The Bible teaches that homosexuals are sinners by nature. This is not a debatable issue. This is an essential teaching that all
Christians must accept. Heterosexuals
are likewise sinners by nature. This
also is not a debatable issue. This is
clear teaching from the word of God. “All
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
The debate over homosexuality should not be had over whether
or not a homosexual is “born that way”.
That makes no difference.
Christian, is it really so hard to believe that someone is born with a
predisposition, or a desire towards sin?
Of course not. The Bible teaches
that God created Adam perfect. Adam
decided to rebel against the God who created him and because of that we all, by
nature, join him in that rebellion. We
are all “born that way”, though that predisposition towards sin manifests
itself in different ways in different people.
The real issue is one of repentance. As Christians we are called to deny ourselves
and follow Jesus. (Matthew 16:24) Many
people know this verse, but few in our culture truly live it out. Pastor Saeed Abedini is living it out. He is in prison in Iran. He suffers regular beatings with no medical
care. Eventually he will be killed. He knew that he faced this when he decided to
preach the Lord Jesus Christ to the lost in Iran. He has a wife and kids who miss him
dearly. Wouldn’t he rather be with them
right now? Of course he would. But he loves God more than he loves himself,
and so he preached Christ to the Muslims of Iran. (And continues to do so in prison in between
beatings.)
The issue of homosexuality is one of repentance. If a homosexual truly resolves in their heart
to deny their own desires, no matter how innate, it will hurt. But that is what God requires. He requires a change in the mind about
sin. You must hate your sin and love
God. You must trust in the perfection of
Christ’s sacrifice on the cross on behalf of your own failings. To do this you must repent from your desires. Just like I must repent of my desires.
I am an adulterer.
Vile and wicked. The Lord Jesus
Christ said, “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful
intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew
5:28) I fail that test, and it is a
deadly serious sin. Do I want to look at
women with lustful intent? No. I desperately
want to change. I hate it. I was born that way. This DOES NOT make it right. It makes me a sinner to a Holy God.
What can I do? All I
can do is throw myself on the mercy of the Judge. All I can do is recognize that it is not
okay, even though I was “born that way”.
I need to repent from my own sinful desires and believe in the complete
forgiveness available to me through the death, burial, and resurrection of our God,
and Savior, Jesus Christ.
If you are reading this, you are also “born that way”. No matter how it manifests in you, we are all
in the same boat. There is forgiveness
in Christ, but only in Christ. Outside
of Christ there is only wrath and condemnation.
(Not from me, but from God.) I
beg you to repent and believe the good news of Jesus Christ, our God.
Wow. So much truth in so little time.. lol but on a serious note..
ReplyDeleteI wish I could challenge everybody in this debate to begin at THIS point.. not whether or not people are born as homosexuals. Let's say we all agreed that every single person inherits Adam's sin, thus they are born with a predisposition towards sin only, hate God, and are spiritually dead. Now only believers would agree to these conditions.
But if we instead changed the starting point, we could go way further. Only the problem is that so many have taken the word of God and perverted it in many ways.. these are just simply stating a few
-claims that the bible has many interpretations on passages dealing with homosexuality, and we chose to interpret it as it not being a sin. (relativism etc..)
-Bringing up issues related to the Old Covenant
-Some have found a 'loophole'..
Whatever we think we are doing by saying that homosexuality is not a sin, we are really denying the sufficiency and authority of the Word of God. We are rejecting the clear truth of scripture.
This is NOT a problem for unbelievers, since they are clear about their rejection of not only the Bible, but Jesus and the whole deal..
But for Christians this is a serious issue because of the deception going on. If a person claims to be a committed follower of Jesus Christ he will not continue in sin, nor will he approve of it.(1 John 3:9) How do we know what is sin? Well for New Covenant believers we need to look at Jesus' Words, and the teachings of the Apostles and the New Testament.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God.(NET bible)
There is no way around that. Verse 9 says: practicing homosexuals...now I know this translation is showing that this is a way of life that is unrepentant, and possibly not even acknowledged as sin.
There are many other sins listed there, but this goes back to the basic teaching of regeneration of New Covenant believers in Jesus Christ- They will have a transformed life. Period.
Now if a Christian wants to sit and argue about any of those things, it is a waste of time because they are trying to justify thier own sin and/or blatantly reject God's Word.
Back to my main point lol. I hope we can get to a point where this discussion can begin with an agreement between a heterosexual and homosexual that they are both "born that way" and Christ commands them both to deal with it in the same way... put to death the desires of the flesh, by the Spirit. (Romans 8:13). The believer will in fact do this, though imperfectly.
There is so much time wasted on the discussion of whether or not homosexuality is a sin. It such a trap of the Devil.. it's not even a real question whether or not it is, just like we don't question murder being a sin, because both are clearly stated as such in God's Word.