The Bible & Current Issues: Transgenderism
In today's Christian cultural environment, believers tend to think that God will bless whatever makes them happy. From this kind of thinking, technology can become a kind of theology and God the Self that's seeking liberation from all limits and unchosen obligations.
Transgenderism is what results when we apply this theology of technology to the human body. We make biology subject to the human will. For most secular people, desire is self-justifying.
If they want it, they should have it. If feeling defines reality, resistance is useless. For the citizens of a technocracy, if the technology exists to give them what they want, no one has a right to object.
Paul warned the Corinthian church of such twisted thinking: "But I am afraid, just as tile serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be held astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” -2 Cor. 11:3
Transgender activists have detached gender from biology. But are our bodies irrelevant to God? Is it up to us to alter our gender or our bodies at will?
Paul told the Corinthians that they were "bought with a price," and that "each man should remain with God in that condition in which he was called.” He also encouraged the Philippian church with these words: “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” -Phil. 4:11. So how does this verse apply to tile transgendered individual or to one seeking to alter their gender?
We must recall that the purpose of humanity is to reflect God's image in creation. To understand who we are, we first need to understand who God is and what He desires for us. True joy and freedom are only found in obedience to God's law. Feelings shouldn't determine our actions or our sexual identity. Pornography, promiscuity, homosexual sex, transgenderism, and masturbation are selfish acts of lust, not displays of God's glory. In its proper context, sex should lead us to God and reflect His sacrificial relationship to the Body of Christ.
However, we can't expect unbelievers to adhere to our beliefs. That doesn't mean we shouldn't share them in a patient, kind, compassionate, and loving way. But expecting those outside the faith to choose the narrow way is like expecting trout to swim upstream. It's against their nature.
“A person whose soul has been saved through faith in Christ has different desires than a person whose soul has not. By grace we were freed to let go of destructive desires and replace them with passion for the ways of God. The church should help these new desires take root .... The self-guided spiritual person always runs a risk of becoming a dilettante in the absence of corrective influences." -Jeffrey MacDonald, Thieves in the Temple
As we've mentioned in our earlier discussions, all single Christians are called to live celibately, but in God's moral order, only heterosexuals have the possibility of a truly Christian (and biblical) marriage. Gay and trans Christians do not have such a possibility, which makes their struggle to remain pure even more intense.
This is a heavy cross to bear, but one that cannot in obedience be refused. Worse, too many in the LGBTQ community have faced rejection from the very ones they should've been able to count on for love and acceptance: those in the church. The angry vehemence with which many gay and trans activists condemn Christianity is rooted in large part in the cultural memory of their rejection, and the hatred they've faced from the church. Christians need to own up to our past and to repent of it. We need to remember that we've been saved from our own wrong thinking and sinful actions: Eph. 2:1-9
We also need to remember the words of this psalm: "Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in Thee. I said to the Lord, "Thou art my Lord; I have no good besides Thee.” - Ps. 16:11 Have we forgotten what WE have been saved from and that our own nature, apart from the grace of God, is no better than those in the trans community?
"Everyone is sinfully self-centered and this self-centeredness is part of that which brings about the misery of the world. It's not the quality of your faith, but the object of it that's salvific.” -Tim Keller, sermon on 2.4.2007
"Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, not effeminate, nor homosexuals ... shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." -1 Cor. 6:9-11
Though the New Testament contains plenty of strong admonitions against sexual immorality, chastity for its own sake is never a goal. Rather ... it is the means through which man's erotic instincts are channeled and redirected in a continuing relationship with God. Gay and trans Christians, like all single Christians, are called to a life of chastity.
In reference to a man or a woman who desires to alter their gender, they should consider this verse from Matthew: "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself shall not stand." -Matt. 12:25. To some extent, we are all uncomfortable in our own bodies. We're awaiting our bodily resurrection when Christ returns and we will live in our glorified bodies. Our flesh may be our home for now, but it is not part of our eternal destiny.
Many of those we meet who desire to alter their gender may not identify as Christians, and we can't expect them to understand why we find such practices abhorrent and how we harness our own sexuality by the power of the Holy Spirit so as to live up to God's law.
The mind of Technological Man cannot resist his heart's desires, because he has been trained by his culture not to question them. The Christian must resist this kind of thinking. The only impregnable fortress against it is the conviction that meaning transcends ourselves and is grounded in God.
“All life-changing love involves substitutionary sacrifice .... The cross should bring a mental humility - an assent to His will and an understanding of the ways in which we don't get it.” - Tim Keller, sermon on 1.14.2007
"This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has bee created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." - Eph. 4:17-24
Above all, this means being ordered toward love. We become what we love and make the world according to our loves. We should act from a place not of fear and loathing but of affection and confidence in God and His will.” - Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option
All human beings nave a deep longing for something that nothing earthly can satisfy. But our heart's natural desire is to build a world apart from the gospel.
The world has no truly hopeful answer to singleness; only the gospel does. We can enjoy singleness now because we have the love of the Bridegroom and are looking forward to the most glorious wedding when we'll be completely united to Him.
For those who are struggling...
We're not very good at waiting, or at enduring suffering. But our suffering isn't without hope, encouragement, and help. We're told to expect suffering, but we should have the ability to endure it because we have an eternal perspective. We see our suffering as finite and temporary, as opposed to our eternal glory.
God uses suffering to perfect the process of making us more like Jesus each day. Our response to this suffering will determine our future. Are we willing to follow Jesus' example of saying, "Not my will, but yours, O Lord?"
This is a short life. Its pleasures are fleeting and will be vastly overshadowed by the far greater joys of heaven. Should we not willingly bear - for the sake of that which is eternal - a little less pleasure here that others might be saved or that their faith be strengthened?
