Paul in Romans 1 makes plain that the theological and worshipexchanges he describes result in unrighteous ethical conduct, particularly regarding sexuality that “breaks the bonds” of the Creator.[16]  This leads to societal and cultural chaos,[17] as Jonathan Burnside explains: “[I]n biblical thought, sexual relationships can be used either to create community or to destroy community.   . . . Sexual order helps to create relational order and sexual disorderleads to relational disorder.”^[18]

[Cue the orchestra]: What is a man? What has he got? If not himself, then he is naught. To say the things he truly feels, and not the words of one who kneels. The record shows, I took the blows . . . and did it MY WAY!

“That song is the National Anthem . . . of Hell” as philosopher Peter Kreeft quipped (paraphrased).[2]  We might call the worldview expressed therein “My Wayism.”  My Wayism encapsulates the idea that the Self is the measure of all things, the determiner of all action and attitude as well as the moral compass for both.  My Wayism is not confined to Las Vegas crooners, however.[3]  Consider Disney’s wildly famous animated hit, Frozen.  The heroine’s signature song expresses the same sentiment:

“It’s time to see what I can do,
To test the limits and break through,
No right, no wrong, no rules for me.  I’m free – Let it go, let it go!”[4]

What’s going on here?  What links these lyrics?  The connection lies in what they assume about the human person – and what they assume is largely lies and half-truths stemming from the residual effects of the Truth being exchanged for the Lie.  This residue produces “lies that live.” In this instance, the lie consists of radical ethical autonomy, meaning that a person’s real essence supposedly consists in being “the master of my fate, . . . the captain of my soul.”[5]

Because Christians are filled with the Spirit of Truth[6] and are called to speak the truth,[7] and not to be those “depraved in mind and deprived of truth,”[8] we are to be “sanctified in truth.”[9]  And, all this means unearthing and jettisoning those lies – contra to truth – that remain embedded in our “operating systems.”

First, let’s acknowledge that My Way in fact asks the right question: “What is a man?”  The problem arises because when the Truth is exchanged for the Lie, we often answer good questions badly. Put differently, sin distorts several aspects of human anthropology impacting:  Man’s moral compass (My Wayism for example), Man’s composition (Gnostic dualism for example), Man’s community or social dimension (radical individualism for example), to name a few. [10]   People begin to live by these lies.  These lies need to be exposed, opposed, and foreclosed as much as feasible.  Let’s explore some of these implications. Let’s get to the gist.

Man’s Moral Compass – The Rise of the Sexual Super Self

Long before Elsa rejoiced in having “no right, no wrong, no rules,” so that she could “test the limits and break through,” King David understood the bent of fallen mankind:

Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

² The kings of the earth set

themselves, and the rulers take counsel together,

against the LORD and against his

Anointed, saying,

³ “Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us .”

Many Christians acknowledge that sin remains.  Here, however, we see how remaining sin plays out:  mankind takes a stand against the LORD by rebelling against His righteous design and constraints, particularly, as Paul explains in Romans, limits and design regarding sexuality.

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