We Are One In The Spirit

Christian Unity I Can Believe In

BLEST BE THE TIE THAT BINDS

Epiphany Epilogue: Matthew 19:8-12 -- What Jesus Says About "Born That Way"

One final question on the subject of Christians and homosexuality remains for us to ponder, beyond the epiphany I, and other evangelicals, have experienced in seeing the sin as one sin among many, not the pre-emininent sin of all, which some have made it out to be.

The question is raised by many in the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender (LBGT) community -- they claim that they were "born this way," and, therefore, it is not a sin to live as God created a person to be.  What does contempory scientific study say about this claim?

There is increasing scientific evidence to back the claim of being born this way. “Sexual orientation is not a matter of choice, it is primarily neurobiological at birth." So said Jerome Goldstein, director of the San Francisco Clinical Research Centre, addressing 3,000 neurologists from around the world at the 21st meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS) in Lisbon last month.


The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of recognised mental disorders almost 40 years ago in 1973 and the World Health Organisation followed suit in 1992.

If it can be shown that the brains of gay people are physiologically different from heterosexual people, the idea that they are born this way gains strength.  Is someone born into homosexuality different from the voluntary sexual acts that the Bible verses about same sex relations seem to describe?

That is one question to ponder.  The author Tony Johnson has an interesting idea about what Jesus did not say and did say about bning "Born this way.'

Johnson points out a pamphlet is titled "What Jesus Said About Homosexuality" and you open it and it's blank, page after page, blank."Of course, that's true, proclaims Johnson, "Jesus never mentioned homosexuality. Though He did mention Sodom and Gomorrah, using them as examples of inhospitality to strangers;"

Johnson continues, "So you have to wonder: if Jesus was God, as Catholics believe, Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, consubstantial with the Father,  and so gifted at least in some way with Divine Omniscience, so He'd know there would one day be a terrible problem in Christianity and culture over homosexuality, gay rights, and same-sex marriage, why didn't He say anything specific.  Why didn't He say that He was abolishing all the rules in the Old Testament EXCEPT the rule against homosexual intercourse?"

"Why didn't He distinguish between His forgiving the woman brought to him in adultery ("Let him who is without sin cast the first stone") and His wanting to continue to hold homosexuality against people?"

"Why didn't He say anything about how homosexual marriage would defile the sanctity of the relationship of man and woman? Why didn't He say anything?
Did He just keep forgetting to mention it?

The closest thing He DID say is very instructive.
In speaking about "protecting the sanctity of marriage" Jesus said:

"Because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.
"And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."

The disciples said to him, "If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry"

But He said to them, "Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. "For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it." (Matt 19: 8-12)

 "Curiously, if you look in the glossary of the Bible I just quoted from, it defines "eunuch" as "chamberlain, official." If you depended on that for a dictionary, you'd have a hard time ever understanding what Jesus was talking about. You'd think the choice was between getting married and being a politician."

 "So what were eunuchs?"

Eunuchs were men who didn't have sex with women and/or couldn't reproduce--who were therefore considered safe to be around women in the harem. Since they had no children, they had no vested interest in leaving a fortune to the next generation so they could be employed in government and civil service because they had no reason to be crooked or seek advantage for their own sons.

(Of course, not all men who don't or can't reproduce were necessarily thought of as eunuchs, though in that culture at that time and situation in history, most men were married and did reproduce. Having children was a way of serving God by increasing God's people in a world in which human beings were scarce. The point here is that when Jesus talked about eunuchs, he was certainly including men who didn't fit that norm.  He himself didn't, having no children or wife himself.)

 Eunuchs were sometimes men who'd been castrated in order to serve in these functions. That's the "eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men."
 Eunuchs were also men who just didn't look very masculine, who weren't interested in marrying or having sex with women, who were "sissies." Eunuchs included men who were obviously different.
 Those--clearly--were what Jesus referred to as "eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb."  Could homosexuals be as eunuchs?
 COULD HOMOSEXUALS ARE BORN THAT WAY!
 Johnson sums it up.  "The other class of eunuchs are those who "make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven." The Catholic Church has used that quotation to justify requiring celibacy and non-sexuality of its priests".
 Johnson asks: Could some homosexuals, like eunuchs, be born that way?


Philip and the Eunuch from Acts Chapter 8

Epiphany Part Six -- Confession of Christ as Lord and Savior is the Greatest Confession of All

One of the arguments hurled at homosexuals who love Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior is the problem of unconfessed sin.  Of course, many gay and lesbian Christians wonder how they can be blamed with sin for a condition they feel they were have had since birth. 

 So the question comes to us, if you see homosexuality as a sin, which many still do from my reading of the Bible, (but see it as a sin among many sins, not the sin above many sins as some people do), then how do we deal with the problem of unconfessed sin?

Well, let us ask this – will unconfessed sin send a Christian to hell?  What happens to a Christian who dies with a known yet unconfessed sin in his life? Does he die in an unforgiven state? If he dies unforgiven, then what is the result?

This question reflects a very common misunderstanding of at least four important things: 1) the doctrine of justification, 2) the doctrine of sanctification, 3) the biblical teaching on the confession of sin, and 4) the interpretation of 1 John 1:9.

Christ's Righteousness is Imputed to Us

A Christian is a person who has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit (John 1:12-13; 3:5-8; Eph. 2:1).  As such this person is justified, which means he or she has been declared righteous because of the imputation of the perfect righteousness of Christ.  In other words, Christ's perfect obedience is credited to this person, which is apprehended by faith (Rom. 3:24-26; Eph. 2:8-9).

In justification a person is not made righteous but is declared so, so that he or she is "covered" by the righteousness of Christ (Phil. 3:9).  It is this imputed righteousness that gives us a right standing before God and since Christ's righteousness is perfect and unchanging the person that has faith in him never loses that right standing.

We Consciously Seek to Do God's Will

In sanctification those who have been justified are being conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29-30, Eph. 2:10, Phil. 2:13).  That is, they are being made righteous which means they will consciously seek to do the will of God in thought, word, and deed. 

There are, however, a few things to be noted about our pursuit of holiness in this life.  First, our holiness in this life will never be perfect (Isaiah 64:6, Luke 17:10).  Second, our performance of good works is not what sustains our right standing with God.  What sustains us is the righteousness of Christ, which is why Paul says that he "became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). 

Good Works Have No Merit Apart from Christ

Contrary to what many evangelicals think, we are not saved by faith and then sustained by our own good works.  This would require all of our good works to be perfect in and of themselves and that is simply not the case.  Third, our good works are done in faith and have no merit apart from Christ who is our mediation and High Priest (1 Tim. 2:5, Heb. 13:15-16).

Confession of Sin Has No Inherent Power

As for the confession of sin, it is evident from the Lord's prayer (Matt. 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4) that this should be a regular part of the Christian life, but there is no inherent power in the act of confession.  This leads us to consider 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  

The Greek word translated as "confess" means "to agree, acknowledge, or give assent."  When we are brought to faith we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to confess Jesus as Lord (1 Cor. 12:3).  In other words, we confess that we are sinners under the just wrath of a holy God and by faith we confess that Jesus has lived for our obedience and died for our sins.  It is this faith driven confession that united us to the atoning work of Christ.

What John is alluding to in 1 John 1:9 is the repentance that is an ongoing part of our sanctification.  As Christians regularly attend the appointed means of grace (hearing the Gospel preached and taking part in the Lord's Supper), their sins are regularly revealed to them, and they in turn confess those sins and repent. 

But Every Christian Dies with Unconfessed Sin

As previously stated, we never reach a state of sinless perfection in this life.  Therefore, every Christian that dies does so with unconfessed sin.  The distinction between known and unknown sins is an empty one in light of the holiness of God.  Our confidence and our assurance is in our confession of Christ alone for salvation.  But we must be careful not to make confession a work upon which the sustaining power of Christ's atonement is contingent.

The most important thing is to embrace Christ as Lord and Savior.  Then let the Spirit and the Word wash over you and if there is sin that needs confessing, ask the Lord to reveal it to you.  Then all of us who are Christians need to love our feellow brothers and sisters in Christ, in every way we can that supports their walk with Christ, and our mutual partnership in the ongoing mission of God.

Epiphany Part Six of Six, S. Glenn Wilson

Epiphany Part Five -- Sin Was/Is Conquered, Once and For All -- We Are Aquitted Gratis, Sola Gracia, By God's Own Entering In For Us!

Karl Barth, whom I have read and studied a great deal, has many wonderful revelations in his writings that need to be remembered and considered today.  Like Calvin, and Luther, and Wesley, before him, God showed Barth some things that must not be thrown into the garbage heap of time, but rather must be treasured as beautiful jewels that belong to the entire Christian family.

Here are some amazing quotations from the great professor/theologian for us to reflect upon:

Our Sin, Conquered in Christ

"He has made an end of us as sinners and therefore of sin itself by going to death as the One who took our places as sinners. In His person He has delivered up us sinners and sin itself to destruction. He has removed us sinners and sin, negated us, cancelled us out: ourselves, our sin, and the accusation, condemnation and perdition which has overtaken us.... The man of sin, the first Adam, the cosmos alienated from God, the 'present evil age' (GAL 1:4), was taken and killed and buried in and with Him on the cross." (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, V/I, pp. 253-254).

 [Man's] legal status as a sinner is rejected in every form. Man is no longer seriously regarded by God as a sinner. Whatever he may be, whatever there is to be said of him, whatever he has to reproach himself with, God no longer takes him seriously as a sinner. He has died to sin; there on the Cross of Golgotha...We are no longer addressed and regarded by God as sinners...We are acquitted gratis, sola gratia, by God's own entering in for us.
-Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline (New York: Philosophical Library), 1949, p. 121; 120.

When He took our place as man, the man of sin, the first Adam, the cosmos alienated from God, the "present evil world" (Gal. 4), was taken and killed and buried in and with Him on the cross...Jesus Christ, who willed to make Himself the bearer and representative of sin, caused sin to be taken and killed on the cross in His own person (as that great sinner). And in that way, not by suffering our punishment as such, but in the deliverance of sinful man and sin itself to destruction,...He has on the other side blocked the source of our destruction.
-Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV:1 (Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark), 1956, p. 254.

Our Union with Christ

"What the Christian as a man called by Christ may believe, and in faith recognise, acknowledge, experience, understand and grasp, is finally and decisively this union of Christ with him and himself with Christ." (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 4/3/2, p. 651).

"But this union, preceding and superior to his faith, knowledge and experience, by which it is not bound but of which it is the basis, is the being of Christ with and in him and his own being with and in Christ." (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 4/3/2, p. 651).

Barth on Sin & Grace

“Grace digs sin up by its roots, for it questions the validity of our present existence and status. It takes away our breath, ignores us as we are, and treats us as what we are not-as new men. To be in grace means that we are no longer treated by God as sinners. For those who have been known by God, sin, instead of determining of necessity our will and intelligence, becomes a withered, defeated, and finished thing.”“
Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968), 190-191.

The saving of anyone is something which is not in the power of man, but only of God. No one can be saved — in virtue of what he can do. Everyone can be saved — in virtue of what God can do. The divine claim takes the form that it puts both the obedient and the disobedient together and compels them to realise this, to recognise their common status in face of the commanding God. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 2:2

Epiphany, Part Five of Six, S. Glenn Wilson, 2011

Epiphany Four -- Consider the Benefits of the Finished Work of Christ for All Sinners Saved By His Grace!

Recently I asked the question, in a Christian book discussion group, “What is greater God’s love or God’s wrath?”  Some folks objected to the question, with one fine older minister saying it was “a question that was inappropriate.”

Well, I must admit I asked it because it was once asked of me by a great Native Alaskan preacher in Alaska, who also gave me the answer after I was quiet in my thoughts – “God’s love is greater, because He chose to send Jesus Christ to save us from His wrath.  By God’s own choice, His love has a greater power in His creation than His wrath.’

Sadly, a lot of people have not received the memo yet. They dwell on God’s wrath and destruction, and the fires of hell, not on the benefits of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, which saves you from all of those things.  That is the emphases the church needs to embrace, lock, stock and barrel.

 “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” was an effective evangelism sermon preached by theologian Jonathan Edwards on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticutt.  It helped spawn the Great Awakening, and its imagery of hell is still effecive today to get people’s attention. But it is entry level Christianity.  Once you understand that Jesus as your Lord and Savior you no longer qualify as a sinner in the hands of an angry God.  You are now a part of His body of “Sinners Saved By Grace in the Hands of a Loving Christ!”

Certainly, we live in a broken world and sin touches us all. The insights of the great 20^th century theologian Karl Barth speak to a universal theme of life. When Barth faces the nature of man, his deeply held convictions demonstrate a theological view of our condition. Karl Barth stated: "Sin is man as we now know him."

Barth’s whole theology is highly christocentric. His epistemology is to look first to Jesus Christ and deduce everything from there. Barth puts his epistemology on Christ, because Jesus Christ is the revelation revealed to us. Nothing can be known outside of Christ. In other words, in order to understand what sin, Barth looks at Christ. This seems counterintuitive at first, because Christ is sinless. But by comparing ourselves to Christ, we can be aware of the sins within us.

First, Barth states that in Jesus Christ God became Man. Jesus Christ is the Son of God who walked among men in flesh as Man. This is in striking contrast against men who want to become gods. This attempt to become God is threefold: man loves himself, he sees himself as the standard, and he tries to become his own God. (1: Barth IV,1, p.423).  Sin is pride; it makes us want to become God.

Second, Barth states in Church Dogmatics that in Jesus Christ the Lord becomes a servant. In contrast to Jesus, as creatures of God, we try to become lords. This attempt is threefold: man sees himself as a self-alienated slave, he strives to make others his servants, and he sees God as a harsh Lord standing against him. In contrast to Christ, man tries to become his own lord, because he is unwilling to serve the Lord. (2 CD IV.1, p.435).  From this Barth deduces that sin is sloth.

Third, Barth states that in Jesus Christ, the Judge was judged. As guilty sinners, men try to become judge over others. Man makes an effort to be his own judge of good and evil. This effort is threefold: man misunderstands his role as the guilty, man thinks he is right when he is wrong, man thinks that God needs our assistance in judging others. (3 CD IV.1, p. 453). From this Barth deduces that sin is falsehood.

As King, Jesus proclaims His Kingdom by becoming Man. As Priest, Jesus serves. As Prophet, Jesus bears judgment and foretells future judgment. This threefold office of Christ reveals the threefold nature of sin as pride, sloth and falsehood. (Bromiley 179)

Barth Took Great Joy in the Salvation of the Finished Work of Christ – Not Our Works, But His Finished, Already Done, Once and For All, Work

Read this passage from Coloassions 2 and then read Barth’s sage commentary below:

⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. ⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces^[a] of this world rather than on Christ ⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh^[b] was put off when you were circumcised by^[c] Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.   ¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you^[d] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.^[e]

"As the one thing which has to be done it is already wholly and utterly accomplished in Him. As that which has taken place in God--in which we are indeed participators on the strength of the nature of the person and work of Jesus Christ--it is in itself and from the very outset something which has taken place to and in us." (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, II/1:158).

"Again, the act of God accomplished and expressed in Jesus Christ is the justification and sanctification of man. It is thus the act in which man, whether he realizes it or not, is objectively alienated, separated and torn away from this resisting element in him, because he is already set in the liberty of the children of God." (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV/3:269).

"Their saving death took place, not now and here, but in supreme actuality then and there, when they, too, were baptized in and with Jesus' baptism of death..." (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV/4:17).

"We ask where and when there has taken place, takes place and will take place, as an actual event, this movement of man in the totality and with the radical dispute in which the old man dies and the new arises, this liberation by God's free grace. And the answer is simply that in the strict sense it is an actual event only in Him, in His life, in His obedience as the true Son of God and true Son of Man." (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV/2:582).

"In His death there took place the regeneration and conversion of man." (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV/2:291).

"The event of redemption took place then and there in Him, and therefore 'for us'.... It calls us to discipleship, but not in such a way that it becomes an event of redemption only through our obedience to this call.... It has happened fully and exclusively in Him, excluding any need for completion." (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV/1:229f).3

Epiphany, Part Four of Six, S. Glenn Wilson, 2011

Karl Barth

             Theologian Karl Barth

Epiphany Part Three -- "All Who Call On the Name of the Lord Will Be Saved": (Romans 10:13)

We are all sinners saved by grace.  The Scriptures are plain on this fact:  We must never forget it.  When we point fingers at others, three are pointing back towards us.

(Ephesians 2:8-9) - "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast." 

(Rom. 3:20, 28) - "because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin...For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." 

(Galatians 2:16) - "nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified." 

In all the vastness of our world, in all of the diversity of religious beliefs, there are only two essential types of belief, works and Grace. There seem to be many differences between the world’s religions, but they are all essentially the same--they all center around human works.

Christianity, however, “the faith once delivered to the saints,” is totally distinct from the world’s religions in this area.. The thing that makes Christianity far different from all other religions is the grace that Christ extends to us.

Salvation by Grace through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord

1. Salvation is 100 percent a work of God--we are unable, because of our bondage to sin and rebellion, to do anything meriting God’s favor.

2. God reaches down to save people--He conceived the plan, He sent His Son to accomplish the plan--He does 100% of the work.

3. When we experience what the Bible calls the New Birth (John 3:3-8), we are then SAVED, we pass from death to life (Eph 2:1-6; John 5:24; 6:40; 6:47).

4. As a part of the gift of Salvation, we become adopted children of God (Gal 3:26-4:7).

5. When we sin, God deals with us as a Father to a child (Heb 12:4-8).

6. God’s Grace and actions are the determining factors in our salvation, even to include His working in our lives to develop a lifestyle consistent with salvation. (Eph 2:8-10; Phil. 2:12-13)

The Grace of God is so simple, yet so profound that it is beyond the greatest minds to fully understand. It stands in opposition to the ideas that most of us have about earning our way in the world, about people getting what they deserve, about “fairness,” and about the independence of human beings. I am reminded of the Youth Group definition is that GRACE is the acronym for God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. 

The meaning of Grace behind that simple explanation totally undermines and removes all traces of human pride. The Doctrine of Grace teaches that we are totally unable to save ourselves, to help in our salvation, to do anything to merit all or any part of our salvation, or to keep our salvation. We are saved totally as an act of God’s will, and we do not deserve it in any way. Indeed, those that are saved are equally (if not more) deserving of Hell as those who actually go there! We are all sinners, saved by grace.

Ephesians 2:1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 

In spite of our fitness for wrath, however, God has exercised His Grace toward us in Christ.

Ephesians 2:4-10 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

 

What is the meaning of Grace? We were dead spiritually; we were fit for nothing but wrath; we were rebels and in bondage to sin and Satan. In the midst of that condition, God saved us. We exercised faith, which is itself a gift of God (John 6:44-47), and God blessed us with the greatest possible gift--eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord! (John 5:24; 6:37-40). What is more, we can add nothing to Grace. Before we were saved, we had nothing to contribute to the process ( Rom 3:10-11; 1 Cor 2:14; Job 14:4; Jer. 13:23), and During the New Birth experience, we add nothing to it. The Bible makes plain that the mysterious supernatural experience called the New Birth is an act of God.

John 3:3-8 “In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 4:6-7 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 

You might ask, “If this is all a work of God, where do I fit in the process?” The answer is you must believe, you must exercise faith in Christ for salvation. (Rom 10:9-13; Acts 16:30-31). This exercise is not a work, however, because is involves no ability on our part and no effort on our part. That is the hard thing to understand about faith--it is not an action, it is a surrender, a throwing up of the hands and saying, “I can do nothing in myself.”

Justification by Faith

What does the term “Justified” mean? The Bible meaning of the word is to be totally blameless and totally guiltless--to be able to stand before God clean and pure in every way. A play on the word helps us to understand its meaning. If I am Justified, it is Just-as-if-I’d never sinned, and Just-as-if-I’d always been holy and done the right things. Remember our helpless position before God--as “children of Wrath,” we are unable to satisfy God--all His lovely and perfect Law can do is condemn us:

Romans 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

 

Our Father, however, has devised a plan and made a way for us to stand righteous before Him. He has sent His own Son as a Sacrifice on our behalf, (Chapter 5) and those who believe in Him shall have everlasting life, and shall be seen as righteous in God’s sight.

Romans 3:21-24 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

 

Jesus Christ saves.  He can save anyone who calls upon His Name.  He can save any race of humanity.  He can save any person of any nationality or ethnic group.  He can save heterosexual and homosexual and transgender. 

In fact, the Bible does not say that sexuality is in any way a prerequisite or a barrier to salvation.  The fact that one has sin, real or perceived, in one's life is WHY one needs to come to Jesus, not a reason to stay away.  

Jesus is Lord is the central issue here -- it is about HIM and His power, and not about us and our weakness, except that we need to surrender to Him with our lives in response to His love and compassion He extends to us so gracefully.

Jesus saves ALL who call on His name (Romans 10:13)! And that is the ultimately magnificent great joy of the ages!

Epiphany, part 3 of 6, S. Glenn Wilson, 2011

Epiphany Part Two -- What Did Jesus Do?

 WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

 What Would Jesus Do?  Did you ever have a WWJD bracelet? The phrase "What would Jesus do?" (often abbreviated to WWJD) became popular in the 1990s and as a personal motto to evangelical Christians.  It was (and still should be) a reminder to act in a manner that would demonstrate the love of Jesus through the actions of Christians.

The Bible calls on followers of Jesus to imitate Jesus.  In Ephesians 5:1-2.we read  “ ¹ Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ² and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

This precept should influence how we act, since we are ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor. 5:20).  We are commanded to live by the rule of love in the Gospels and in the epistles.  It is the rule that permeates the New Testament.” It is the royal law spoken of in James 2:8 “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right.”

It is the great mandate of Jesus on Maundy Thursday, in John 13:34-35: “³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” 

Everything we do or say needs to be filtered through the prism of love.  Our very interpretation of all of the Scriptures must be tempered by this overarching truth, so great is it valued by the great, full story of the Bible itself.

WWDD -- What Did Jesus DO?

We know one thing Jesus did not do is say anything against homosexuality that is recorded in the Holy Scriptures. Not one such word can be found in the Gospels, or anywhere else. There are hundreds of explanations for this glaring absebce that have been maufactured by Pharasaic folks who want to condemn homosexuality as the sin above all sins, but they still cannot find a word that that Lord and Savior said about the subject, and that is an interesting, and many think revealing, fact.

But beyond what he did not do, just what did Jesus do in his human interactions in his earthly ministry?  Well, one thing is cvident -- Jesus associated with the outcasts of society!  He pointed out the great errors of the proud Pharisees, the most “religious” people of the day and he hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes. 

Oh, my!  Oh, my indeed – and just as men for hundreds of years ignored the high treatment of women by Jesus, so too there has also been an ignorance of who Jesus chose to show outrageous love and compasstion.

Jesus broke religious laws to help outcasts. Jesus healed the blind man on the Sabbath and broke the laws against working by making clay and by healing.  The rest of John 9 after the first 5 verses is the stormy story of conflict over legalistic religion.  

The issues in this story are amazingly contemporary: incurable illness, family rejection, conflicts over religion, fear of authority, ignorant and heartless religious leaders, misplaced judgment, and the determination of Jesus to cut through all of the confusion to accept and encourage the man when he was cast out as a sinner!  Jesus accepts us when religion doesn't, and we all should be thankful for that!

The parents of the one born blind avoided defending their own child for fear of offending judgmental religious leaders.  Sometimes the greatest pain in life is rejection and abandonment by family and friends.  Religious leaders rebuked the rebel and threw him out.  Jesus searched for the religious reject, found and encouraged him.  Rejected people need someone to care.  All of us need encouragement, and Jesus was, and is, the Great Encourager.

Jesus did not waste time trying to decide who is to blame for sickness and pain.  Jesus was motivated by compassion and love and calls us to follow him and do the same.  When we help people, when we extend the love of Jesus into situations, when we are simply "being there" with others, we truly are following Jesus.

Throughout the ministry of Jesus, His actions were consistently aimed at including the people that religion had left out.  Jesus included women, children, foreigners, sinners, the "unclean", outcasts, the sick and even outlaws and murderers (thief on the cross) at a time when the basic thrust of  religion was to divide people into "insiders" and "outsiders", the clean and the unclean.  But Jesus turned no one away.

I want to be that kind of Christian.  May God help me imitate Jesus.  They will know we are Christians by our love – not our laws, not by our lines we humans draw in the sand (that will get washed away in Showers of Blessing anyway), but by our love.  Our love that Jesus gives us to share with others.

The love is the key, no matter how many contemporary Pharisees harangue about people they brand as unworthy, and no matter how much they spread condemnation and hate and division, our God reigns and His love is the supreme force of the universe.

We cannot help but cry tears of sadness for the brokenness of humanity. May we all be born again and revived anew with a fresh abundance of love from above. 

It will happen, it will come, because the tide of God's love is rising, and no matter how hard Satan tries to bring about darkness and division in the Christ's church, his efforts of deceit are doomed in the long run of God's time.  It is totally impossible to hide forever the overwhelming power of the overcoming love of Jesus Christ!

Amen. Amen!

Epiphany, Part 2 of 6, S. Glenn Wilson, 2011

An Epipany -- Part One -- A Sin is A Sin is A Sin and Forgiveness and Grace are Forever

An Epiphany: Part One

There are three passages in the Old Testament (Gen. 19: 1-13; Lev 18:22; 20:13) and three in the New Testament (Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; I Tim. 1:10) that have traditionally been read as condemning homosexuality.  For many years I have taken  these Scriptures and put them in a place of greater importance than others, and I repent of that sin. 

The Biblical definition of “sin” is “missing the mark” (hamartia), and on the basis of this scriptural evidence. I have to regard homosexuality as “missing the mark” of God’s ideal. So yes, I still regard homosexuality to be a sin. 

Having said this, I must also reveal an epiphany.  I think there are other sins that do much more harm in the world.  Good people have wrongly put way too much emphasis on this sin.  And I believe that there is evil behind that emphasis.  Satan has used this huge emphasis to divide the Body of Christ.  

I see it as a sin among many others, not the red letter sin above all others that some have wrongly (by Biblical standards) that some have made it out to be.

If you study what the Bible has to say about sin, there is absolutely no justification for the way many Christians today make homosexuality out to be worse than other types of sin. Some Christian leaders have crusaded in huge ways against homosexuality and have made people to think it was the number one sin in the Bible and the most damaging sin to society.  But that is NOT the Biblical record.

Yet, we have at most six verses in the Bible that mention homosexuality, and we have around 3,000 passages that address greed, gluttony and the need to care for the poor. Not only this, but if there are any sins American Christians are most guilty of, they’re greed, gluttony and apathy toward the poor. And if there are any sins that demonstrably kill people, it’s these ones. 

Yet Christians go after gays. Why? Does it make us feel self-righteous in condemning others. What did Jesus say about judging others?

Luke 6:37-42  [37] "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  [38] Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."  [39] He also told them this parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?  [40] A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.  [41] "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  [42] How can you say to your brother, `Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

 

When you look at the big picture of the problem of sin in the world, there’s no justification for the way many Christians make homosexuality a “deal breaker” sin. Here is a good question -- is it possible to be a Christian and also be gay? 

You can be Christian and be greedy, an overeater, a gossiper, a person who holds a grudge, and who never sacrifices for the poor, but you can’t be gay? You can be Christian and be divorced and remarried, gossip and judge others — all mentioned in the Bible more than homosexuality — but you can’t be gay? Why?

When I attended the General Assembly in Minneapolis, where I actively campaigned and voted against Amendment 10A, which eventually was approved and now allows gay ordination, I had a number of interesting discussions with people with different views on the subject, and I picked up every piece of literature I could that was written by theologians with other ideas than my own.

The most prevalent argument I heard was that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality in the Gospels.  That is an amazing thing to consider, isn't it?  One conservative friend said, "It does not matter what Jesus said or didn't say!" Then he caught himself and grew very quiet.

One argument that I thought had some strength was that Leviticus, usually the first passage quoted by Christians against homosexuality, had rules and laws that were definitely particular to that time. Leviticus, in the Hebrew Scriptures, condemns homosexual behavior, at least for males. Yet, "abomination", the word Leviticus uses to describe homosexuality, is the same word used to describe a menstruating woman.  And a deeper study of the word translated abomination shows many other things that are called just that by the Scriptures.

Certainly, there are are a number of scholars who argue that these six passages are not as clear cut in denouncing all forms of homosexuality as they may initially seem. 

For example, some point out that the word Paul uses in I Tim. 6 and I Tim. 1 that is usually translated as “homosexuality” (arsenakoitai) is very ambiguous. It’s never used before Paul coins it in these verses and historically it’s been translated in a wide variety of ways. (For example, Luther translated it “masturbation”). 

Some scholars argue that the kind of homosexuality Paul had in mind when writing Romans 1 would have been the kind typically practiced by Romans and would not have included loving, respectful, monogamous committed relationships. I am not convinced by these arguments, but this academic debate is ongoing. 

I have attended a number of gatherings where the "sanctity of marriage" has been proclaimed as under attack in Iowa by the Supreme Court decision to allow same sex marriages as a civil rights protection under the constitution. I, like many good people who attended these gatherings, have always felt that the entire biblical narrative presupposes that sex is supposed to take place between a man and a woman in the context of marriage (Gen. 2:23-24). 

Of course, there are substantial wanderings from this one man, one woman idea in the lives of some prominent Biblical figures, such as David and Solomon.  If one man, one woman is the mark, as I have always felt that it is, then you have to admit that David, the man after God's own heart, lived in sin, and so did the wisest man on earth, his son with Bathsheeba, the great King Solomon.  

The great truth that comes out of reflection on these Biblical facts with David and Solomon is that even though they missed it in "traditional" marriage fidelity, God still used them in His ministry to the Hebrew people.  They too lived in a broken sinful world and were sinners themselves, and yet they were used in mighty ways by God for God's purposes.

And if you use the "well it was culturally what they did in those days card," which has historical truth, you open yourself up to the application of that idea in myriad situations in the Bible.  But, however you explain it, if one man. one woman is the Biblical narrative and Godly norm, then David and Solomon and others missed the mark in their married life.  They sinned extravagantly.  

Other sins that they did -- like David arranging for Bathsheeba's husband to die on the battlefield, and Solomon allowing his many wives to have shrines to other gods, are pointed out and punished in the Bible.  But there is no clear, direct punishment for their multiple marriages sins. Curious, isn't it?

I agree with Dr. Greg Boyd, who writes, "When people get their life from their religion rather than from their relationship with Christ, they need to find some sin-group they can positively contrast themselves with. Sadly, for many Christians, this happens to be gay people."

This tendency to put sins on a scale of importance, ranking homosexuality near the top and other sins – the ones we are guilty of (and that are mentioned more frequently in the Bible) – towards the bottom does not fit with the ethics of the Kingdom. 

Jesus commands us to do the opposite. We’re to regard our sins, whatever they are, as planks sticking out of our eyes, and other peoples sins, whatever they are, to be mere dust particles (Mt. 7:1-3). With Paul, we are to confess that we are “the worst of sinners” (I Tim. 1:15-16).

So, while I still believe homosexuality “misses the mark,” as we all do in some ways in our lives, either with sins of commission or sins of omission, I have come to believe through a deep study of the Scriptures that it doesn’t do so more than any other sin we might think of — including the ones we are guilty of committing.

Epiphany, Part One of Six, S. Glenn Wilson, 2011