Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hello friends. Welcome back to Unfailing Christianity. We are in the middle of a review of my book, Live Free Making Sense of Male Sexuality. We're celebrating the four year anniversary since publishing it. And just kind of in light of it being four years, going back through and seeing how would I say things differently if I wrote the book today? And one of the most powerful things I was told by a mentor early on years ago, I'm what, in my 31 now of like 13 or 14 years ago. He said, Don't let the fact that you will say it differently in 20 years keep you from seeing it now. And that was really powerful for a couple reasons. For one, it empowered me. It made me feel like, wow, like I have something I could say, I have a perspective to share. I have, you know, I don't know what all I, you know, I'm not sure what I was thinking about then.
Speaker 0 00:00:57 But the other thing is that it, it taught me to live with humility. That I'm gonna say it differently. Life is gonna give me perspective. And it's really interesting because in this chapter, chapter nine, the chapter title is reckless. I thought about that a lot. This, this is kind of the chapter where there's nothing that I can point to and, and say, you know, this is wrong. I need to correct it. But neither did I really like it. And it's interesting because I would say this is the most important chapter of the whole book. And, and the reason is we are now introducing the solution to the problem. We're introducing the gospel. And I'm sharing just how in my own journey with sexual addiction, how I discovered Jesus at a very real time in a very real way, tangible way that radically changed my life, Not that.
Speaker 0 00:02:07 And, and something I bring out in this chapter is not that I go forth from the time, the, the story that I tell in this chapter and never again struggle with lust, but there's a, there's this major shift in the way that I understood God and I understood myself that impacted. So when I do face temptations or when I do struggle, or when I fail, it's changed how I come back in repentance and how I come back to God and I fail less. Now, Chapter nine ends kind of in the middle of the story, in the middle of the gospel story. So it, it's gonna flesh out further
Speaker 1 00:02:58 In next chapter. So I don't, I don't want to get, give too many details away. So it's, it's a crucial chapter for finding freedom, for making sense of, okay, now I might understand why I struggle, but how do I get out of it? Chapter nine is huge. However, I'm walking through Romans, Romans, I forget where I think I start in Romans. I think I start in Romans one, and I'm walking through and I get up into Romans seven or eight, I think, and I don't, I, I didn't, I don't think I'd quite get into Romans eight quite yet. But as I'm reading this through again now, just by way of context, I published this in November of 2018, and the draft that we have as the final copy was finished, I believe about a year before that. Well, yeah, yeah, about a year before that, I think.
Speaker 1 00:04:17 I think I was just finishing up some other, some, some parts of it in March of 2018. So then April to September, I believe was the editing process. April to August, actually, because September was pretty hard formatting and getting everything ready. And into October, early October, I sent out some preliminary copies to, to some of the early kind of launch group people that read it through before it was published. And so, yeah, I think the editing process was still about August. And so I started Bible college in January of 2018. So the draft had pretty much been done. And even after the first year of Bible college, like I still remember thinking like there were things I changed because of what I was learning in Bible college. What's really interesting is I'm, I'm now, you know what, it's been five years of Bible college now, so that's not full time all the time, but the, the degree I'm studying is a, it's a bachelor of biblical and cultural ex of Jesus. And we're just walking through the Bible, also walking through church history and studying culture and history at large and kind of, uh, mission reading different missions, books and so forth. But we're walking through scripture, we're studying, uh, historical theology and church history. And now I'm listening to myself
Speaker 2 00:05:58 Ro talking about Romans. And I'm thinking, you know, I don't, I don't think I'm entirely off, but I would teach Romans differently today. Like the, the, the things that I talk about God, I think are still true. Like, I don't, I wouldn't, I, I still, I don't know, like if I sat down with someone right now and was trying to share about this chapter and, and just kind of truth in it, I'm not sure how I would articulate it. I don't disagree with it, but neither do I feel like I, I give Romans a fair shake, <laugh> of what is is is actually going on in all of Romans. And so it was kind of an interesting thing to read through. I I was pretty sure I wouldn't disagree with, I mean, if I come to a chapter or section, I'm like, I disagree with that, especially when it's one of the most important chapters.
Speaker 2 00:07:05 It has to do with, it has gospel implications. I'd consider pulling the book. I <laugh>, you know, I'd wanna rewrite it or like, Hey, we gotta change something. It's not really that stage. It's just I would teach Romans differently. I I would teach it, I think, I think it's appropriate to say that I would teach it more fully. Um, I think this is a somewhat surface reading of Romans. So the, what I talk about in chapter nine of live free as far as what God, God's reckless love for us and just his forgiveness of us, even though we don't deserve it. And even though we continue to sin and God's ready forgiveness, like that's all true. I can show you from the narrative of scripture how, how God is pouring himself out to a people that continues to reject him, right? So I I, the message of this chapter is still true in many ways, but there are some pieces about Romans that I would interact a little bit more deeply, more nuanced, and just kind of a good example maybe, is we often, and this is kind of a popular thought, that Romans one through eight is kind of the trajectory of a Christian right as they war within themselves. But there's, there's scholarly debate that Paul and Roman seven is actually talking about the person without Christ and not speaking
Speaker 3 00:08:55 Of someone who's got Christ and trying to follow him faithfully. And so that, that shifts our, like, the way we understand what Paul is saying in here, and I haven't even necessarily worked out in my own study what all the implications of that may be for, for the theology that we draw from Romans. But, and the other thing is, I, I don't think Paul is teaching a, a theology of like, the trajectory of a Christian. Paul is actually try in the book of Romans, Paul is appealing to the people of Roman who's whom he has never met, and he's trying to appeal to them to be a part of his mission effort in Spain. And he's trying to com communicate and show how they are a part of the gospel work in Spain and just how they were received. They received the gospel, so they're called to also be a part of receiving the gospel.
Speaker 3 00:09:56 And, and, and you have these dynamics of Rome. Romans thought themselves fairly elite. Spain was considered barbaric. And so you have Paul trying to demonstrate how, how, like the things that Rome, not, not necessarily the people, but just, just the society and culture, the things that Rome sees wise is actually foolish. And the way of honor and glory is by is, is through suffering and being willing to, to align yourself with God's family and the work that he's doing, even though it seems foolish to the world. And so there's, yeah, I'm, I'm kind of getting into, I, maybe I should do a class on Roman sometimes, but that, that's just kind of dipping our toes in how Romans deserves a lot fuller nuanced teaching than what I give in this chapter. Anyways, have you read the book? Was this chapter helpful to you? Um, yeah.
Speaker 3 00:11:02 What are your thoughts? In light of my own critique of myself? Also, just so you know, there, there is a deal, the the, the Black Friday deal, I was gonna say the Good Friday deal, <laugh>, I don't know why we don't, we should do Good Friday deals. The Black Friday deal is live. You can go purchase the book a Kindle version at 70% off a hard copy version at 30% off. And that's gonna, that's a deal. You can go take advantage of it today and read along with me as I'm reviewing the book, or you can, uh, wait until the very last day of the deal, which will be the last day of the month. So anyways, we'll see you tomorrow. God bless.
