Last week’s discussion of the Fall with regard to human sexuality revealed two dynamics at play: 1) suspicion and fear enter the marital relationship with the awareness of their nakedness, 2) inclination to lust bursts the bonds of self-control and causes them to dominate each other or be dominated by them. It’s often an ugly picture, and the wreckage of married love in modern society points to the presence of sinful concupiscence. As G.K. Chesterton once quipped, original sin is “the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved” because it leaves its fingerprints everywhere. So if we were created good and captured by the Evil One, what has God done about it?

   God is infinitely patient and wise, and so his saving plan unfolded over a millennium. God is also the greatest teacher, and his pedagogy takes into account our fallenness and gradually moves us into a better place. So while he allowed some odd or sinful things to happen in past generations (Abraham’s concubine Hagar, Lot and his daughters, Jacob having two wives, Judah and his daughter-in-law), his plan takes shape under the Law of Moses. Freed from slavery in Egypt, God declares from Mt. Sinai: “You shall not commit adultery…You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” (Ex. 20:14,17). The first references an external act of infidelity, while the second implies a deeper conversion of heart. For it is totally conceivable to covet something or someone secretly and never reveal it externally. Yet the corruption within the heart remains. The many other commandments regarding sexuality found in Exodus and Leviticus all are meant to safeguard the marriage covenant from infidelity or corruption. The severity of the penalties linked to sexual immorality pointed to marriage’s importance for God.

   As salvation history progressed, it became clearer and clearer that God valued marriage so highly because he considered it the greatest image of his own love for his people. “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name” (Is. 54:5). “And in that day, says the Lord, you will call me, ‘My husband,’ and no longer will you call me, ‘My Baal.’...And I will betroth you to me forever” (Hos. 2:16, 19). Idolatry (religious infidelity) was often compared to adultery (marital infidelity) because both broke trust in a fundamental relationship. So when Christ comes into Galilee and begins teaching about sexuality and married love, his instruction goes beyond the mere following of rules and cuts to the heart. A marriage with strict observance of rules but no loving heart is cold and sterile. “Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt. 5:28). Following the rules and respecting boundaries is important, but an unfaithful heart has already failed to love the beloved even if they’ve never acted on that infidelity externally.

   So what has God done about our sinful inclination to lust? First, he teaches us slowly how he expects us to live and how challenging it is to live it. Christ’s teaching, like many of Jesus’, forces us to reckon with our sinful heart and cry out to God for help. But God doesn’t stop with teaching; next week we’ll see what he does to us to enable us to rise to this challenge through grace.

   -Fr. Stephen