Recently, I was asked if there is a place for Homosexual
lifestyle to be affirmed within Christianity. Wouldn’t Jesus have accepted gays? Aren't they too God's children, do we need to assume they are sinners rather
than variations of God's great creation, did God really need everyone to reproduce,
and at the heart of the issue, can't there be a place in Christian ideals for
gays to flourish, should these people really be repressed and ashamed? Do
Christians believe they really aren't gay and just need to be saved
It’s a big question. One that all of us will face, because
homosexuality is gaining ground, and exerting more and more pressure to be
accepted, and yet the bible clearly declares that homosexuality is a sin (as is
any sex outside of monogamous heterosexual marriage). This is, in many ways, one of the tests of gospel faithfulness in our day. are you willing to stand on the word of God, and lovingly say "NO"? We love you, but it's not healthy or God ordained?
This week, I will be sharing some of my thoughts on this
issue. Today I will look at the subject in relationship to our identity as people
of the book and God’s design for sexuality. Tomorrow, I will look at love and
repentance. And Thursday, I will look at sexual brokenness, identity, and
witness.
First, people of the book. As Christians, we believe that
the bible is the inspired word of God. It’s not just a group of people telling
about what they think God is like, but that God directed and shaped the content
of Scripture. In doing so, we are following Jesus example and belief. Jesus,
looking at the Old Testament, make clear that he saw scripture as the word of
God time and again. Let me give you one example, because it comes in the
context of marriage. “Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked,
"Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every
reason?" "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the
beginning the Creator 'made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a
man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two
will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God
has joined together, let man not separate." (Matthew19:3-6).
When you go back and look, you see that this is a footnote added by the writer
of Genesis. But Jesus makes clear that ultimately, it’s there because God put
it there. Jesus had an incredibly high view of scripture, and so all the time
we see him saying, it is written, and how will scripture be fulfilled?” He was
shaped and molded by scripture. He viewed it as the word of God. Later, when
you get the epistles, you see that Paul says, “all scripture is God breathed”,
and Peter says “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture
came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its
origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by
the Holy Spirit. (2Pe 1:19-21).
Now, the issue before Christians is this. If we take Jesus
view of scripture, we cannot affirm homosexuality. Scripture tells us that a
man should not lay with a man. Leviticus 18:23 say “do not lie with a man as
one lies with a woman; that is detestable. Leviticus 20:13 say “if a man lies with a man as one lies with a
woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death;
their blood will be on their own heads”. Notice that what’s condemned is
the action, not the inclination. Furthermore, scripture makes clear that those
who practice homosexuality (and many other sins) are under the condemnation of
God. Romans lays out famously that “the wrath of God is being revealed
from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the
truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is
plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since
the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and
divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been
made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God,
they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking
became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although
they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the
glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and
animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful
desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies
with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and
worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever
praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful
lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were
inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men,
and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of
God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and
depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are
gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and
boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they
know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they
not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who
practice them. (Rom 1:18-32). 1 Corinthians
6:9-10 also jumps in, and says, “do you not know that the unrighteous will
not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually
immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor
thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will
inherit the kingdom of God.
Now here’s the question. What does the bible say about
sexuality in general? It condemns homosexuality, but what else does it say
about sexuality? It tells us that God designed marriage, one man, one woman, in
lifelong union. We’re told God designed the woman to be the perfect complement
to the man (quite literally). He created woman to be the equal and
complimentary partner to the man. In genesis we read that “The LORD God
said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable
for him." Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of
the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what
he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was
its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air
and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was
found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while
he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with
flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man,
and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken
out of man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be
united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and
his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. (Gen 2:16-25)
The bible does not just condemn one thing, it holds up
something else, an ideal. It shows that God designed marriage, a man and
a woman together for life, and the woman to be the perfect compliment to the
man (quite literally). She’s not his underling, not from his feet; or over him,
from his head, but from his side. His equal, one to support him, encourage him,
be with him for life. When you read through the bible, time and again, it makes
clear, that’s the only context for sexuality. All sexuality. What did Jesus say
directly about homosexuality? Nothing. But when he’s asked about things in the
wheelhouse of sexuality, divorce, what does he say? He takes the questioners
right back to genesis. He grounds all human sexuality in terms of marriage, and
makes clear that there is only one confine for sex; lifelong marriage. In other
places, he says things that are incredible. He says looking with lust at a
woman is as adultery in the heart (You have heard that it was said, 'Do not
commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has
already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mat 5:27-28). He condemns
adultery in other passages. And he affirms the scriptures. He makes clear that
all the passages in the old testament that tell us, sex before marriage is sin,
sex with someone other than your wife is sin, and on and on, (think the law in
Exodus –Deuteronomy), are still valid. And while he fulfills the clean laws (he
lived sinlessly- doing what Israel failed to do- he kept the law), and makes
clear that the clean laws are abrogated, they no longer apply (see mark 7), he
affirms the creation mandate of sexuality, and affirms the law. And think about
the implications of that for divorce. Divorce and remarriage, is not in line
with God’s design. In Matthew, he makes clear that the only grounds for divorce
and remarriage, is adultery.
The bible, from beginning to end, says that there is only
one acceptable confine for sex; marriage between a man and a woman. It says
everything outside that boundary, is sin. Here’s the thing. We Christians wear egg on our face,
because we sit here and say, homosexuals. Sinners. But, the bible says, sexual
sin is sexual sin. Period and end of discussion. It says divorce without cause
(adultery or abandonment by a non-believeing spouse) is sin. It lays out an
incredibly high sexual ethic.
Now. We Christians fail to live up to this ideal? Yes.
Absolutely.
But here’s what makes our sin even more grievous. The bible
says that marriage is a God designed picture of Christ and the church. It shows
us that way before creation, God planned on the great work of salvation, and he
created marriage to be a picture of the relationship between Christ and the
church. Ephesians tells us “Submit to one another out of reverence for
Christ. 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the
husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body,
of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives
should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just
as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy,
cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to
himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but
holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as
their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but
he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- for we are members of his body1
"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to
his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery--but I am
talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must
love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
(Eph 5:21-33)
So here’s the issue. With the fact that we follow our
master in being people of the book, with the fact that there are passages that
say homosexuality is sin, and with the fact that heterosexual marriage is God
design for sexuality, and with the fact that Marriage is a picture of Christ
and the church, how can we possibly we affirm it?
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