What About Nature?

In our journey through Paul’s letter to the Romans, we have come to a section that forces us to deal with one of the most controversial yet relevant subjects in our society today - homosexual activity. The question we’re dealing with is this: “What is the Christian response to same sex activity? And we are searching for truth.

We reflected last Sunday, on the reality of the context in which we live: on the one hand - a society that claims to have settled the issue, once and for all - Homosexuality is to be celebrated: “WILL AND GRACE” I've never watched Will and Grace, the popular network sitcom about a gay man and his female friend and roommate. I've heard about the show and read about it. Will and Grace is our culture's answer to homosexuality. You don't really have to watch the show to get the message—the title says it all. Homosexual people need to exercise their will, courageously choosing to embrace their orientation and fulfill their desires. Heterosexual people need to exercise grace, generously accepting and affirming same sex intimacy and relationships. It's a simple and appealing message that plays great on primetime - or social media. But how does that line up with Christian faith?

On the other hand, if you grew up in any sort of conservative context, like me - you were raised to live under the impression that homosexuality is wrong, that the Bible frowns upon it and the Bible condemns it. You’ve seen the Westboro Baptist Church - holding up placards at funerals, emblazoned with the message: “God Hates (homosexuality)” to paraphrase. You’re sure THAT IS NOT the Christian response. So your left with the question: “What IS the truth?” “How does a Christian respond?”

As I said last week, the first thing you need to decide is this: “Who or what is my authority for belief? What authority will I build my life and worldview on? Is it current, popular consensus - media dictates? .... You can do that. But if you do - something you need to wrestle with is - At what point does Christianity have anything to speak INTO our society? Is our calling as Christians, merely to follow the lead and parrot the prevailing view of our culture and its elites? OR - do we have a PROPHETIC and REDEMPTIVE word to speak INTO our culture?

NT Wright: “We need to remind ourselves that the entire biblical sexual ethic is deeply counter-intuitive. All human beings some of the time, and some human beings most of the time, have deep heartfelt longings for kinds of sexual intimacy or gratification (multiple partners, pornography, whatever) which do not reflect the creator's best intentions for his human creatures, intentions through which new wisdom and flourishing will come to birth. Sexual restraint is mandatory for all, difficult for most, extremely challenging for some. God is gracious and merciful but this never means that his creational standards don't really matter after all.”

So, how do we find God’s creational standards? If affirming homosexual activity is the most enlightened conclusion, doesn’t it only seem right that we would reach that conclusion, NOT on gut reactions, or growing peer pressure, but by bringing the best arguments into the light and weighing them through a reasoned use of Scripture?

I’m going to be straight with you, right up front, lay my cards on the table and say: I will put my trust int he authority of Scripture - Jesus did - and He gave His apostles authority as the foundation of His Church. I’ve seen the fruit of the Bible in history - transforming the world and bringing freedom and human dignity wherever it has been embraced and lived out. I can’t say that about any other authority.

READ: ROMANS 1:24-28

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1 THE ROOT OF EVERY DISORDER

Context: Verses 21-22 ....God created the human race as the crowning point of all that He brought into existence. He created us in His own image - to see His glory, to worship Him as the One Being deserving of worship, to have relationship with Him and to give thanks to Him as our all-sufficient satisfaction.

But we’ve covered our eyes to God’s glory and traded Him for trinkets. We’ve exchanged the Hope Diamond of the universe … for costume jewelry from the dollar-store. You see it over and over in our text:

In v. 23, “… we exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”

Verse 25, “… 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. (Blessed - ‘happy’ - but deeper than that: satisfied, delight-FULL’).

And we see it again in v. 26, “… For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women EXCHANGED natural relations for those that are contrary to nature (27) and the men likewise gave up (exchanged) natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another ...”.

The root of every human disorder there is … physical, social, emotional, sexual - every human disorder … if you trace it back to the root, you will find ... the exchange of God as the center of the solar system of our lives, for something that cannot give light and warmth.

Piper: “The solar system of our soul and our society was made to orbit around the glory of God as its all-controlling sun. And the entire human race has exchanged the glory of God for weightless, substitute satellites that have no gravity and can hold nothing in its proper orbit.”

That’s the point of this text - that’s the point of last week’s message and it’s the point of this week’s message. And it’s the point of the letter to the Romans and it’s the point of the message of Christianity - the Good News of Jesus Christ.

And what we saw last week in this text is that there is a consequence of trading the weighty God at the center of our universe, for weightless satellites .... Every time in this text that Paul says humans ‘exchanged God’s glory’ … he follows it up with judgment: “… God gave them up.”

V. 24 - “God gave them up .... to the dishonoring of their bodies.”

V. 26, “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions”

V. 28, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, GOD GAVE THEM UP to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”

And then, in the next verses: 29-31, that we will look at next week, Paul lays out TWENTY-ONE other consequences of a depraved mind. Twenty-one more sins that flow from the exchange of the glory of God for other things. And there is NOBODY who comes out of this chapter unstained. Homosexual, heterosexual, male, female, old, young, religious or atheist - “Both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, ‘No one is righteous, not even ONE.’” The root of ALL of our problems is the exchange of the glory of God for other treasures. And God hands us over - to the consequences of our terrible trade in 10 thousand troubles.

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive The Heart of Darkness

The worst thing God could possibly do is give you what you want, give you over. You know, the word give over is actually a word that means surrender to your enemies. That’s an amazing verse. Paul is saying your enemies are the strongest desires of your heart, the idolatrous desires of your heart. The worst thing God could actually do is give you a good life, let everything happen the way you want it to happen.

2 WHAT ABOUT NATURE?

QUESTION: What if someone is born with a same-sex orientation? What if that’s the way they were wired? Is the Christian message really that these people, who didn’t ask to be made this way - are denied the blessing of being able to express their natural desires and longings?

TWO QUESTIONS:

Let’s consider that question. First question - “Is there a Divine Design for manhood, womanhood and sexuality?” Or, is that all just accident and unimportant to life in this world?

Look back at 26-27 again: Paul’s verdict: “Their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.” The word ‘natural’ translates the Greek word, ‘phusikes’ - which has to do with ‘the natural order - the way things were created to work. And the phrase ‘’contrary to nature’ translates the Greek ‘para phusin’ which is a phrase commonly used by ancient writers and philosophers from Plato to Plutarch to Philo to Josephus - to point to types of deviant sexual activity - especially homosexual practice.

But we don’t need the ancient writers to tell us what Paul means here - the context makes it clear. Not only do we read about the bad exchange humans make - but on top of that, I want you to notice all the allusions to the Bible’s creation account in Genesis.

Take a look at v 20, Paul explicitly points to, ‘the creation of the world.’

V. 25, he refers to: ‘the CREATOR’, the One responsible for the design and formation of this world.

Verse 23, Paul specifically mentions the creatures that God created to inhabit the world: mortal man, birds and animals and creeping things.’ That’s almost a direct quote from Genesis 1:30 - that’s no accident.

And then Paul makes some allusions to the fall of Adam and Even in the Garden - - v. 25, “… they exchanged the truth of God for a lie (You will be like God) ...”; v. 32, “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die ...”. “On the day you eat of the fruit (of the forbidden tree) you will surely die.” That’s the language of the Fall.

So when Paul is talking, in our passage, about ‘natural relations’ - in this context - he’s talking about more than social customs - this is more than acceptable tradition. And he’s firmly planting the Bible’s judgment on homosexual activity under the searchlight of how it lines up with God’s divine design in creation.

And the places in the Bible that refer to homosexual activity

Leviticus 18:22: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” A common rejoinder to this command goes something like this: “Hey, did you notice the address of this passage? It’s Leviticus! This is not only probably the most boring book of the OT to read, but it’s also one filled with laws we don’t keep today. This is the book that says, ‘don’t eat shellfish’; ‘don’t wear clothes made with mixed fibers’. Are you going to call out the seafood lovers while you’re at it?’

I don’t have time this morning to get into the reasons why we don’t need to avoid surf and turf at the steak house.

But look at the immediate context: vv. 20-23.

“You shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her. (21) You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. (22) You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. (23) And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.” (24) Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean.”

Is there another one of these condemnations that we should celebrate as part of God’s good plan … or at the very least as something He doesn’t care about?

Leviticus 20:10-15 - again - it’s a list.

“If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” (11) - If a man lies with his father’s wife … (12) “If a man lies with his daughter -in-law ...”. (13) “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” (14) If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity ...”. (15) “If a man lies with an animal ...”. (16) If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it ...”.

Is there any other behavior on this list that should be celebrated in our society? I’m pretty sure your answer would be no. Why is that? Because every one of these behaviors go against God’s created order - It’s not the way He intends sexuality to be expressed.

Flip to the New Testament: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 - “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, (10) nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

The phrase in v. 9, ‘… men who practice homosexuality’ is important - the Greek has two words to describe homosexuality - the ESV uses one word to encompass both - that can leave us without the full picture here: the 2 Gk. words ‘malakoi’ and ‘arsenokoitai’ point to the passive and the active participant in male same sex activity (‘malakoi’ means soft). Important because it means that Paul isn’t talking about violence here. He’s not talking about abuse - because God never judges the victim of a crime.

1 Timothy 1:9-11: “… understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, (10) the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, (11) in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”

Verse 10 Paul uses the same word he did in 1 Cor. 6: ‘Arsenokoitai’. That’s significant because there is no example of this word in Greek, before Paul. Paul coined it. It’s a compound word made up of 2 smaller words: ‘Arsen’ - ‘man’ and ‘koite’ - ‘bed’. This is Paul, looking back at Leviticus, because his 1st Century Greek Bible has both of these smaller words in both Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13.

He’s looking back at the sins forbidden by the 10 commandments and Timothy and everyone else who would have read this letter, would be nodding their heads all the way along the list of sins in 1 Tim. 1. No one would be the least bit surprised to see homosexual activity as one of the sins.

What would have been shocking would be if Paul would have said that same-sex relationships are now AFFIRMED by the God who CONDEMNED them in the OT. THAT would have been earth-shattering. And if Paul was going to make that point - he would have to do it in some kind of forceful way, because NOBODY would be expecting it. And Paul doesn’t do that. Anywhere.

Neither does Jesus, by the way. In the Gospels, Jesus affirms God’s created order: 1 man and 1 woman, joined together in marriage as God’s ONLY design for sexual activity.

I’m not going to spend any more time taking you to specific Bible texts that specifically deal with homosexuality, I will just remind you that there is not a single Bible text that affirms it as part of God’s good design.

But I do want to finish this point by inviting you to think about the whole, big-picture story of the Bible. It begins, in Paradise - in the Garden of Eden, before the Fall - with a marriage: God creates man, He creates woman … and He gives them to each other for their joy and completion.

The Big picture story of the Bible ends, in the book of Revelation - after the defeat of Satan - in the new Jerusalem, with a marriage - Christ and His Bride - the Church. Every Biblical marriage is of two different, complementary persons.

So, is homosexual activity, “according to Nature?” The Bible’s answer is ‘NO’. It’s not part of God’s good design for creation.

And that’s important because it’s very trendy in our society to be concerned about creation care. Even atheists - they don’t call it creation - they call it ‘the environment’ - but chances are you don’t know many people who don’t care about the state of the planet … whether it’s recycling, or trying to find cleaner forms of energy or sustainable development - nobody wants to go back to the early days of the Industrial Revolution - and factories, belching out black smoke. We instinctively recognize that when we go against the design - pour raw sewage into lakes and rivers … things go badly for us.

I want to tell you this morning, according to God’s word - that it’s no different in the realm of sexuality: when we go against the Creator’s design - we can’t expect freedom and fulfillment to be the end of the road.

3 DON’T DEFINE YOURSELF BY YOUR BROKENNESS

Second Question: So what do you say, as a Christian, to the person who hears this as BAD NEWS: “BUT I was born this way! I didn’t make a choice to have these desires and this is who I am.”

What do you say? Oh friend, I hope you say something. I hope you see the opportunity for the Good News of Jesus Christ to speak into every situation with the POWER OF GOD to set the captive free and bring life and joy and communion with the God of the universe because of the finished work of Jesus Christ who came to seek and to save the lost.

The first thing I would say is this: “Don’t define yourself by your sexuality.”

“Oh, but if homosexuality is condemned by God - does that mean that everyone with a same-sex orientation is expected to live a celibate life? Doesn’t that mean lack of completeness as a person?

But as Sam Alberry points out: “The most complete, most fully human person to ever live, was Jesus Christ. And he was single. So if we’re saying that a sexual relationship is intrinsic to humanity, we’re saying that our Saviour, Jesus Christ, was less than fully human. And that statement almost makes an idolatry out of sexual activity.”

“A culture that says ‘You are your sexuality. Sexual fulfillment is the key to human fulfillment - I want to turn around and say - ‘That’s putting more pressure on young people than anything Christians are saying.’”

In heaven, there will be no giving or being given in marriage. Sexuality isn’t part of your eternal identity. So, don’t define yourself by your sexuality - that’s the first thing I would say.

The second thing I would say is this: “Oh, don’t define yourself by your brokenness.” We live in a broken world - we are all broken. I am broken. This world is stained by sin. And we need a better definition of ourselves than what springs out of our fallen brokenness.

I want your good. Whether you struggle with same-sex desires, or you have family members who do - or friends … we, as a church, want to be a people who come alongside with the courageous compassion - who speak the TRUTH … IN LOVE. Who don’t forget either side of that equation. Even when it’s unpopular … that we stand on the authority of the Word of God … though the rest of the world may mock and rage: “You’re wrong - You’re hateful - You’re so far behind the times”. As Martin Luther said, “Here I stand, I can do no other.”

But that the whole time we would recognize that we are all justified sinners battling together to walk in purity, with all of our differing genetic, hormonal, environmental influences that twist us toward a particular area of sin.

Every one of us in this room - are struggling with a bent towards one sin or another. Your struggle may be homosexuality. Your struggle may be pornography. Your struggle may be greed or pride - the need to stand above other people or have more stuff than other people -

Do you think that ANY of our particular areas of temptation just pop into our minds, ‘poof’, out of thin air? None of them do. Every single temptation to sin that you and I face, grows out of the soil of how we got to be who we are - Either your genetics, or your past experiences, or your hormones - they all interact together like the ingredients of the fertilizer of the soil that bears up the fruit of one type of sin or another as struggle for you - a struggle that your neighbor may not have. He’s got his own struggle. She has her own battles. So you may come to the point where you conclude: “This is just who I am - I was born this way.”

I will be completely honest with you. One of my great areas of temptation and struggle is with my frustration and anger when I’m behind the wheel of a car or behind the handlebars of my motorcycle. Just ask my family. I’d like to think that I’m usually a pretty easy-going guy that doesn’t get overly worked-up about the small things in life. But when I get into a vehicle … something happens. Well- BAD DRIVERS happen - that’s for sure. People hogging the passing lane on the highway, driving the same speed as the slow lane; people riding my back bumper, even when I’m going faster than the speed limit. On the motorcycle, people changing lanes without even looking, let alone signaling - especially when they’re texting while they drive.

And I feel like the Incredible Hulk - not shirt ripping or turning green stuff - but with the heart racing and blood pressure rising and my face turning red .... I don’t like having that struggle.

Where does that come from? And I flash back to my dad. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. And then I see my own sons (not all of them … but well …) .... and I don’t want it for my kids - So do I struggle because of inherited genetics, or experiences that shaped me as a child - ‘when all else fails, blame mom and dad, right?’ Or do I struggle because of choices I’ve made myself? The answer is all of the above.

The point is, I am wired to sin in different ways .... and it’s NO EXCUSE. I am a guilty sinner - and I’m thankful that you want me to be your pastor. And I don’t want to anyone to feel any more in need of God’s grace than I am, just because you are wired to sin in different ways than I am.

BUT DON’T DEFINE YOURSELF BY YOUR SIN STRUGGLES.

Do you realize that sexual orientation is a 19th century category that was a creation of Sigmund Freud, coming out of German Romanticism. It was explicitly created as an anti-Biblical alternative understanding of human nature. Instead of seeing humans as different than animals because we were created in the image of God - the idea was that what separates us is that we have a desire for sexual activity that isn’t just about birthing offspring. “Sexual orientation” was intentionally a way to define the essence of what makes us human … and what it denies is that you and I are ‘soul-oriented’ - that what defines us is our sexuality and NOT that we are created in God’s image.

And you have to make a choice - will I define myself by my sexual desires in a disordered world - where the effects of sin permeates everything?

Or, will I accept the penetrating gaze of the word of God and let Him tell me what will be my ultimate fulfillment?

Rosaria Butterfield: I told you last week, she was the lesbian professor at Syracuse University. Very involved in the LGBT community. One day the Promise Keepers came to town - big gathering of Christian men who had a ‘love them or hate them’ reputation in the culture of the late 90’s early 2000s. Well, Rosaria wrote a letter to the local newspaper to criticize the movement - and got the very kind of responses you would expect. Lots of agreement and lots of hate. But there was one letter written by a pastor that made such an impact on her that, even though she first threw it in the garbage, she found herself going back to the garbage and pulling the paper back out.

This pastor disagreed with her, but did so with grace and compassion. He treated her like a neighbour. One thing led to another and Rosaria ended up building a friendship with the pastor and his wife. And eventually, she ended up doing the unthinkable - attending his church.

“One Sunday, sitting in church - Pastor Ken asked a question in his sermon ...

The image of me and everyone I loved suffering in hell crashed over me like shark-infested waves of a raging sea. Suffering in hell NOT BECAUSE WE WERE GAY, but BECAUSE WE WERE PROUD. We wanted to be autonomous. It was our hearts first, and our bodies followed. I got it. I heard it. Finally.

I counted the costs and I did not like the math.

Of course, there is only one thing to do when you meet the living God. You must fall on your face and repent of your sins. Repentance is bittersweet business. Repentance is not just a conversion exercise. It is the posture of the Christian.

My conversion left my former friends and family thinking I was loony to the core. How could I leave a worldview that was open, welcoming, and inclusive for one that believes in Original Sin, values the law of God, seeks conversion into a born-again constitution, believes in the truthful ontology of God’s Word as found in the Bible, claims the exclusivity of Christ for salvation, and purports the redemptive quality of suffering? Only one reason: because Jesus is a real and risen Lord and BECAUSE HE CLAIMED ME FOR HIMSELF.

“Your point of view and Christ’s atonement impact like a slow-motion car crash, as you see how he satisfied God’s justice for you. For me. You smell the blood and hear the agony in spurts and fits and all of a sudden you see what you could not see before: you cost Jesus everything - life, dignity, respect, peace. And he did not deserve this. Not even close. But he did more than accept this fate. He embraced it, out of love for me, and a mysterious glory that only this kind of God-love can manifest. When you step into the atonement, you are no longer a bystander. The blood is on your hands. What happens in repentance of sin is you see Jesus: ‘He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God’” (Rev. 19:13)

And if you belong to Jesus Christ - THAT’S YOUR IDENTITY: Not just created in God’s Image - but blood bought SAINT, who will spend all eternity in such radiant glory, that if you could see you

ALL KINDS OF TEMPTATION WILL BEFALL YOU … BUT NONE OF THEM NEED TO DEFINE YOU. You are a SAINT.

The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics VII. Leviticus 18:22; 20:13: Laws

Contrary to the contemporary trend of Jewish and Christian communities to accommodate to the prevailing cultural approbation of homosexuality, the entire context of the Holiness Code stresses the distinctive holiness of the people of God. God's people are to imitate the holiness and purity of their God and not the abominable and defiling practices of other peoples (18:1-5,24-30; 19:2). "You shall be holy to me; for I Yahweh am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine" (20:26). The commands of God, and not the consensus of the surrounding culture, must shape the behavior of God's people. The relation of church/synagogue to culture is, at least in part, supposed to be reforming rather than conforming.

The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics The Meaning of toebah

It is contextually clear that what is generally meant by toebah is something that "Yahweh hates" (Deut 12:31; Prov 6:16).

“I LEARNED THE FIRST RULE OF REPENTANCE: THAT REPENTANCE REQUIRES GREATER INTIMACY WITH GOD THAN WITH OUR SIN. HOW MUCH GREATER? ABOUT THE SIZE OF A MUSTARD SEED.”