There's a film that's coming out sometime in the future called "The Heart of Man" by Unearthed Pictures, and its aim is "to see the hearts of men changed - and we want that change to result in a systemic shift in the landscape of sexual exploitation." It's really artfully done—I got to see it early because reasons—and honestly, I was really surprised because a lot of Christian art is just... well not art in any real sense. I think talking about sexual sin and the way that it warps our understanding of ourselves and our relationship with God and the gospel is so important. This is especially true in the Church where a lot of the time we talk about God in this angry, disapproving, disgusted way. He is always at least a little bit displeased with believers who sin and they have fallen out of God's love. But the problem is that that's just not true.

Romans 8: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus... For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is the promise for believers: that no matter what we do, and no matter what happens, we cannot be removed from God's love or from Christ. He doesn't just abandon us because we don't reach the mark. Being in Christ is a permanent thing.

And this doesn't mean we just do whatever we want and sin as much as we can because we don't have to worry about it, but it does mean that we have to know that when we fail and in our addiction and sickness, when we aren't living rightly, we are still in Christ; we still have the affection of the Father. He will still call us sons and daughters.

This is what helps people, especially believers, who are stuck in sin and feel like they are repulsive to God. To know the way home. So I'll just quote the film because there's a line that's so important and much better than anything I could say:

"The way home every single time is this: after my worst failure, after I am convinced this time I have gone too far and destroyed too much, I must believe who God says I am. I am not defined by my erratic behaviors but by something so much deeper, infinitely strong, and constant. I am a new creature—Christ in me. I don't have to find my way back into His love; I never left it. I will never become less, or more, of Christ in me. And today, after my worst failure, I am as fully loved, adored, and actually as righteous as the very first moment I believed. When I find myself risking to trust this way of seeing, the power of the lie begins to vanish, and that increasing confidence in who I really am becomes the bedrock that will break my shame and addiction, so I get to live free for the rest of my life."

This is the gospel. This is the promise for believers. No matter what, if you were in Christ, you are in Christ. Nothing you do changes that. But you can live in freedom because shame doesn't have to rule your life anymore. Christ can. And He will. And He wants to. There is freedom and a seat at His table for you. Rest in that promise. Know that you are loved.