Over the last few Fridays, I’ve been sharing excerpts from the Fall 2008 issue of The Master’s Seminary Journal. The theme has been a biblical view of homosexuality. Today and next week will finish that series with Alex Montoya’s “The Church’s Response to Homosexuality.” This is naturally an appropriate ending note. Too often we are zealous to know what is right, but fail to follow through to the application. A biblical understanding of what homosexuality is and what God thinks of it is good and necessary, but useless — and perhaps even harmful — without an equally biblical answer to the question of so what?
Montoya presents four ways in which the church must respond to homosexuality. I will be bringing you two of them (you’ll have to get your own copy to read the rest):
- The Church Must Expose Homosexuality as a Sin against God (today)
- The Church Must Extend the Grace of God to Homosexuals (next time)
The first may seem obvious; we’re already doing that, aren’t we? Well, many are, but I’m afraid many more are simply exposing it. Exposing it as sin, maybe — a sin against decency, a sin against morality, a sin against “family values” (whatever that is) — but not necessarily as sin against God. That it offends us is often the primary message that is sent to homosexuals. The message they need is not why it matters to us, but why it matters to God.
. . . Homosexuality is more than a mere sexual preference, a social choice, a genetic predisposition as some say; it is a sin against Almighty God. It is a willful assault on the person and work of God. Homosexuality is against God in these four ways. First, homosexuality is a sin against God’s creative order. . . .
And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate” (Matt 19:4–6). [also Gen 1:27–28; Gen 2:22–24; Heb 13:4]Hence, the Scriptures affirm that any violation of the creative purposes of God is a sin against Him. Furthermore, it proceeds to state categorically that homosexuality is not only sin but a perversion of the creative order:Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. . . . For this reason God gave them over in to degrading passions; for their woman exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error (Rom 1:24–27).A second way that homosexuality is against God is that homosexuality is a sin against God’s law (1 Tim 1:8–11). The Scriptures clearly identify homosexuality as a sin which violates the express law of God. In Paul’s discussion of God’s law, he states,Realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted (1 Tim 1:9–11).The apostle clearly makes homosexuality a sin which cannot be reconciled with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Scripturally, one cannot be a Christian and a homosexual.
The third way that homosexuality is against God is that homosexuality is a sin against God’s Kingdom (1 Cor 6:9–10). The apostle Paul informs an ignorant mind and corrects a deceived heart by stating clearly that homosexuality excludes one from inheriting the kingdom of God. . . .Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9–10).Finally, the fourth way that homosexuality is against God is that homosexu ality is a sin against God’s holiness (1 Thess4:3; 1 Pet 1:15–16). The Bible is clear on God’s expectation of His people:But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15–16).This holiness pertains specifically to the area of sexuality:For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God. . . . For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you (1 Thess 4:3–8).Homosexuality is called an unrighteous and ungodly act (Rom 1:18; 1 Coi 6:9; 2 Pet 2:9; Jude 4). . . .
Hence, Christians are under obligation to know and to make known the sinfulness of homosexuality. They cannot be swept away by the tide of public opinion or public decrees; nor can they remain mute concerning the terrible consequences of those who practice homosexuality. . . . As the watchman of Israel was warned not to be silent about the judgment coming upon the nation, so too, Christians dare not be silent about the dangers that homosexuals are facing (cf. Ezek 3:17–19).—Alex Montoya, “The Church’s Response to Homosexuality,” The Master’s Seminary Journal (Fall 2008), 235–237.
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