus (especially circumcision). The Jerusalem Council did not put to death this movement of false teachers that sought to bring Gentile Christians under the law. Paul fought this error continually throughout his ministry.

Chapters 1-4 of the book set the matter straight: salvation in Jesus Christ comes by grace through faith alone, not by the law or some version of grace combined with the keeping of the law. “For freedom Christ has set us free” (5:1).

Flesh versus the Spirit

When we come to chapter 5, Paul begins to talk about what the Christian life free from the old covenant law looks like. It is not moral anarchy. It is freedom from slavery to our sinful flesh, freedom to love others instead (v.13-15). Paul argues that in Christ we are now led by the Spirit, so we should walk in the Spirit (v.16-18).

Works of the flesh

Paul then contrasts for us what life under bondage to sin looks like versus how life appears when led by the Spirit. The works of the flesh are “evident” (obvious, CSB), Paul says: “sexual immorality (adultery, KJV), impurity (moral impurity, CSB), sensuality (debauchery, NIV; promiscuity, CSB; lustful pleasures, NLT; total irresponsibility, lack of self-control, AMP), idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries (selfish ambition, LSB), dissensions, orgies (carousing, NASB95), and things like these” (v.19-21).

What should be obvious to all, Paul teaches, is that life without Christ is life dominated by selfishness, particularly in fulfilment of one’s lusts and ambitions at the expense of everyone else. Notice the emphasis on sexual sin as indicative of a life not yet under Jesus. No, God’s standard for sexual purity did not somehow change or get redefined after the cross.

Works (Fruit) of the Spirit

Life led by the Spirit produces the “fruit of the Spirit,” the exact opposite of what we just read about: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (v.22-24). Love and self-control, holiness in the image of God, is the pursuit of the Christian. All in whom the Spirit dwells begin to bear this proof of His presence.

Repentant Dependence

Deliverance from sexual lust does not come through willpower. God does not expect us to cleanse ourselves from sexual immorality through self-discipline alone. We must repent of our sexual sin and submit our sexuality to God. As we do this, we depend upon the grace of Jesus Christ to change us and to help us to sexual purity.

Paul said to the Galatians, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you this: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (3:1-3).

In other words, we are saved by grace through faith. God does the saving. We don’t even help Him accomplish it. Now that we are saved by His grace, we must continue to allow God to change us to make us more like Christ by that same grace. We can’t change ourselves to become more like Jesus after our conversion through our self-effort any more than we could before it!

God’s will for every Christian is clear: sexual purity. One reason He has given us His Spirit is to enable us to do so. God can heal us from sexual brokenness for His glory and our good. Sexual purity is first-level Christian living, elementary obedience, even proof of one’s genuine Christianity.

We are not alone.

Sexual purity happens through the power of the Holy Spirit now in us: “But I say, walk in the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (5:16). It happens with the help of our brothers and sisters in Christ that keep us accountable through the local church: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness…Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (6:1-2). We are not meant to repent and change alone.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).