Much has been written about homosexuality in recent months, and
in response to a post of mine on Facebook an old school friend wrote the
following comment “Homosexuality is not a sin!” I promised that I would take
the time to write a reply, and here it is …
Sin, why should we be concerned about sin? and why should a non-Christian,
someone who does not believe in God, care? Well, we all have a conscience and
we do care about what is right and wrong. So I assume that my friend is
expressing that he does not think that homosexuality is wrong. By using the
word “sin”, I assume, that he adopts my Christian terminology to communicate his
position more effectively to me.
The decision of what is right and what is wrong is so often
temporal, influenced by a mired of factors from culture, media, language,
education and generation. An example relevant to homosexuality is how, due to
cultural pressure, the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the main
professional organization of psychiatrists in America, in the early 1970's
revised their DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), to
remove the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder. THE DSM, which
codifies psychiatric conditions and is used worldwide as a guide for diagnosing
disorders, made this change at the time through a majority vote of 58%.
The message is clear, with enough activist activity and “authoritative
influence”, we can secure a majority and change our definition of what
behaviour is wrong and what is right. This is of course a hugely positive
aspect of western societies that has led to positive changes in attitudes to slavery,
child labour, racism and other forms of discrimination. But it at the same time
shows how temporal and malleable our understanding of right and wrong can be.
The Jewish Bible describes how mankind was tempted and deceived
with the sentence “For God knows that when you eat from it
your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
(Genesis 3:5)
How desirable is it to us to be able to
determine what is wrong and what is right? Does it give us the feeling of power
and of control over our lives and situations? The feeling that we are like God?
When we use the word sin though, we should be meaning that
which is not right in God’s eyes, i.e. from His perspective. The Apostle Paul
makes it clear in Romans 3: 23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God”.
This understanding somehow stunts our “godlike” activity to want to define
certain actions as sin and others not. We have all sinned and in this state we
deserve the eternal condemnation of separation from God, as the path we have
chosen for ourselves.
Looking at the context of Romans 3:23 though, we make an
amazing discovery:
But
now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which
the Law and the Prophets testify.
This righteousness is given through faith
in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and
Gentile, for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the
shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. (Romans 3:21-25a)
God so loved the people in the world that He sent His Son,
Jesus Christ, to take sins of all people upon Himself and pay the penalty for this
sin himself. In return we have to be able to acknowledge our sinful state and
be willing to accept this sacrifice. Through our faith in Him, God clothes us
with His Righteousness, which allows us to once again enter into an eternal
relationship with Him.
God once again responds by cleansing us from our sins,
putting His Spirit in us and through this, the transformation begins where we
start to get and submit to His perspective on what is right and what is wrong.
So, my dear friend, the real issue is not about what you or
I may believe to be right or wrong, but what the state of our relationship
before our God is! We will all one day appear before the Judgement Seat and
will be judged according to His standard of perfect righteousness. Either we
will, through our faith in His sacrifice, be able to stand in His Gift of
Righteousness to us, or we will stand in our own unrighteousness. Having failed
to attain His standard we will have to accept the penalty for our decisions
made on this earth, that were so often motivated by our desires to be in control of our
own lives and by our rebellious refusal to submit to His Lordship in our lives!
The deeper issues of the heart darkened by sin are therefore
the real issues. From them we see the manifestations of lust, adultery, divorce,
immorality, selfishness, hate and greed to name but a few.
I know that I stand guilty of all these charges and I know
why, but I also know that I have been given Grace to accept the Gift of
Righteousness and through that entry into an eternal Kingdom, characterised by
love, peace and joy. I pray that you too, may be given the divine Grace to make
this decision!
We have enjoyed some good times in the past, but I look more
forward to spending time with you in that kind of Eternity!
Your friend,
Mark
