June 14, 2023

“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. 

(Genesis 2:23–25 ESV)

What do we do when our desires run contrary to Scripture? Better yet, what should we do when our desires run contrary to Scripture? Genesis 2 shows that God created Adam first and then Eve, to be a helper “fit for him.” What was Eve to help Adam accomplish? The command to multiply and exercise dominion over all creation.   What was true of Adam and Eve in particular is true for all humanity in general: men and women were created in God’s image so that we might be joined together with complementary likeness in covenant according to the pattern shown here. It can seem a bit utilitarian until we read Adam’s exclamation - after naming all the animals in creation, Adam awakes to behold Eve and bursts forth in poetry. Truth be told, men have waxed poetic ever since this moment. But Adam and Eve were not unashamed for long, and the poems written after the Fall are muddied by our uncontrolled desires against this creational pattern. 

Faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus (our Second Adam) restores our ability to resist the myriad temptations that tug on our hearts, eyes and hands but we still stumble. Our struggle is not based on poor ability, but misplaced desires. Sexual sin of any kind always promises more than it can deliver, whether it is pornography, adultery, or homosexuality - nurse temptation for too long and you will be entangled by it. In order to not get discouraged on the basis of ability we should interrogate our temptations: What does the bait of temptation say about my longings? What does my desire for instant gratification reveal about my faith and knowledge of God’s goodness in Jesus Christ? Confession and repentance involve more than changing habits, it also involves us handing our struggles to Christ, trusting him to forgive our failures, and strengthen us with his grace. Sexual sin happens because our desires are disordered, but thank God that he gives us new hearts by grace through faith in Jesus.

—Matt Allhands