Title: NOW ABOUT HOMO-SEXUALITY
Focus: Christians and others with a gay or lesbian orientation need to hear God’s truth and experience God’s grace
Function: To move the people to speak truth and grace at all times, especially to Christians and others with a gay or lesbian orientation.
Text: Romans 1:18-32
You and I want to be like Jesus. And so we sing, “May the mind of Christ, my Savior, live in me from day to day.” Of course, it’s one thing to sing that prayer; another, however, to live it out.
There’s a striking passage in the Gospel of John. It goes like this: (Jhn.1:14) “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” While elaborating on this thought, John says that the law of God was given through Moses, but God’s grace and truth “came through Jesus Christ.”
As I speak to you as your pastor about homosexuality, I want to do so with Jesus as my model, displaying and expressing grace and truth. And as you respond to the message, I ask the same from you: that you display and express truth and grace. You might ask, “Why, Pastor, do you set up your sermon with the paradigm of grace and truth?” My response is simple: In light of the Scriptures, I firmly believe that Christians and others with a gay or lesbian orientation need to hear God’s truth and experience God’s grace.
Of course, that’s true for all people: truth and grace are not limited to a few select people or people group. But I want to emphasize the need for truth and grace, especially in the context of homosexuality. For as Christians, we fall short at times in our responses and relationships with Christians and others who have a homosexual orientation.
For example, when I was 20 years old and lived and worked in the Netherlands, I had a coworker who was openly gay and proud of it. I was thoroughly disgusted with the thought of homosexuality, and my response to him was nothing to be proud of today.
More than 30 years have passed. Today, I am a pastor who must act and speak in the name of Christ. Having pastured individuals who struggle with a homosexual orientation, and knowing parents and grandparents who grieve and struggle over this issue and worry about their children and grandchildren who are given to a homosexual lifestyle, I have learned and I am still learning to speak truth and grace.
I have come to accept the fact that I will have to live with the tension that comes with truth and grace. I’m convinced that you, too, must learn to live with the tension that comes from speaking truth of saying “NO” to the practice of homosexuality and speaking grace of saying “YES” to Christians and others with a homosexual orientation.
First of all, as we wrap our head around the passage from Romans 1:18-32, we must do so with Paul’s intent in mind. Paul is an evangelist. He announces good news. Listen: (1:1) “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God….”
Paul, then, is the bearer and herald of good news.
Paul also writes with a pastor’s heart, filled with love and compassion for his audience. Listen: (1:7) “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.” Paul sees his audience through the eyes of God. Thus he says (1:6) “And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” So when we listen to the passage from Romans 1:18-32, we do well to remember that Paul is intent on sharing good news in Christ Jesus, and that he does so with compassion and love.
Secondly, as we zero in on the passage, we do well to note that this passage is part of a larger context—a context in which Paul argues that all have sinned, that all are under the wrath of God, and that all need the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. British pastor/theologian, John Stott, points out that Paul develops this theme of the universality of sin by dividing the human race into several sections and by accusing them one by one.
In the first section (which is the particular passage from Romans 1:18-32), Paul portrays depraved Gentile society in its idolatry, immorality, and antisocial behavior. In the second section (Romans 2:1-16) Paul addresses critical moralizers or judgmental people, Jews and Gentiles alike; these moralizers profess high ethical standards and apply them to everybody except themselves. In the third section (Rom. 2:17-3:8) Paul turns to self-confident Jews, who boast of their knowledge of God’s law, but do not obey it. And in the fourth section (Rom. 3:9-20) Paul includes the entire human race, and he concludes that all are guilty and without excuse before God.
My point is simple: Paul is not simply singling out a little group of people in society such as homosexuals—in fact, Paul speaks truth and grace to all of us. The truth is: all have sinned; the grace is found in Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Thirdly, in the passage of Romans 1:18-32 Paul addresses three questions. These questions center on the wrath of God as revealed to depraved Gentile society in its idolatry, immorality, and antisocial behavior. Paul makes clear that God’s wrath is being revealed on such a society. He then goes on and raises three questions: (1) What is the wrath of God? (2) Against what is God’s wrath revealed? And (3) How is God’s wrath revealed? We shall focus on this last question, because it brings us to those verses that refer to homosexual behavior in society.
The answer to “How?”
From Scripture we know that God will reveal his wrath at the end of time, when Jesus Christ will sit as judge. Thus we speak of God’s great Judgment Day.
Scripture also teaches that God discloses his wrath in the present. God uses governments and laws, for example, to punish evil doers and lawbreakers. Should I kill someone with evil intent, I deserve punishment. God’s displeasure on me is revealed through the application of civil law and justice.
But there is another way by which God reveals his wrath on us in the present. God does so by “giving people over.” Listen (vs. 24) “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another….” (vs. 26) “…God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.” (vs. 28) “Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity….”
Woe to a society, and woe to individuals when God “gives us over.” When God gives us over, he no longer restrains us with his Word and Spirit or common grace. When a vicious dog, full of excitement, is no longer on its leash, the neighborhood is in danger. When individuals and society are no longer constrained or restrained by God’s will and power, they are off the leash. And society goes down the drain of immorality, idolatry, and all kinds of social ills and evils.
Paul speaks truth about homosexual practice, and he talks about it in the context of God’s wrath being revealed. The practice of homosexuality, like the practice of so many other sinful behaviors—be it greed, gossip, slander, envy, theft, and killing—is a sinful practice. You won’t find God’s favor on it.
It’s clear, then, that the practice of homosexuality takes place in the context of God revealing his wrath on a depraved society. That’s the truth Paul speaks in this passage. Verses 26 and 27 describe and condemn all homosexual behavior.
Later on in his letter to the Roman church, Paul brings out the grace of God in Christ Jesus. This grace comes to all who put their hope and faith in Christ and turn from their evil ways.
In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul speaks truth and grace in one breath, and he gives hope to all who are caught in sin and given to ignore God’s will and boundaries for us. Listen: (I Cor. 6:9-11) “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” Here Paul speaks truth.
But now listen to the grace he speaks: “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” All have sinned. That’s the truth. All need the Savior. That’s God’s grace. There is grace for the swindler and the homosexual offender, for the gossiper and the heterosexual adulterer. We need to hear and know the truth; we find grace, life and forgiveness and renewal in Jesus Christ.
Grace and truth—I speak about these things for when it comes to our relationships with Christians and others who struggle with a homosexual orientation, we don’t always know how to speak both—truth and grace. There is so much we do not understand about homosexuality. Contrary to what we may think, most homosexuals do not wake up some morning and say, “I think I’m going to be a gay person or a lesbian.” Most homosexuals do not make that choice. All gay persons, however, just like all heterosexual persons, make choices concerning their behavior or sexual practice. Some chose to be celibate and practice abstinence. Others make different choices and often suffer painful consequences. The point, however, is this: we are all responsible for the choices we make and the behavior we practice.
Some Christians have received complete healing from God; they claim that God took away their homosexual orientation. I don’t know why this does not happen to all gay people who ask the Lord. But I do know that God sustains Christians who struggle with their sexual orientation and who seek to live within the boundaries of God’s will.
The Christian life is a conversion life; we are called to struggle daily by dying to sin and self, and by rising to the new life that Christ sets before us. And from the Scriptures we know that our wholeness, our salvation is only in Christ; And we know that our restoration or renewal is a lifelong project. All throughout life, then, Christians are under construction.
There’s much we don’t understand about homosexuality. But this much I may declare from Scripture to all sinners, including gay persons: If you appeal to the Lord Jesus Christ and are washed by his blood (as signified in your baptism for example), then you may see yourself as a child of God. You are part of his people, the family of God. And that means that we must care for each other, support each other in our brokenness, and encourage each other to find grace, strength and support from God’s Word and Spirit. Historically, as a Christian church in North America, we have struggled to do that.
Note the guidelines of the 1973 Synod of the CRC. You find them on the back of your liturgy. These guidelines have been around for 34 years. More recently, the 1999 Synod of the CRC wrote a follow-up report. We have still a lot of work to do.
Let us support and encourage each other in Christ. Let us continue to be renewed under the formative Word of God and the shaping power of God’s Holy Spirit. Let us be disciplined followers and abide in Christ, speaking the truth and living in grace.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.