By Pastor Bernie
Originally posted on March 8, 2013
http://pastorbernie.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/5-ways-porn-undermines-the-gospel/
#1 Porn Makes Sex Our Savior
John 3:16-17 tells us that God sent his only Son Jesus into the world to save the world. He is the savior of all mankind. Pornographers inform the culture, and would have us all believe that sex is the new savior of mankind. That while the gospel is good sex is better. Indeed sex is good, and a gift from God, but it was never intended to save us. Sex through pornography “saves” you from feeling powerless, vulnerable, or even impotent. It saves us temporarily from loneliness, rejection, and hopelessness. It can even make us feel worthwhile, valued, and excited. But it can never save us ultimately. Though pornography masquerades as if it can save it is eventually unmasked as woefully insufficient to either satisfy us or save us.
#2 Porn Demands A Performance
Pornography is meant to arouse. It has an end in mind and that is the high of orgasm. But pornography only pays off if you can perform. Either through the fantasy of participating in your mind or through actually living out those fantasies with a willing or unwilling partner. In other words “works” or getting “worked up” is involved in order to experience salvation through porn. Thankfully that isn’t the gospel. The gospel demands our surrender not our performance. We are the beneficiaries of Christ’s work on the cross. After receiving Christ, our performance, or obedience isn’t motivated by what we get at the end. We are empowered by the beauty of God’s grace, forgiveness and sacrifice. We live with anticipation of a relationship throughout eternity with the one who saves us.
#3 Porn Does Not Bring Peace
Rather than peace, pornography leaves us paranoid. Whether its because we’re constantly looking over our shoulder wondering if we’ve been caught looking, anxiously scouring the web for another porn high, or we’re just more self consciousness about how we look or perform, porn steals our peace. Self consciousness becomes all the more acute with pornography. We can’t help but wonder what others are thinking of us. We’ve bought into the lie of the standard of beauty that pornography sets up. A standard of beauty and performance that neither men or women can ever live up to. So we’re left to feel inadequate and unfulfilled. We’re left to constantly compare ourselves to others. But contrast that with the Gospel. With the gospel there is lasting peace because I am identified as God’s beloved child (I John 3:1-2). I can rest securely in his acceptance of me. This removes the pressure to compare, or even covet what others have or to fixate on my own blemishes.
#4 Porn Does Not Satisfy
It is not enough to simply say that “Jesus saves”. I believe it is true, and scripture affirms it. But I also believe for this day and age that the gospel must teach us that Jesus not only saves but he satisfies. Jesus encountered a woman at the well who He knew not only needed a savior, but she longed to fill a deep hunger within. From what we can tell, she had tried unsuccessfully through relationships that seemed to end badly. Christ understood this and let her know that if she drinks the, “living water” that he alone can offer, then she would never thirst again, “but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.” (Jn. 4:13-14) We live in a culture drawing from the shallow pool of pornography believing that somehow it will bring peace and fulfillment. In the end though it only leaves us more parched than ever. Christ alone is ultimate, He alone is our answer to the deep longings of our soul. If we are alone, powerless, or insignificant he promises to draw near, empower, and give us a place of honor. The nature of porn is such that it can give us a false sense of fulfillment. Eventually we’ll find our selves spiritually depleted and longing for so much more.
#5 Porn Keeps Sin Alive
Porn is “everywhere” we say, Pamela Paul in her book “Pornified” says it is “omnipresent”. The truth is I know stories of young men raised in decent homes with solid parents. Still, the young men have been overwhelmed by the sheer intrusiveness of porn in our culture. They’ve found themselves caught in the tidal wave of pornographic material available to anyone, and gotten hooked. Porn has become an incessant, unrelenting promotor of sexual sin. Where as scripture calls us to “put to death” sexual sin (Col. 3:5, Rom. 8:12-13) porn keeps sexual sin alive and thriving. The gospel is a message about freedom from sin and sinning. It is about death to sin and a “new life” where sexual sin has been put to death and we pursue, “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”
