Audio Transcript

A friend of the podcast who wishes to remain anonymous writes, “Hello, Pastor John. I’m a listener in the Middle East. I slept with my girlfriend two days ago and now we are both hurt and feeling dirty, cheap, and ashamed. We cannot even look at ourselves. We are both born-again believers in Christ, but we were lured into temptation.

“Is there any hope that we might become pure again and be healed from our sin? I know the blood of Jesus covers every sin, but how can we get our relationship’s purity back again? Or is that permanently gone? What do we do now?”

Something Lost

I think this young man from the Middle East is beginning in the right place. He is, it seems, appropriately shattered, meaning he understands something has been irrevocably lost. He and his girlfriend will never be able to go behind this sexual encounter and undo it. They have lost something very precious.

I begin this way, even though it may sound hard, because I feel a tender and jealous concern for those who are listening who have not lost their virginity. It is a very precious thing for men and women. The world views it as weakness — silly, in fact.

God views it as a very great strength and beauty beyond compare. I am just as eager to help listeners maintain their sexual purity and virginity before they lose it as I am to help those who have lost it recover the purity that Christ makes possible. That is why I am beginning the way I am beginning.

“Mutual forgiveness is very complex, and grace is needed at every turn.”

I think this young man is beginning in the right place. He is broken. He knows that a beautiful thing has been lost, and he knows that the blood of Jesus covers every sin. This is a good place to begin.

Those who take their sins lightly and treat the blood of Jesus as a kind of quick fix have never seen the true costliness of what Jesus did to purchase their purity. So, let me simply make a few observations that might prove redemptive and hope-giving to our friend from the Middle East and his girlfriend.

God Rewards Faithfulness

I would simply draw attention to what he already knows — only, I would put it in biblical words. First Corinthians 6:18 says, “Flee from sexual immorality.” God’s will for unmarried people is that they abstain from sexual relations. God makes this possible by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in his promises, and he gives sweet and special rewards to single people who honor him in this way.

Marriage has its special rewards for faithfulness, and singleness — chaste, holy singleness — has its special rewards for faithfulness. Married people can glorify God in some ways that single people can’t, and single people can glorify God in some ways that married people can’t. This is not a matter of inferiority or superiority. Singleness and chastity are a very high calling in God’s mind. That is the first thing.

God Forgives Sinners

He already knows this, but again, I want to put it in the words of Scripture so that he can hear it from Christ, and not just from me. So, I would say to our friend: “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness” (Mark 3:28–29). Now let’s leave aside for a moment what it means to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. That is for another time.

Let all of us, with tears of thankfulness, with trembling joy, simply revel in these words: “All sins will be forgiven the children of man.” That is breathtaking. Can you imagine anything sweeter for a person like the thief on the cross, who knew nothing but sin for who knows how many decades?

In other words, there is no specific, single sin or kind of sin that is so ugly, so gross, so offensive to God that it cannot be forgiven by the blood of Jesus. As John puts it, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from [here it comes] all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). So, that is the second thing.

Blame Shifters

It will be a huge challenge for this couple now in this situation to forgive each other — not just to receive God’s forgiveness, but to receive each other’s forgiveness. Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” That is no easy thing.

I just want to help them realize how difficult this is going to be so that they won’t give up too quickly. What makes it difficult to forgive each other in this particular situation is not only that we are all proud and selfish people who don’t like to humble ourselves before others, but also because, in this situation, there is a subtle temptation to shift blame onto the other person that belongs (at least partly) to yourself.

“It is possible to forgive someone and yet not trust them fully. Trust is earned. Forgiveness is not.”

While this young man may feel shame and conviction that he did not take more responsibility for chastity as the masculine leader and initiator, he may subtly be saying to himself that she was kind of seductive: she could have helped him stop, and she didn’t. Thus, he begins to shift blame onto her.

And she may be doing the very same thing. She may feel shame and conviction that she was too compliant, or maybe even seductive, and she didn’t resist when she should have. But she might begin to shift more blame onto him and find fault that he didn’t protect her in that moment of temptation.

Risky Forgiveness

In other words, mutual forgiveness is no simple matter, because for forgiveness to be full and complete and real, there needs to be confession and repentance that are authentic and lasting. Both need to own completely their own fault in this, and both, indeed, are at fault in this. Yes, they are. Both need to be willing to confess their part in this, even at the risk of the other person taking advantage of them and putting more blame on them than they should have.

You can see that what is needed here is not only the grace of forgiveness, but the grace to risk being taken advantage of, the grace to risk bearing more accusation than you think appropriate, the grace to treat another person better than you think you are being treated, the grace to stay low before the cross when the temptation is to rise and feel superior (even superior with your repentance being better). Mutual forgiveness is very complex, and grace is needed at every turn.

Forgive and Forbear

In view of all of the imperfections of human life and all the ambiguities surrounding mutual forgiveness, there will need to be a huge experience of the reality behind the old-fashioned word forbearance.

Forbearance is what you do when forgiveness has not remedied all the tensions between you: You think the other person should have done more. You think they should have changed more. You think they should have repented more. They haven’t done what your gut says they should do.

So, you can either walk away from that relationship (that has destroyed a million marriages), or you can forbear — that is, put up with or endure. The Bible talks this way. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:7, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” I mean, he says it twice: “bears all things . . . endures all things.”

The key passage on this matter of forbearance is Colossians 3:12–13. It goes like this: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.” You could translate it as enduring or bearing with one another. “And, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other,” and so on. Forgive and forbear. Forgive and forbear.

Rebuild Trust, Brick by Brick

The fifth thing I would say to our friends struggling in the Middle East with this mess that they have made is this: The restoration of trust takes time. It is possible to forgive someone and yet not trust them fully. Trust is earned. Forgiveness is not.

“Yes, purity is possible again. Yes, forgiveness is possible. Yes, forbearance is possible. Yes, trust is possible.”

We trust someone because they have proved to be trustworthy, not because they say they are trustworthy. This means that when we have broken trust (which they have — both of them), it will take time to establish confidence in our character.

So, be patient with one another, and be honest about this. It is very painful to look a person in the eye and say, “I don’t know if I can fully trust you yet.” That is enough to destroy a relationship, but being dishonest to try to preserve the relationship will wreak havoc in the long run.

Bathe in Gospel Hope

The last thing I would say is just a great, gospel word of hope. Yes, purity is possible again. Yes, forgiveness is possible. Yes, forbearance is possible. Yes, trust is possible. Here is the key, beautiful — beautiful! — text: 1 Corinthians 6:9–11.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Then here it comes: “And such were some of you.” Were. That can be spoken over you. I am talking to you — this couple, who may be listening to this together. That can be spoken over you: “Such were.” You were sexually immoral. “Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”