Satan, the world, and our own flesh seek to pull us apart with conflicting ideas of how to approach our sexuality. But before we can truly begin to arrange our sexuality in a God-honoring way, we must be made right before God himself. Only the children of God can genuinely please him with their lives, including their sexuality. Only the sin nature that has been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20) can be overcome in our daily practice.

God never promises that our desires will be perfectly ordered in this life. In fact, he says that the struggle against sin will remain in some sense (Galatians 5:17). But for those who are in Christ, God does promise that we can overcome sin by his Spirit (Romans 8:13–14; Galatians 5:16). In Christ is power for pardon and purity. Those who are in him are no longer slaves to sin, but children of God (Galatians 4:7).