Does Augustine hold the secret for healing from the sin of lust?

Does Augustine hold the secret for healing from the sin of lust? 

Since the beginning of time God has used humans with notable flaws to further His kingdom.  Saint Augustine of Hippo was one of these flawed men. Augustine struggled with doubt, juvenile crime, but his greatest flaw was his issues with lust and sex.  Eventually freed from the bondage sin and lust had on him, Augustine became a Bishop and theologeon.  His writing helped to develop Western Christianity. Henry Chadwick, a early church therologeon, speaks to Augudstine’s influence by pointing out that “Anselm, Aquinas, Petrarch (never without a pocket copy of confessions), Luther, Bellarmine, Pascal, and Kierkeguard all stand in the shade of his broad oak.” Augustine is considered one of the most influential men in Christian history.

The struggles Augustine has with lust are nearly identical to the struggles of many men today; they are attacked by the sin of lust, but very few of today’s men get healing and restoration from the sin.  Augustine followed a process, which helped him to heal from the sin of lust, and he became a great man of God.  That restoration and healing is available for men today if they choose to pursue it.

Augustine’s issues with sex and lust began with his lack of understanding God.  His mother attempted to raised using the teachings  of the Bible, but he had abandoned her teaching and had begun to follow other religions and philosophies.  When Augustine wrote about his youth he saw it as so perverse that he described it as, "my past wickedness and the carnal corruptions of my soul."  When he was sixteen Augustine went to Carthage to continue his studies, but his issues with lust escalated. "I came to Carthage, where a cauldron of illicit loves leapt and boiled about me. I was not yet in love, but I was in love with love" (Confessions book III).  When he was eighteen, Augustine took a concubine, a year later they had a child (out of wedlock) together.  Augustine had a committed relationship with her for over thirteen years; later he called this relationship a “lustful love”.   Augustine was controlled by lust so deeply that the fulfillment of the lust felt like a need. “The enemy held my will; and of it he made a chain and bound me. Because my will was perverse it changed to lust, and lust yielded to became habit, and habit not resisted became necessity” (Confessions VIII.5).  Augustine’s lust kept him from connecting to God.  Augustine famously said to God the sentiment that many people have thought, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."  Augustine wanted to be a man of virtue, but he was not yet ready to give up the pleasure of lust. 

Augustine’s mother who had been urging him towards Christ since he was a child convinced Augustine that abandoning his life of sin and get married would help him to be a virtuous man.  Augustine agreed with his mother; he left his concubine and took a 10-year-old girl as his fiancé.  Augustine was not faithful; while he waited for her to become old enough to marry he cheats on her.  True restoration does not begin for Augustine until he has a sincere connection with Christ.

Lust had a tight hold on Augustine.  He wrote, “Clouds of muddy carnal concupiscence filled the air. The bubbling impulses of puberty befogged and obscured my heart so that it could not see the difference between love’s serenity and lust’s darkness. Confusion of the two things boiled within me. It seized hold of my youthful weakness sweeping me through the precipitous rocks of desire to submerge me in a whirlpool of vice” (Confession II.2). Augustine began to have a realization that he needed freedom, but he was not able to free himself.  Augustine began his quest for the ability to love God.  In the eighth book of Confessions he told of a day when he was praying in a garden. He cried out to God, tore his hair, and struck himself on the forehead.  Augustine was in agony over his sin, and the bondage which held him.  He wanted the unhealthy “love” of lust to be replaced with something good, but he struggled.  Only when Augustine took hold of the truth of the cross was he able to be freed from the bonds of lust. I began to search for a means of finding the strength I needed to enjoy You, but I could not find this means until I embraced the mediator between God and man(Confessions VII.18).  It was not until he embraced Christ and His saving love on the cross that Augustine was able to be free.  While he was still in the garden, Augustine heard a call to the second part of his restoration.

Burdened by sins, Augustine was praying in the garden he cried out to God, “How

long, how long, tomorrow, and tomorrow? Why not now? why not is there this hour an end to my uncleanness?”  While was crying to God, he heard a child’s voice calling from a neighboring house.  The voice simply called, “Take up and read”. Initially Augustine thought a child’s game was being played, but he finally realized it was a call from God to read the Scriptures.  Augustine opened his Bible randomly to Romans 13:13 which read, “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.”    After reading these two verses Augustine felt no need to read any more, because he immediately felt God touch his heart.  Augustine was healed. In his book “The Legacy of Soverign joy”, John Piper refers to this garden conversioin experience as “one of the most important days in church history.

           

The temptation of lust, which tortured Augustine, is the same temptation which seeks to enslave people today.  The sin of lust puts a wedge between people and God; it hinders them from becoming the men or women God created them to be.  The one major difference between Augustine’s culture and today’s culture is the accessibility of online pornography.

Walt Mueller, the president of the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, was asked, “What is the cultural change parents of teens should be most concerned about?”  He answered, “It is the growing pervasiveness and accessibility of online pornography.  It is shaping how an entire generation is thinking about themselves, about others and about the wonderful God-given gift of their sexuality.  And to be honest, where I think it’s leading our kids is very, very frightening.”   Young people are dealing with the same temptations of lust that Augustine did, but online pornography has made the availability of lust simple and instant.  According to family Safe Media 42% of all Internet users view pornography, and 90% of youth between the ages of eight-sixteen do.  Online pornography destroys men, women, children, and it destroys marriages; but most of all it destroys our relationship with God. 

Saint Augustine’s relationship with God was hindered until he dealt with his issue of lust.  Today we have many people whose usefulness to God has been stifled because they have allowed pornography to possess power over them; like Augustine they are unable to reach their God-given potential until they deal with this issue.  Augustine wrote about the power lust had over him, “my old mistresses, still enthralled me; they shook my fleshly garment, and whispered softly, do you part with us?  And from that moment shall we no more be with you forever.”  Augustine found lust very hard to leave, but in order to be a man of God a person must break free from its power.  Lust is wrong; it is contrary to the teachings of the Bible.

Online pornography is scripturally wrong.  It is true that there is no place in scripture, which states, “Thou shalt not look at porn”, however the Bible is very clear that men should abstain from sexual sin.  The Bible says, “Do not commit adultery” (Ex 20:14). Jesus went a step further and said sin was not just what we do but also what we think.  Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, do not commit adultery.  But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:27-28).  According to Jesus, looking at a woman (on a porn website) and lusting after her is adultery. 

The Gospel story has exactly what a person needs to be freed from the bondage of online pornography.   According to the Barna Institute porn viewers overwhelmingly believe they are unloved.  The Gospel affirms that you are loved.   Christ’s death on the cross is the greatest example of love the world has ever seen.  Romans 5:8 reads, “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!”

Understanding Christ’s death on the cross helps us to loath the sin of lust and understand the depths of its depravity; we see that our sins are costly.  Our sins are the cause for the gruesome death Christ paid on the cross.  Romans 4:25 states, “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”  If we can grasp the destruction our sin caused Christ, then we can begin to grasp the repugnance of our sin.  Porn is disgusting, and it should produce shame.  In order to be redeemed from the bondage of online pornography one needs to pursue the cross. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (I Corinthians 15:57).    Our love for Christ must be more beautiful than the form of a woman; our love for Christ must bring us more pleasure than masturbation; our love for Christ must be more intense that the desire for pornography; Loving Christ any less is idolatry.

Scripture points to the fact that sin is not an unimportant thing.  Sin is deadly and costly.  In Matthew 18:9 Jesus says, “And if your eye causes your downfall, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, rather than to have two eyes and be thrown into hellfire!” In this passage Jesus is noting the seriousness of sin.  Sin has eternal consequences.  Scripture is important because it shows how serious the sin of lust is, but it is also important because it shows that once we are connected to the cross our sin no longer condemns us. “Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:1).   A person trapped by pornography is typically afraid of being caught.  He is afraid of condemnation, but there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

Christ and Scripture are what can draw us out of sin.  Through Christ we know we are loved; through Scripture, we can know that lust is wrong; through Scripture, we know we can escape condemnation.  This information is all a person needs to begin breaking the bondage of lust.

Augustine‘s life and writings are still relevant to the Christian world today, but his ministry was stunted because of his infatuation with the sin of lust.  With God’s help he conquered his battle with lust through an understanding of the cross and guidance of the Scriptures.  This should be great hope to the huge numbers of men who are enslaved to lust through online pornography.  There is freedom through the cross and scripture, but until men claim this freedom and break free from the power online pornography has over them, there will continue to be a void of great intelligent Christian thinkers. 

How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose and was now glad to reject! You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood, you who outshine all light yet are hidden deeper than any secret in our hearts, you who surpass all honour though not in the eyes of men who see all honour in themselves. O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation” (Confessions IX.1). 

Work Cited

"The Barna Group - Young Adults Struggle." The Barna Group - Young Adults and Liberals Struggle with Morality. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2012.

Mueller, Walt. "CPYU | The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding." CPYU || The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2012.

Oberman, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, p. 102

Piper, John. The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God's Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2000. Print.

"Family Safe Media - Pornography_stastics." Family Safe Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2012.

Saint Augustine. Confessions. N.p.: Wyatt North, 1955.