Redeeming Sex in Marriage: How the Gospel Rescues Sex, Transforms Marriage, and Reveals the Glory of God
by Scott Mehl

Foreword by Kevin Carson

Last month Scott Mehl’s new book, Redeeming Sex in Marriage: How the Gospel Rescues Sex, Transforms Marriage, and Reveals the Glory of God, was published by P&R Press. Scott’s book has received many good reviews by bloggers, podcasters, and everyday readers. To this list of good reviews, I would like to share my foreword for the book as my review. I wholeheartedly recommend the book for your edification.

Before sharing the foreword, let me add a personal note of genuine gratitude to be asked to write a foreword for Scott’s book. It was with great pleasure to work with Scott and the editors on the book. In addition, my conversations with Scott and others as he wrote the book proved helpful to me as a brother in Christ, husband, and writer. Here is my foreword for the book:

Foreword

Writing a book on the biblical view of sex requires special wisdom. The author walks a line between celebrating the beauty of what the Bible discusses and not saying more than is appropriate. This struggle is not new. In the same chapter in which the apostle Paul eloquently describes the beauty of Christlike love between a husband and wife, he also warns of sexual sin, oversexualized talk, and selfish discontent.

Into this milieu steps my friend Scott Mehl—a growing Christ-worshipper, learning husband, passionate father, concerned counselor, and wise shepherd. From our first discussion of this project, I recognized our shared passion to shine the light of the gospel of Christ on this topic. He acknowledged both the challenge of writing this kind of book and its desperate need in the body of Christ. Reading the final work, I see he has taken on the challenge to meet this need well.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, Scott is a brother who has delved into the richness of the Scriptures to mine precious truth regarding sex. He shares how his own view of sex has changed as he has walked with Christ and increasingly understood Christ’s love, God’s plan, and his own place as a disciple. What he has learned, experienced, and enjoyed, he seeks for us to learn, experience, and enjoy as well.

As a discreet husband, he shares how God has used his study of Scripture to shape his view of marriage and practice of sex. He describes tears and conversations, starts and restarts, as he implemented what he learned into loving practice. He explains how he and his wife have developed their own love through the physical delights of marriage.

As a passionate father, Scott desires that his own children grow in their relationship with Christ, their understanding of the biblical view of sex, and their wisdom in grappling with the world’s challenges. He offers insight into our own efforts to do the same. Whether we are discipling our children, our grandchildren, or others, we will be helped by these pages.

As a concerned counselor, Scott knows the struggles and complications that sex, lust, immaturity, and a scarring sexual past can bring into a marriage. He has heard many couples share their stories with tears. He has helped them to wrestle with the struggles of sex gone wrong. Through hours of interaction with heartbroken husbands and wives, he understands how misplaced focus, misunderstood desires, malformed practice, and unfortunate sexual sin work together to create suffocating circumstances that suck the joy out of marriage. Scott recognizes how this poisonous cocktail wreaks havoc but also provides the necessary hope for a better future.

In addition, Scott writes as a wise pastor-shepherd. Just as the Great Shepherd desires the very best for his sheep, Scott desires for every married reader to experience the heights of marital love and its accompanying physical, emotional, and spiritual pleasures. He both understands and appreciates how marriage, sex, Christ’s love, and God’s glory all uniquely connect as part of worship. What he knows, he seeks to help us to comprehend and apply in our own experience of Christ as individuals and as couples.

I invite you to walk with Scott as he shows you how the gospel rescues sex. With your Bible in hand, you can carefully apply what you read and experience a transformed marriage for the glory of God.

Kevin Carson,

Pastor, Professor, Author, Friend

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