ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
Openness Unhindered
Who am I and how do my deep-seated desires fit into my identity? This is a question of utmost importance for the true follower of Christ. With truth and grace, Dr. Rosaria Butterfield delivers another outstanding bookthis time addressing the issues of sexuality and identity.
The release of this book couldnt have come at a more opportune time when the Church is awakening to the need to better minister to people navigating through issues of sexual identity. This is the book. And it is a must read for the theologically astute and gospel-centered person. Whether you agree or disagree, read it. You will be challenged and uplifted, and you will get to know in a small way a woman who loves God with all her heart, soul, mind and strength.
Christopher Yuan, speaker and author of Out of a Far Country: A Gay Sons Journey to God
In an age where Facebook offers over fifty gender options, confusion about identity abounds as people try to discover who they really are. Thankfully, like the seasoned trail guide she is, in Openness, Unhindered Rosaria Butterfield offers knowledgeable, compassionate direction to lead people in their search for true identity. As you read this book, you will hear echoes and explanations of the ancient paradox that all true sojourners eventually learn: that to find yourself, you must first lose yourself.
Barry York, professor of pastoral theology, Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Who is Rosaria Butterfield? A wife? A mother? A former tenured English Professor? A former lesbian? Yes, all of these. But, fundamentally, and most importantly, she is a child of God, who belongs to Jesus Christ. That is her chief identity; and that identity makes all the difference in the world as she approaches the sensitive and difficult topic of sexual sin.
Butand I believe this is vitalwe have a book before us that explains what it means to be a true Christian. And when we understand what it means to be a true Christian, we will quickly realize, as Rosaria Butterfield has, that Gods grace for us in Christ is sufficient for all of our various struggles and sins. Openness Unhindered is a courageous book, warmly written, theologically rich, and precisely what the church needs right now.
Mark Jones, author of Antinomianism and minister at Faith Vancouver Presbyterian Church of America
Rosaria Butterfield is a gift from God to the church. She brings together so many rare combinations: courage and compassion, provocation and wisdom, profundity and accessibility. Virtually every page of this new book overflows with insights on sexual identity, our disordered rebellion, and what it means to commune with the Triune God to whom we are united. Taken to heart, this book will change not only conversations but the very way we live before God.
Justin Taylor, co-editor for John Owens Overcoming Sin and Temptation
2015 Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
Crown & Covenant Publications
7408 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15208
www.crownandcovenant.com
ISBN: 978-1-884527-99-9
ePub: 978-1-943017-00-3
Kindle: 978-1-943017-01-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015932892
Printed in the United States of America
The publisher has abbreviated or altered several names in this book to protect the privacy of certain individuals.
Cover and graphics by Eileen Bechtold. Copyediting by Rebecca Byers and Shelby Winkel. Text is set in Stempel Garamond 11 on 14 and headers in Corki Regular. Photograph by Neil Boyd Photography, Raleigh, N.C.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org) Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system in any form by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.
For Ken and Floy Smith, faithful pastor and pastors wife
Table of Contents
T he book of Acts is a majestic tour de force when read in one sitting. It is one of my favorite books to gobble down all at once. By the time I finish the last two verses, I sigh with undaunted love for my Lord, dependence on the Holy Spirit for all insight and comfort, a renewed sense of Gods righteousness, and a deeper yearning to understand my Bible, this book that unfolds the character of God and the unsearchable depths of his wisdom.
These are the lines that crown the book of Acts: And [Paul] stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered (Acts 28:3031; italics added).
Beaten, shipwrecked, maligned, and betrayed, the apostle Paul arrived at an intense place of union with Christ where he was open and unhindered in all aspects of his life: struggles, identity, purity, evangelism, and hospitality. He was open and unhindered, even as he was hurt, misunderstood, abused, and lonely. In Pauls words, We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Cor. 4:89). In spite of the but nots the matter still stands: committing your life to Christ is dangerous business. The unbearable trials did not thwart Paul because, through the power of the Holy Spirit, he applied faith to his pain. By so doing, he drew close to the Lord, who knows our pain better than we do.
The book you hold in your hands, Openness Unhindered , takes its impetus from the last two words of the book of Acts. The Lord has used those two words in my life (and the vast world of the Bible, the God-won creation, and the redemption it unpacks) to redeem struggles, renew hope, remake purity, re-plot purpose, and recreate community. I have come to understand openness, unhindered as tidings that, in their biblical context, outline Christs posture for the forgiveness of sexual sin and the renewal that he gives to the body and the mind. My prayer is that this book will serve as a bridge to Christ for those of us whose sin (sexual and otherwise) has clobbered us more times than we can count, and for our churches and Christian friends who want to help but dont know where to begin or what to say.
Hold nothing back from God.
Openness implies that we hold nothing back from the God who made us and will take care of us. We give him our heart, our desires, our hopes, our dreams, our struggles, our doubts, our fears, and our identity. We are open to God. Wide open. This kind of intimacy and trust is unsettling to us in our natural or unconverted self, especially as post-Freudian thinkers who have become both jaded and seduced by the authorizing discourses of personal experience, believing, as we all tend to do, that our feelings (especially the fixed ones) are themselves vestiges of truth.
