This is going to be a more contentious matter in most western countries. This problem is currently causing denominations and churches to divide throughout Europe and the United States. Not just the matter of homosexuality, but also the question itself—the authority of Scripture.
I worked in youth ministry in a church in the South West of the United States several years ago. Our church’s denomination was divided on whether or not to permit homosexual pastors and whether or not pastors could officiate gay marriages.
Since it appeared that the denomination would permit both, the church urged me to conduct an open panel discussion with the students. The open panel discussion shed light on what evangelical thought might look like in the future. These were students who identified as evangelicals, who regularly attended church, who enjoyed singing praise songs, and who aspired to serve in missions (Jamaica, naturally!).
Ignorance about homosexuality
The first of our conversation’s two main themes was that, because our parents were ignorant of homosexuality in the past, it was bad and so condemned. But, science has since demonstrated that it is a genetic problem rather than a result of free will, thus it is no longer possible to refer to it as a sin. Secondly, sin is limited to actions that cause harm to other people. Generally speaking, crimes like murder, theft (not always when there was a greater good), and having sex with anyone you wanted were evil (but it’s okay if you love them).
We love ourselves mores than we love God
I found this second theme to be quite insightful. It got me to thinking about the Bible lessons I gave and the amount of morals I stressed (which we must). I came to see that I had muddied the definition of sin in my morality lectures. Yes, those are all sins that are a result of our sin problem. We love ourselves more than we love God, which is the root of our sin. More than we want to respect God, we want to honor ourselves. It is the reason behind our sins.
I think once we truly understand the second issue we can think more clearly about the question of homosexuality. So is homosexuality apart of genetic makeup or choice. I think that the likely answer is both. In Romans Paul writes “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” (Romans 1:24-27 ESV)
Our depravity runs deep
The fact is, we are deeply depraved. I think that the church today, for the most part, has an incorrect understanding of the depth of our sin. Everything is tarnished by our sin. This text makes clear that “God gave them up to.” I think that a lot of people probably have a predisposition for homosexuality from birth because of how deeply ingrained our sin is.
Many would argue that how can God label something sinful if this is indeed the case. They should be able to enjoy their lives since He created them, thus He must be gracious to them. Not exactly, though. They were not created that way by God. Their homosexuality is a result of sin. Paul writes in Romans later on.
In order for us to experience new life in the same way that Christ did when He was resurrected from the dead by the glory of the Father, we were baptized into death along with Him.Because if we have shared a death with Him, then we will undoubtedly share a resurrection with Him as well. We are aware that our former selves were crucified alongside Him in order to destroy the body of sin and free ourselves from its shackles. (ESV, Romans 6:4-6)
All sinners have hope because of what Christ accomplished for us on the cross. My Lord and Savior, who condemned sin in His flesh on the cross, is the one I have to chose to turn to every day. We would no longer be slaves to sin as a result of His death and resurrection, but rather experience new life.
