The Bible & Current Issues: Homosexuality
Outline
God’s Design – The Image of God
One Man, One Woman – the design as seen in Genesis.
Following God’s design – Putting God’s desire’s over our desires and His ways before our ways
1 Peter 1:14-16 “ as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
Romans 13:14 “but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provisions for the flesh.”
Heresy in today’s church –there are many today who are very active in proving, or in the least convincing others that homosexuality is righteous, demanding that God accepts and awards our desires. This is either from an ignorance of the scripture or they do not believe the scripture is inerrant and infallible. In what other ways are we expecting God to accept our sin?
Leviticus Controversy
Leviticus 18:22 “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.”
Leviticus 20:13 “If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.”
From the book Is God Anti-Gay? by Sam Allberry: Page 57-60
Aren’t we just picking and choosing which OId Testament laws apply?
And the pig, though it has a divided hoof, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. Leviticus 11:7
Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together. Deuteronomy 22:1
…
It seems inconsistent of Christians to oppose homosexuality while ignoring many other rules in the Bible… The problem with this objection is that it assumes Christians have exactly the same approach to every part of the Old Testament law. .. [it] is a little more nuanced than that. The OT is not a flat landscape… It has a particular shape to it,… whose contour, emphases and priorities are outlined and filled in by Jesus himself, who said:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17
… What Jesus came to do with the law he came to do with all of it. But as we follow Jesus’ life and ministry it becomes apparent that he fulfills the various elements to the law in a variety of ways…
He spoke of his body as the true Temple and his death as the ultimate sacrifice for sin (John 2:21, Mark 14:36). His death opened the way for us to approach God, making OT regulations concerning the Temple and its sacrificial system obsolete.
Jesus remade the people of God. In the OT they were a nation-state. In the New they are a universal church embodied in numerous local gatherings around the world and subject to the laws of secular governments. The OT laws relating to the civic life of God’s people (such as requiring the death penalty for grave sins) therefore no longer apply to believers today in the same way.
Through his sinless life Jesus fully embodied all the moral requirements of the law. Through union with him, the “righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us” as we live by the power of his Spirit (Romans 8:4 “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”). It is in this way that we’re able to live lives of love, which is precisely what the moral laws of the OT were pointing to (Romans 13:8 “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.”). In order to unpack what it means for us to live in love, many of the moral commandments of the OT are restated in the New, including those relating to sexual ethics.
Timothy Keller sums it up neatly: In short, the coming of Christ changed how we worship, but not how we live. The moral law outlines God’s own character - his integrity, love, and faithfulness. And so everything the Old Testament says about loving our neighbor, caring for the poor, generosity with our possessions, social relationships, and commitment to our family is still in force. The New Testament continues to forbid killing or committing adultery, and all the sex ethic of the Old Testament is re-state throughout the New Testament (Matthew 5:27-30: “ “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”; 1 Corinthians 6:9-20; 1 Timothy 1:8-11). If the New Testament has reaffirmed a commandment, then it is still in force for us today.*
… So the Old Testament’s teaching on sexual ethics, through it’s restatement in the New Testament, is still binding on Christians today.
Semantics
Malakoi and arsenokoitai
Malakoi: the passive partner in a male homosexual act. (others are claiming: Malakoi is NEVER used in the Bible to mean homosexual. The cultural historical religious context of 1 Cor 6:9 is temple prostitution.
Arsenokoitai: One argument that is sometimes offered by Christian advocates of same-sex marriage is that the Apostle Paul was not thinking of loving, monogamous adult relationships, and only intended to condemn Greco/Roman pederasty. (others say abusers of themselves with mankind) The most logical derivation of this new word is from the Septuagint translation of Leviticus 18:22, which says that you shall not lie with (koiten) a man (arsenos) as with a woman.
Why would God make people gay if it is a sin? Are people born gay? Or is it a choice?
Psalm 139:13 English Standard Version (ESV) 13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
Isn’t it unfair?
Philippians 3:8 “ Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”
2 Corinthians 11:24-27 “From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—"
“God is love!” & “Love is Love” – said by many people who know nothing of God and therefore nothing of God’s love.
Jeremiah 17:9 King James Version (KJV) 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Can a person change?
God can do anything and indeed for some he has (albeit probably not through conversion therapy).
Sam Allberry states it well in Is God Anti-gay? “…this has not been a universal experience. There are Christians who have prayed fervently for change and experienced it; there are others who have prayed equally fervently but have not. We need to remember that as Christian’s we live between two realities: 1. When we become Christians we are made new. 2. But we have not yet received the fullness of our salvation as God’s people… we still wait for the redemption of our bodies” Romans 8:23
Our condition
Romans 1: 18 - 32 “18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who [d]suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is [e]manifest [f]in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and [g]Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like [h]corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their [i]women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the [j]men, leaving the natural use of the [k]woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, [l]sexual immorality, wickedness, [m]covetousness, [n]maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 [o]undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, [p]unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”
We live in a culture of practice and celebration. But there is hope.
Why such a big issue? Identity.
Christopher Yuan explains it best in his book Holy Sexuality and the Gospel. Being gay is no longer what a person is attracted to, what they desire, or what they do – it’s who they are… There is no other sin issue so closely linked to identity. For example, being a gossiper is not who he is but what he does. Or being an adulteress is not who she is but what she does. Being a hater is not who he is but what he does. Should the capacity for same-sex attractions really describe who I am at my most basic level? Or should it describe how I am? Might this be a categorical fallacy that ultimately distorts how we think and live? The terms heterosexual and homosexual turn desire into personhood, experience into ontology.
How do we respond if we are a homosexual/struggle with same sex attraction?
The goal isn’t for gay people to become straight, but for dead people to be brought to life through Jesus. We are called to repentance. We are called to pick up our cross and follow him, to deny ourselves. Lay down our desires in exchange for His.
Grow in the knowledge of God.
How do we respond as a church to the LGBTQ community?
Rosaria Butterfield says often when she speaks, “Homosexuality is a sin, but so is homophobia”.
The culture has forced the church to deal with this “taboo” issue, which is good, because it is a real issue. I struggled alone, silently for almost a decade. That is a horrible place to be. We shouldn’t be afraid to talk about these things in a loving but true way.
From Christopher Yuan’s Holy Sexuality and the Gospel after Christopher came out to his family and after his mother became a follower of Jesus. “My mother began to pray a bold prayer: ‘Lord, do whatever it takes to bring this prodigal son to you.’ She didn’t pray primarily for me to come home to Chicago or to stop my rebellious behavior. Her main request was that God would draw me to himself and that I would fall into his loving arms as his son, adopted and purchased by the blood of the Lamb.”
Share the love and forgiveness of God with them and genuinely love and care about LGBTQ people. They are made in the image of God and are sinners in need of a savior.
*Timothy Keller, “Old Testament Law and the Charge of Inconsistency,” Redeemer Report, June 2012, http://www.redeemer.com/news_and_events/newsletter.?aid=363.
