Is there hope for forgiveness and healing for the sexually broken? It may be that we have saturated our minds with pornography for years. We may have even lived for the brief thrills of sexual immorality. Maybe homosexual relationships or other sexual deviations from God’s plan have been our lifestyle. It might be that we have fully absorbed ourselves in a tribe or subculture devoted to this. And now we feel emotionally exhausted. Weary. Broken. Confused. Depressed. Disillusioned. Hopeless. We wonder if there is any point in turning to God.

Are sexually broken people broken beyond repair? Is there a reason to hope for those of us who feel trapped and dominated by sexual lusts we know are sinful?

God’s Word about sexual immorality as sin and rebellion against God is extremely clear. This has been the focus of the earlier articles in this series. But God is not a God who merely condemns and judges for sin; He is a God of love and mercy for those that repent. God calls out to all mankind today, including the multitudes guilty right now of perverting His created design for sex, to reconcile (get right) with Him and be made new through Jesus Christ.

Let’s consider some passages of Scripture that offer hope to the sexually broken.

Romans: Freed from Condemnation and Sin’s Domination

The first chapter of Romans describes in detail mankind’s descent into rebellion against God and the ways that rebellion lives out in everyday life. One major symbol of our rebellion against God is sexual immorality (1:18-32). Every one of us is guilty of sin and deserves eternal judgement, whether sexual immorality specifically has been our vice or not. Our sin has us in such a state of brokenness that we can do nothing to fix ourselves or make ourselves right with God (3:9-20).

But God is rich in kindness, forbearance, and patience as He seeks to lead us to repentance (2:4-5). Jesus Christ, through His perfect sacrifice of Himself on the cross, appeased God’s anger over our sin and rebellion. Jesus bought our salvation, delivering us from guilt and shame, through His perfect life and His death for us. We can know peace with God. We can experience His love and mercy! “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” (8:1).

Everyone who believes on Jesus is declared righteous, his/her guilt and sin forever taken away (3:21-28; 5:1-21). Through Jesus, sin’s power over us has been broken. Paul says, “Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions… for sin will not have dominion over you.” We don’t have to be dominated by sexual lust any longer! We have been set free from sin (6:1-14).

1 Corinthians: Cleansed, Set Apart for God, Declared Righteous

When the apostle Paul declared in black and white terms that those who continue in unrepentant sin will not inherit God’s kingdom, he named specific sins, including sexual immorality, adultery, and homosexuality (6:9-10). These difficult words are followed by a beautiful acknowledgement: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God” (v.11).

Many Christians are those who used to be dominated by lust and sexual passions in rebellion against God. They have been “washed”- cleansed, their guilt and shame taken permanently away. They have been “sanctified”- set apart to be God’s special possession, taken out of the world to be God’s child, to become like Him. Each has now been “justified” – declared righteous by God. All of this is because of Jesus Christ. No one is broken beyond repair because no person’s sin and pain are bigger than His sacrifice for us.

When we believe on Jesus Christ, our bodies become a part of Christ’s body. We become “a temple of the Holy Spirit” who now lives in us. We have been “bought with a price” (Christ’s sacrifice) and are now God’s. We must now “glorify God in our bodies” which are now “for the Lord,” and “flee from sexual immorality” (6:12-20). Radical salvation has happened to us, and now we learn to live in the reality of what God has done.

Galatians: Transformed By God’s Spirit

Those who do not have new life through the Spirit of God are described as those dominated by their desires and lusts. Paul described the lifestyle of people like this, specifically naming those involved in sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, and orgies. People living unrepentant in these sins don’t have hope of entering God’s kingdom (5:16-21).

But those who have new life in God’s Spirt and are now led by Him repent of such sins. Their lives now begin to be dominated instead by “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” How is this possible? They now “belong to Christ Jesus and have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” in Him (5:22-24). Our sinful lusts and passions were crucified with Jesus on His cross. We now have the ability in Him to be transformed.  

Ephesians: Identified “In Christ” and Renewed

Once we believe on Jesus Christ, we longer are identified by our ethnic background, cultural upbringing, or sexual history. We now find our identity as one who is now “in Christ.”

Before we believe on Jesus, all of us are spiritually dead, cut off from God, following the ways of this evil world, living for the passions and desires of our bodies and minds, and fully deserving God’s wrath (2:1-4). Once we understand and accept this, we are ready to come to God.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses (sins), made us alive together with Christ” (2:5). Broken, guilty, sinful, and full of shame—this is how we all come to God. When we come, we find Him rich in mercy, full of love for us, waiting to give us spiritual life, His salvation.

How do we come to Him? “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (2:8-9). We come to God in humility realizing we can do nothing to help ourselves out of the mess we are in. We ask Him to give us the forgiveness and cleansing and new life that He has promised because of what Jesus did on the cross for us.   

Once we are “in Christ,” we are now able to put off our old ways of life dominated by sensuality, deceitful desires, and impurity. We begin to put on our new self, becoming like Jesus. We learn to renew our minds, find truth and healing to replace lies and pain from sin, our lives growing in the love of God (4:17-5:2).

Every Reason to Hope

In Jesus Christ, there is every reason to hope for those weary and weighed down by the guilt, shame, and even the heavy emotional and physical consequences that often come with sexual immorality. Every part of our life begins to be transformed and healed by God as we know Him more and more. Our final hope is to be with God eternally, for there is no more sin and death there, no more consequences of sin, only joy: “in your presence there is fulness of joy” (Psalm 16:11).

Jesus is the answer—the only answer. He said,

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

“Whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).

Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash

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