Homosexuality – The Law of God and Public Policy: Marriage and Sex (7)

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Homosexuality

The Law of God and Public Policy: Marriage and Sex (7)

The Law of God, and all His Word, prohibit homosexual relations.

“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” Leviticus 18:22

The Law of God is clear that homosexual practice is not to be permitted. The New Testament concurs and includes homosexual relations between women in this category, referring to all such practices as “dishonorable” and contrary to “natural relations” (cf. Rom. 1:26, 27). None can expect to attain a standing in the Kingdom of God who persist in such practices (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

This is not to deny that some people are born with a genetic heritage or having been shaped by cultural circumstances to be disposed sexually toward members of the same sex. It is simply to advise all such people that God, while He recognizes the ravages sin inflicts on His original upright design for human beings, is not prepared to make concessions to their various schemes for gratifying the adulterous inclinations of their hearts (Eccl. 7:29). He calls us rather to be washed, justified, and sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of His Word and Spirit, so that we might walk in the light as He is in the light, no longer practicing the works of darkness (1 Cor. 9:11; Eph. 5:6-21).

Homosexual practice is sin. Because God defines it as sin, we cannot believe that maximum human sexual fulfillment or social well-being can be realized along this path. The changing temper of the times is no excuse for redrawing the boundaries of divinely prescribed ethical behavior. We would not excuse someone who was a habitual liar, or an inveterate thief, or a serial murderer from his insistence upon being allowed to continue his preferred manner of living merely because he claims, “This is the way I am!” Sin is sin and must be checked, not indulged. It is the task of those who understand God’s truth and who have come to know His grace to bring that truth and grace to expression in their own lives, within their communities, and in the public policies—and for the shalom—of the nation in which God has established them.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.