The Sin of Homosexuality

Introduction

So far as we have looked at man’s descent into more and more depravity, man has exchanged God for idols, the truth for a lie and in our passage today we will see that men and women exchanged the proper use of sexual relationships for that which is against nature. Homosexuality has increasingly become more and more of a problem in our society and I don’t think it is merely circumstantial to note that this happened as Christianity began to wane in our culture. With things the way they are now, the Church has struggled with how to deal with those who claim to be homosexual and Christian. Churches have fallen into four categories:

Side A- God created them intentionally gay so all gay marriages are blessed. These would be called your progressive or affirming churches. They still argue against gay sex outside of marriage, but support committed gay marriage.

Side B- Side B is becoming more popular in churches today. It has had an influence into organizations like Campus Crusade for Christ. Side B theology teaches that homosexual orientation is not a sin, but the homosexual acts themselves are. These movements say the gay person can maintain their orientation and even celebrate it but they need to live celibate lives.

Side X- The attraction itself is a disordered attraction and is thus sin that must be repented of. Homosexual attraction can be healed by God and the person struggling with it should pursue heterosexual attraction. Eventually seek marriage or chaste singleness.

Side Y- Same sex relationships are wrong, but the focus should not be on sexual orientation. Our identity should be found in Christ alone. They should not maintain their homosexual identity but Side Y does not push heterosexual identity. Our goal should not be singleness or marriage but holiness.

I say all of this to highlight the fact that there is a lot of confusion going on. There are even homosexual theologians who develop arguments to try to prove that homosexuality is alright. There is even the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship that is an affirming Baptist Denomination.

The bible’s clear condemnation of the behavior

In our wrestling with this issue in our culture today, we need to make sure we don’t deceive ourselves into thinking the bible doesn’t actually talk about homosexuality. It’s message is clear to anyone who is willing to listen. The real issue is that most people don’t live as if God has the right to say what is right or wrong. There personal feelings become judges of God and His word, so they look for ways to reinterpret the Bible. Let’s look at a few verses that are pretty unambiguous.

Leviticus 18:22 “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” This isn’t a law outlying men spending the night in a hotel together and having to share beds. The key phrase here is as with womankind. The implications are clear and God’s attitude towards it is clear.

1 Timothy 1:10 “For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;” The phrase comes from one Greek word literally meaning male and bed. We are going to see it used in the next passage as well. In English it may seem a little vague, but knowing the meaning of the Greek words behind it makes it abundantly clear what is being referenced.

1 Corinthians 6:9 “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,” In Greek culture these two words had a very specific meaning. The word effeminate does not mean what it means today. This isn’t saying that if you are a guy who enjoys shopping for clothes or is a little soft that you won’t go to heaven. These two words back to back refer to the different partners in a homosexual relationship. Effeminate refers to the passive partner in a homosexual relationship while the Greek word for abusers of themselves refers to the active partner. Those who live in and remain in a lifestyle of these things, God says they will not inherit the kingdom of God. They will not go to heaven. It isn’t that they lose their salvation, but a continual lifestyle of such things shows they never repented to begin with.

Salvation is by grace freely given by God to those who place their faith or trust in what Jesus did on the cross for their sins. Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” You don’t earn salvation by avoiding sins like this, but salvation only comes to those who repent or change their hearts and minds about their sin and place their faith in Jesus. Jesus said Matthew 7:16 “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Our lives do evidence what is truly in our hearts.

d. The last passage that clearly teaches against homosexuality is our text for today. Romans 1:26–28 “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”

That which is against Nature

The question we all need to wrestle with is why is homosexuality wrong, after all love is love right? Let me start by saying that love is not love. Consider for example the guy who says he loves a girl then gets her pregnant and abandons here. Did he truly love her? Not all loves are good loves. I could give other examples but I don’t want to get too graphic in my illustrations, but think about that question for more than just a second and you could easily come up with other situations where love is not love.

According to Roman’s 1, the main reason that homosexuality is wrong is because it is against nature. Romans 1:26 “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:” That phrase against nature tells us that the reason it is so wrong is because it is against the created order of things. When God created Adam and Eve in the garden, he created them man and woman. Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” God later instituted marriage between one man and one woman. Jesus references this in:

Matthew 19:4–5 “And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?”

This is the traditional biblical teaching on the sexual ethic: God created men and women to enjoy sexual relations only within the marriage covenant with the opposite gender. However, there are theologians that try to explain away this understanding of the text. I want us to look at four arguments and give you an answer for them.

Four arguments against the traditional understanding of this passage:

Paul was not intending to give a sexual ethic in this passage primarily- There is a sense in which this is true. God was trying to highlight the reason why the gospel is so necessary. But if God hands them over and judges them for these things, then it is obvious he does not approve of them. This section of the text is about how God is angry with mankind because of these things and all men face God’s judgment. Therefore God sent Jesus to die for these sins.

Paul was only dealing with pederasty. This is homosexual relations with children which was common at the time. While this was surely a problem at the time and still would have been condemned under this passage, there is not a single indication that this is being spoken of. Consider the fact that in vs 27 women with women and men with men burned in their lusts to one another. The Greek words here are not the generic words but those that speak of gender distinctions. They also refer to those who have come of age. If woman in the first part is an adult, then woman in the second part must also be an adult. No change in the wording has occurred. Same thing with men. Group A = Group B.

Paul was only dealing with that which is against nature. Some argue that those who are homosexual by orientation cannot be acting against nature; so this would only apply to heterosexuals committing homosexuality. However this langauge was used commonly at the time to distinguish between all homosexual and heterosexual activity. It also introduces a distinction that did not exist in the minds of the people back then. It also speaks to how far the proponents of homosexuality are willing to go to justify their actions. They would claim that all people who commit homosexuality today were born that way. This argument seems a little inconsistent with what they say in other cases.

God progressively gave us more information so what Paul has was limited by his cultural understanding. We have more info now. The problems with this argument could fill books and have. I believe Al Mohler wrote a book on this topic alone. But for our purposes it is important to understand that God Himself said it was wrong in Lev. God Himself established marriage between a man and a woman. God himself established the sexual ethics of the bible. This isn’t just a misunderstanding by Paul because of His culture. If God established these moral codes back then, then they are the same today because God never changes. Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I change not; Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

What is against the natural order:

Verse 27 tells us exactly what behaviors are against God’s natural order.

forsaking sexual relations with women- God intended for marriage to be a good thing and sex within marriage is honorable. It is something to be enjoyed. Song of Solomon 5:1 “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.” One problem with homosexuality is that it leaves the other gender alone. It forsakes the good thing God created for men and women to enjoy. Let’s say all the men decided to be gay, all the heterosexual women would be without partners. But the key here is in the forsaking what God created to be honored and enjoyed.

burning in desire- Remember when we talked about side B theology. Side B theology teaches that homosexual attraction itself is not a sin, the desire is neutral; but acting on the desire is the sin. They propose chaste singleness in such cases but you can be proud of being gay. This is not what scripture says. In this verse, they have left the created order by burning in desire. The attraction itself is against God’s created order. The homosexual desire is a twisting of what God intended to be good and it is a sin in and of itself. We all struggle with fleeting thoughts of sin and our responsibility in those moments of temptation is to mortify those desires, to reject them, turn from them and set our affections on things above. Side B theology says the desire is neutral so you don’t have to reject it. You can dwell on the thoughts as long as you don’t act on them. This just manifests a problem in Christianity. Sin to many people has become only the actions you do, but sin is also the thoughts you entertain and the feelings you indulge in. I love this definition of sin. Sin is anything I think, say or do that displeases God.

the acting on the desires- So we see that forsaking normal sexual relations is sin, the attraction of homosexual desire is disordered and then they acting on the desires is against God’s natural order. The phrase in the verse is working that which is unseemly or doing what is shameful. Unseemly means doing something that brings disgrace. It is shameful kinda like when a man goes walking naked down town.

I lived in Vermont for a period of time and the city I lived in did not have a law saying you could not be naked in public. The winter before a group of hippie musicians had set up in the town square naked performing. No one did anything because they figured they would leave when the snow came. People are allowed to shop naked and go swimming in the local river naked. But everyone who looks on says that is shameful. We don’t look at them with honor. Homosexuality does not bring honor to a person. The world has tried to subvert this by promoting pride. Pride make Homosexuality so much more devious because our sin becomes our identity. And when it becomes our identity, it is a stronghold ingrained into our consciousness.

The recompense of their error

Sin always has consequences. We can debate about what those consequences are. Many for years said aids was the consequence spoken of in this passage. It may be part of the consequence, but the text, is broader than that. Aids has not always been an issue nor does it affect every homosexual. The recompense or penalty is judgment. In this text we have seen two judgments of God:

The wrath of God vs 18- God is angry at all the sins on this list, not just homosexuality. And because of God’s anger there is coming a future judgment if men do not repent of their sin and place their faith in Jesus. Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”

God gives them up vs 26- The idea here is that God gives them over to do what they want to do. He actively takes his hand off their lives. As we said, sin has consequences. When God just lets you go do your thing, that is a judgment. You will reap what you sow. According to Medium, a liberal newspaper; homosexuals have on average 10-22 partners in their lifetime. They dig themselves deeper and deeper into sin.

Conclusion

I want to end by again remembering why Paul wrote these words. Paul didn’t right all this to make you feel like God hates you. Paul wrote this to show why we need the gospel. Let’s turn to:

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

Here is the truth, homosexuality is one of the sins listed in this passage, but so is disobedience to parents. They are both horribly sinful, but God can save anyone from these sins. No one is beyond his reach. Some of the Corinthians had been homosexuals according to this verse, but they got saved. Paul declares them washed clean, sanctified or set apart, justified declared righteous because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

Homosexuals can get saved. I have mentioned Rosaria Butterfield in the past who was a lesbian activist at Syracuse University until she met a pastor and his wife who loved her and continued to invite her into their lives. She got saved and is now a pastors wife with children. She is also a big contender against Side B theology.

Christopher Yuan is another example of this. Chris struggled with his sexuality his entire life but came out in his late 20’s. Around that same time period, his parents got saved and tried to show him the love of God. Chris resisted the gospel; so his mother started praying for a miracle. Well, that miracle came pretty quick. Chris had gotten into drugs, partying and dealing drugs. One morning the police came banging on his door. Chris was arrested for dealing drugs and thrown in jail. It was there that God began to work in his life through reading the bible. The Champlain in the prison actually tried to tell him the bible was alright with homosexuality, but Chris was unconvinced. He found no justification for it in the bible. He placed his faith in Jesus Christ and when he got out enrolled in Moody Bible Institute. He has since written a book called Holy Sexuality and the Gospel. Christopher took a different rout than Rosaria and has lived in chaste singleness so far.

A key element in both their testimonies was the love of the Christians in their lives. Roman’s 1 highlights the wrath of God, not to focus on it; but to show case the love of the gospel. Knowing that I have sinned so much against a Holy God only shows me how great his love toward me is in sending Jesus Christ to die for my sins. The gospel can change you. You do not have to be defined by your temptations and your sins. Christ can transform you. He can give you a new identity. He can save you.