Our culture increasingly recognizes fewer and fewer sexual boundaries. The idea of abstinence before marriage is laughed at and mocked by many (though it’s no laughing matter with God – Hebrews 13:4). Adultery is taken only a bit more seriously, and in the last few decades we have entered into an “anything goes” mentality that includes a full embrace of same sex relationships.
In all of this, we forget that sex was and is God’s idea, His creation and gift to us. As with all His gifts, we are to use it within the guidelines He gave. That brings blessedness. When we ignore the framework He has given us and choose to live outside of it, it brings brokenness.
1. Same sex relationships are not in harmony with God’s creative purposes (Romans 1:27).
God not only created humans as male and female—He created the female from the male. Why did He do this? He made two from one so that He might bring the two back together as one in marriage (Genesis 2:24). Jesus affirms all of this in Mark 10:6-9. (The only “marriage” Christ knew and spoke approvingly of was that which His Father created in Eden!).
When Paul is discussing same sex behavior in Romans 1:24-27, he speaks of how “women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones” (26). In v. 27 he tells us that “men also abandoned natural sexual relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.” Anatomy 101 tells us there’s nothing “natural” about same sex behavior.
2. Same sex behavior is anti-sexual; it cannot produce life.
That should give anyone cause to pause. That same sex behavior cannot produce life isn’t accidental or incidental—it is because it is not in harmony with what God created. Therefore, it is incapable of producing life. To try to counter that some in heterosexual marriages are unable to have children misses the point as they are exceptions (due to God’s redemptive curse of Genesis 3) rather than the rule. In the case of same sex relationships—it is the rule and there is never an exception!
3. Same sex behavior is “degrading” (NIV) and “dishonoring” (ESV) to the body (Romans 1:24).
What would you think if someone took a beautiful, hand-crafted guitar and used it for a boat paddle? Or they used the Mona Lisa as a dartboard? You would protest that they weren’t made for such purposes and you’d be right. In the same way, God designed a man’s body for a woman and a woman’s body for a man. Same sex behavior “dishonors” and “degrades” His design.
4. Same sex behavior is specifically spoken against in numerous Scriptures.
In addition to the foundational texts like Genesis 2:18-25 and Mark 10:6-9, there’s Romans 1:24-27; Leviticus 18:22; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 2 Timothy 1:10, etc. And no, these passages aren’t forbidding abusive same sex behavior. If you’ll note their context, you’ll see they are forbidding the behavior itself.
5. Same sex behavior is a choice.
Are their situations and circumstances that make it easier for some to choose to engage in same sex behaviors? I’m sure there are. Are there some who struggle with stronger urges and drives toward same sex attraction than others? I’m sure that’s true as well. But the truth is, none of us get to choose our temptation. However, we do get to choose whether we will give in to it or nobly resist. In the end, no one is coerced into anything. We all have a choice is what we do. Paul tells us that “if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13). That’s the choice we all need to make.
6. Same sex behavior can be overcome through Christ.
After talking about the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, and “men who have sex with men” not inheriting the kingdom on God (1 Corinthians 6:9), Paul goes on to write, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (v. 11). Whatever our sin might be, no one has to stay where they are! We can turn to the Lord and find forgiveness and healing.
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 