Peter Adam
October 2025
Sometimes we think that God values us in terms of what we don’t do, rather than what we do! We assume he wants negatives, and not positives. We may be likely to think this way in regard to our bodies, and especially our sexuality. With this world-view, we naturally focus on what we must not do, and not what we should do with our bodies, and our sexuality.
This view is understandable in the light of these verses from Romans.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened [Rom 1:21][1]. They did not intentionally glorify God, or thank him. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another [Rom 1:24].
We find the general degradation of human bodies described in these vivid words:
[T]here is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away,
they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes [Rom 3:11-18].
But notice that a major theme in Romans is the transformation of our bodies.
By God’s grace we are justified and redeemed through Christ’s sacrifice of atonement [Rom 3:24,25], and because we are justified, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ, and access to the grace in which we stand [Rom 5:1,2]. So ‘there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ [Rom 8:1].
But there is more! As we are ‘in Christ’, so we were buried with him in his death, so that, as Christ was also raised from the dead, we too may live a new life. Christ provides ‘double cure’ for sins, cleansing us from both sin’s guilt and its power.[2]
The only power we have to die to sin and live in righteousness comes from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
[D]on’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin — because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God [Rom 6:3-10].
The first imperatives in Romans are these in ch 6.
‘[C]ount yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus’ [Rom 6:11].
‘[D]o not let sin reign in your mortal body …’ [Rom 6:12].
‘Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness …
offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life…
offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness’ [Rom 6:13].
‘Offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness’ [Rom 6:19].
This possibility, duty, and joy is only possible through our union with Christ in his death and resurrection.
Paul’s gospel is not just about God’s grace in the atoning death of Christ bringing us peace with God, and consequently no condemnation from God. Christ’s atoning death and resurrection also have the power to transform our use of our bodies, mortal though they are.
So also when Paul begins his major section of application of the gospel in this letter [chapters 12-16], he uses the same theme, of self-offering to God. This is our positive duty as part of our response to the gospel, and what God in Christ has for us, in us.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship [Rom 12:1].
A sacrifice is directed, offered to God. A living sacrifice includes our whole lives.
John Calvin comments on this verse:
[A]ll who do not propose to worship God merely err and stray in a miserable condition. We see now the sacrifices which Paul commends to the Christian Church. Since we have been reconciled to God through Christ by His one true sacrifice, we are all by His grace made priests in order that we may dedicate ourself and all we have to the glory of God.[3]
Of course, we can only offer ourselves to God because we are ‘in Christ’, forgiven, adopted, cleansed, welcome by God in Christ; and because we stand in God’s grace, and can approach God through Christ our great high priest and his atoning blood.
Here are more words from Calvin:
For we know God through Christ, and come to God through Christ: ‘in no other way than through Christ can God be called Father’, [4] and ‘we have the heart of God as soon as we have placed before him the name of his Son’.[5] ‘Our works are counted righteous before God, because any imperfections in them are obliterated by the blood of Christ’.[6]
Similarly in 1 Peter, we are both priests and sacrifices. We offer sacrifices, and the sacrifices are ourselves!
You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ [1 Pet 2:5].
In fact, we provide the offering, we are the priest who presents the offering, and we ourselves are the sacrifice/offering! In the OT, these were distinct: the person making the offering, the priest processing it, and the sacrifice itself. As Christ was the one who offered is body, the priest and the sacrifice, so in our response to Christ’s mercy and grace, we are also those who offer ourselves, including our bodies, we are the priest, and we are the sacrifice.
‘Holy and pleasing to God’ [Rom 12:1]. Our offering of our bodies pleases God: we please God when we offer our bodies to him.
This requires the transformation of our minds.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what Gods will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will [Rom 12:2].
However, it is our bodies, not just our minds, that we offer to God. Renewed minds enable bodies offered and sacrificed to God.
We find the rich complexity of offering our bodies as living sacrifices in Romans chs 12-16: our active humble participation in the church, living at peace with others, not taking revenge submitting to the governing authorities, loving our neighbour, welcoming one another as Christ welcomed us, praying for God’s global gospel mission, and honouring local gospel workers. This is a rich list, but not a complete list!
Here are other things we do with our bodies that please God!
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased [Heb 13:15,16].
And in 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians, Paul applies the idea of pleasing God specifically to our bodies and our sexuality.
As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honourable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister [1 Thess 4:1-6].
The Thessalonian believers know how to ‘please God’, and they are living that way!
Paul urges them ‘to do this more and more’! and his first application is this: ‘each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is honourable’. This means not giving way to ‘passionate lust’, and not taking advantage of anyone [4:5.6].
So faithfulness in marriage pleases God, and chastity in singleness pleases God. In both we control our bodies. We do not do what is wrong: so that we can do what is right. We do not displease God: so that we can please him!
I remember preaching on these verses many years ago, and then having an amazing conversation with a man whose wife was in a mental asylum [it was a long time ago!] For him, depriving himself of any sexual activity was a negative burden which he found difficult to bear. But St Paul gave him a positive view of his life. His life of chastity pleased God. [As a single man, this truth also comforts me!].
Paul develops this idea of pleasing God with our bodies, including our sexuality, in 1 Corinthians 7.
An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband [1 Cor 7:32-34].
Notice how Paul links concern about someone-else’s interests or affairs with pleasing that person. He tells us [optimistically in my experience!] that an unmarried man or woman is concerned about the Lord’s affairs, to ‘please the Lord’, or ‘be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit’. However the married man, concerned also to please his wife, has divided interests, as also does the married woman wants to please her husband.
I take it that this ‘other person’ focus is for Paul one of the keys to Christian marriage, and that ‘pleasing’ that person includes every aspect of their shared life. Earlier in this chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul applies this to their sexuality.
But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control [1 Cor 7:2-5].
This mutual concern and care is also expressed in Ephesians 5, where Paul instructs wives to ‘submit to your husbands’, and husbands to love their wives ‘as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her’ [Ephes 5:22,25].
Husbands and wives should please each other, including in the expression of their sexuality. Whether single of married, we are all called to please the Lord Jesus.
Our bodies are God’s good gifts so that we can love and please God, please our husband or wife, raise children, work, and love our neighbours.
We please God by offering him our bodies, [including our sexuality], as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God: this is our spiritual act of worship [Romans 12:1].
There are two other common ways to live!
We can view of relationship with God in purely negative terms, as what we do not do. This does not do justice to the positive relationship with God which God has created for us, and wants us to enjoy.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength [Mk 12:30].
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him [Col 3:17].
In this case we should repent of failing to accept one of God’s greatest and kindest gifts, that enabling us to live to please him through Christ. We should receive his cleansing forgiveness, and we should ask him, in the words of Hebrews to ‘equip us with everything good for doing his will, and work in us what is pleasing to him [adapted from Heb 13:21].
Or we can engage in self-idolatry, in which our positive instincts and actions serve ourselves, please ourselves. This may mean that we worship or over-value our bodies, perhaps our sexuality.
If we do not consciously and intentionally serve God, present ourselves to God, offer ourselves to God, then our default may be self-idolising, as we serve our own needs, standards, expectations, aims in life and ministry, sense of purpose or identity. The universal rule of serving idols is this: we choose them, and they choke us.
In this case we should repent of pleasing ourselves and not God! We should receive his cleansing forgiveness, and resolve to ‘live in order to please God’ [adapted from 1 Thess 4:1], and offer our bodies as living sacrifices, pleasing to God [Rom 12:1].
What then about sexual imagining, remembering, looking, and masturbation and pornography? It is helpful to distinguish between damaging others and ourselves by sexual acts committed with others, and our own acts which do not physically involve the bodies of others. In the former we directly damage others, in the latter we do not directly and physically damage others.
I know that Jesus taught of the seriousness of lustful looking in Matthew 5:28, but I think that was to show the innate sinfulness of pride that you had not actually committed adultery, when you had undressed a thousand women in your mind. For those of us with tender consciences, we can feel that sexual sins which only involve ourselves are as serious as sexual sins which directly and physically damage others. If our duty is to love our neighbour, then they are not of equivalent seriousness
I am not saying that sexual imagining, remembering, looking, pornography and masturbation are not sins, or that they do not matter. But damaging other people physically in any form, including sexually, is far worse. Some of us are victims of the obsessive individualism of our age, when we over-inflate the significance of these merely personal sins. It is a sign of God’s wonderful grace in our lives when we do not damage other by physical sexual actions!
Finally, we do well to remind ourselves that temptation resisted is not sin: there is no actual sin in being tempted. And, if we do sin, that though we are often bored with confessing the same sin again and again, God is not bored with our repeated confessions. When we ask him again for forgiveness for the same sin, his grace and his mercy are new every morning! Praise him.
Jesus Christ knew that God had prepared a body for him: we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all [Heb 10:5,10]. Live to please God in every part of your life, including your body and your sexuality. Praise and thank God that he has enabled you to do this through the powerful death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Praise him.
- NIV11 ↑
- A reference to Augustus Toplady’s hymn, Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me, and the line, ‘Be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and power’. ↑
- John Calvin, Commentary on Romans 12:1. ↑
- Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah, 53:16. ↑
- Calvin, Commentary on John 16:26. ↑
- Calvin, Commentary on Romans 3:21,22. ↑