The Gospel and Sexual Abuse: A Healing Balm for Bruised Bodies, Battered Minds, and Broken Hearts

The tragedy is that this book is necessary. We live in a dark and sinful world where atrocities beyond imagination or comprehension occur. How to minister to those who have been so violently assaulted is a pressing and sobering question. The title of this work The Gospel and Sexual Abuse points to the only ultimate answer to that pressing question. The gospel of Christ is the answer to every sin and issue of life. Nye effectively demonstrates how to bring the gospel to bear on this devastating situation. The illustrations, examples, analogies, and rubrics for counselling are helpful, but Nye makes clear that the Bible is the touchstone for addressing this tragedy of life. Those who are called upon to minister to those who are so hurting will find this little book to be a useful guide.

Michael Barrett, PhD
Senior Research Professor/Biblical Studies
Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

The brilliance of the gospel is that it enables God’s people to practically walk in Christ’s love with those cruelly mistreated by others. While not glossing over the pain of sin, Jesus calls the church to care for – with His grace and truth – those who have been shattered by sin. Although not a simple subject to tackle, sexual abuse is not beyond the hope and ethics of the gospel. Sadly, in their attempt to help, too often churches have naively done more damage than good, because of a hesitancy to seek guidance in the complexities of dealing with the perpetrators of and caring for victims of sexual abuse. To that end, Todd Nye’s timely book, The Gospel and Sexual Abuse, addresses with Gospel grace and Biblical truth the painful real-world issues involved in the care of sexual abuse survivors. The great benefit of this book is three-fold: First, it is bathed in the Gospel grace of Jesus, which sweetens the sourest of experiences. Second, it is saturated with God’s Word without rejecting God’s wisdom also revealed through common grace. Third, it reflects decades of the pastoral experience of a man of God, Todd Nye. I highly recommend this work as a resource to those who care for others in and through the church.

David Saxton, ThM
Pastor, Cambridge Bible Church
Cambridge, OH

Writing a book to bring healing to victims of abuse and to address forgiveness to the perpetrators of it is as commendable and necessary as it is intimidating. Todd Nye has presented, not an easy way, but a sure way to healing and forgiveness. The conscientious and specific examination of biblical teaching sets out violated duties and unmerited rights before divine perfection as the foundation for healing and reconciliation. Todd shows that God has made a way through the trauma of abuse. Todd’s alert and affirmative writing tone, a welcome human and compassionate resonance throughout the book, adds more than just what such a book needs to be—it expresses, but also breathes, the hope that the God who ably made the universe readily restores the individual.

Dan Hurst
Trinity College

In The Gospel and Sexual Abuse, Pastor Todd Nye has harnessed his experiences counseling people impacted by sexual sin and has set forth the sufficiency of the gospel as it is embraced by those who suffer. Drawing on examples from his ministry and the experiences of others, he displays the adequacy of the gospel of Jesus Christ as the only healing balm for sufferers wounded deep in their souls, as well as for perpetrators crushed by the weight of their sins. Here, counselors will find a guide map to assist others lost in their confusing dark valley of pain. Here victims will find a pathway to real peace. This work sets forth the power of the gospel to destroy Satan’s work in one dark corner of human suffering, but its relevance is not limited to this single arena of sin. Readers will be encouraged to “apply the ethic of the Gospel” to other vistas of their lives where they encounter brokenness, sin and sorrow. In the end they will find the cross of Christ to be a place of personal help and healing.

Steve Brennecke, JD
CEO BMM Foundation
2nd Vice President, Baptist Mid-Missions