The Sanctity of Marriage (Part 1 of 2)

THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

"What we are talking about today is something which causes great suffering. It causes deep and ongoing pain — in my case, pain so deep that it endures even today, even after I have spent years wrestling with it, and even though I have adopted a public rhetoric of acceptance and confidence."

“It made me hate myself, in a powerful and fundamental way. It hurt my family, which is why some members of my family aren't here to hear me speak today. It legitimizes and supports deep pain. So the issues we're talking about today do matter. They are not abstract.”

“For many years, knowing that I was gay and believing that there was something fundamentally wrong with that — and no theoretical niceties, no subtleties of "hate the sin, love the sinner" and no equivocations of halachic reasoning disguised the heart of the message for me — knowing these things made me want to die. Nothing less.”

“I tried in my own impotent ways to kill myself. I failed. I experienced, for about 10 years, a self-loathing that I hope none of you ever know, a wish to disappear and destroy myself that was too intense for tears and which cut me off from everyone I knew. Ultimately, thank God, I chose life over death.”

Jay Michaelson, Leading Jewish Advocate

Elohim: The Image and Likeness

Genesis 1:27–28

Genesis 1:27–28 CSB

So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

Genesis 2:23–24 CSB

And the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.

Matthew 19:4-6

Matthew 19:4–6 (CSB)

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female, and he also said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Proverbs 18:13

Proverbs 18:13 CSB

The one who gives an answer before he listens— this is foolishness and disgrace for him.

Image: tselem:

It [image] does mean, however, that within God there is a relationship in unity (the plural ʾĕlōhîm, later more fully revealed as the trinity), which finds reflection in the indestructible relationship in unity of man as essentially man-and-woman. In other words, intrapersonal relationship is the essential mark of man as it is also of God. To be created in the divine image is to be created in this relationship. (The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised)

Image: tselem:

tsade: prostrate seed

lamed: staff

mem: water (closed)

Fulfillment of Roles

Male: Strength (Humility) (Phil 2:5-8)

Female: Strength (Meekness) (Gen 2:18;

Manhood: Provision (Eph 5:25-29)

Womanhood: Submission (Eph 5:22-23)

Husband: An Image of Love Given (1 Cor 13:4-8)

Wife: An Image of Love Received (John 14:8-11)

Fruitfulness (John 15:1-8)

John 15:1–8 CSB

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

The Tree: Man

The Fruit: Women

The Seed: Children

The compounding effect of God-kind

Multiplicity of Character

The Father’s Command, John 14:31b

The Son’s Obedience, John 14:31a

John 14:31 CSB

On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me. “Get up; let’s leave this place.

The Holy Spirit’s Reminder, John 14:26

John 14:26 CSB

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

Romans 1:21-32, Immorality

Romans 1:21–32 (CSB)

For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error.

And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.(213. ἀλαζών alazṓn)

ἀλαζών alazṓn; boastful;

a person that is committed to their own self-promotion and agenda that they are willing to exaggerate, overstate the facts, stretch the truth, embellish a story, and even lie if it will get them a new position or goal that they desire.

adjusting one’s morals, beliefs, and convictions to fit any situation

To do or say whatever you must in order to further your agenda, even if it clashes with your conscience or convictions.

Situational Ethics

Pride, Ezekiel 28:15-17

Ezekiel 28:15–17 CSB

From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways until wickedness was found in you. Through the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I expelled you in disgrace from the mountain of God, and banished you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud because of your beauty; For the sake of your splendor you corrupted your wisdom. So I threw you down to the ground; I made you a spectacle before kings.

Rainbow, Genesis 9:12-17

Genesis 9:12–17 CSB

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all future generations: I have placed my bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all the living creatures: water will never again become a flood to destroy every creature. The bow will be in the clouds, and I will look at it and remember the permanent covenant between God and all the living creatures on earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and every creature on earth.”

Heterosexuality, Marriage, Homosexuality, and Same-Sex Marriage

What Is It?

What Does It Mean To Legalize Something?

What Do I Do with These Desires?

What’s the Revisionist Position on Homosexuality?

Does holding a Biblically traditional view on homosexuality make me a bigot, homophobic, or a hateful?

What Impression Are You Leaving?

Aren’t All Sins the Same?

Gen 4:10-15; Proverbs 6:12-15; Matthew 23:23; John 19:11; 1 Cor 13:13

Outsiders say our hostility toward gays — not just opposition to homosexual politics and behaviors but disdain for gay individuals has become virtually synonymous with the Christian faith. David Kinnaman

We are fully aware of the weight of Scriptural evidence pointing away from our position, yet place our trust in the power of the Living God to reveal as powerfully through personal experience and testimony as through written text.

To justify this trust, we invoke the basic Pauline principle that the Spirit gives life but the letter kills (2 Corinthians 3:6). And if the letter of Scripture cannot find room for the activity of the Living God in the transformation of human lives, then trust and obedience must be paid to the Living God rather than to the words of Scripture. For me this is no theoretical or academic position, but rather a passionate conviction. It is one many of us have come to through personal struggle, and for some, real suffering.

Same-Sex Desires

Sin, Genesis 3:6-7

Genesis 3:6–7 CSB

The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

The Desires of Sin, Romans 8:20-23

Romans 8:20–23 CSB

For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.