This is irony. For the Colson Center, I’m John Stonestreet with The Point.

If there’s one word that could sum up the misguided but all-too common perception of Christian moral teaching, it would be the word “No,” especially when it comes to human sexuality.

But as I’ve said so often before, God’s “No” to sex outside the context of marriage between a man and a woman, points to a bigger and more glorious “Yes”: sex as a life-giving part of a loving, permanent union of husband and wife. It’s a gift to be stewarded.

Today’s sexual ethic, as David French pointed out recently at National Review, brings anything but life. And its view of morality rests squarely on one thing: consent. One night stands? Workplace trysts? With anyone in any manner? All good, as long as both parties consent. But we’ve seen both on college campuses and Hollywood studios that consent is hardly a reliable foundation for a healthy sexual ethic.

Isn’t it ironic that according to today’s mores, the only difference between licit and illicit encounters is if one party says the word “No?”

I’ll take God’s “Yes” anytime.