The Gospel to homosexuals: PT 1 This is such a controversial subject as well as an extensive one. Since it is such a sensitive issue I will write this out over several blogs. There is no way to start this out without offending someone, so I’ll say from the get go that God loves and saves homosexuals (1 Corinthians 6:9 “do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters…..homosexuals…. will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were!” that means that God saved them as homosexuals as well as other sinners) God sent His only Son to die for drunkards, wife-beaters, manipulative women, fornicators, adulterers, thieves, greedy people, gossips, slanderers, prostitutes and strippers, porn addicted teen-aged boys to dads, homosexuals, liars, and every other type of sinner there is. What a good and gracious God! Let me also say that I believe Homosexuality is a manifestation of a sinful heart, just like any other internal or external manifestation of the wickedness of mankind. (1 Cor 6:9) It is no more egregious to God than say a kid who lies to get out of trouble. God hates sin. The first thing we need to do is define sin. Romans 3:23 says- “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of GOD!” Let me share a few thoughts on this verse that I believe will help us best understand the true nature of sin. First there is a connection between “sin” and “fall short of the glory of God”. In fact, the two are the same thing. To sin, is to fall short of the glory of God. So does this mean “miss the mark”? I know that if you have been to a good fundamental church service or Sunday school with a teacher holding the ever valuable “leader’s guide” then you have heard that sin means “miss the mark”. Aren’t you impressed when a teacher/preacher gives you the literal meaning of a word? I know I am (is that sarcasm you ask? WHY- yes it isJ)! It sounds sooooooooooo smart doesn’t it? That literal meaning is only helpful if the teacher explains the verse right, which most don’t. So the rabbit trail was most uselessL. Usually what follows is an illustration about two people, let’s say you and I, that we are going to have a contest. Let’s see who can throw a rock to the moon, or come the closest. You can throw a rock about 50 yards high in the air: pretty goodJ! Way to go! But I, being an ex-athlete, and a QB at that, can throw the rock 60 yards high! WOW! But, they both fall short of the moon! (And perhaps fall back down injuring us both- stupid contest!) Now, at this point what we have heard is that none of us can be as HOLY as God. We have “missed the mark” of being as perfect, holy, and righteous as God. As true as all of this is, it is not the ultimate meaning of this verse. It can’t be, although it is a true statement. The real meaning is that our sin is that we fall short of glorifying God by Enjoying Him as the Treasure of the universe above every thing and everyone else! We are created, therefore, never had the ability to be as Glorious as God. It is impossible for the “creature” to be as glorious as we were in the perfect created state of Adam and Eve, let alone the Creator. So the connection is that we sin, by not glorifying God the way we were created to glorify God and enjoying God as most gloriously enjoyable. So, sin is connected to God’s glory. Second, God’s glory is sinned against when we prize other things more than God and His will. Jeremiah 2:12-13 helps explain this well. “Be appalled o heavens and shudder with great horror” declares the Lord. “My people have committed two great evils: They have forsaken ME, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” The two evils were forsaking God, the fountain of living water, and embracing broken cisterns. They are seen as two evils in two ways. 1) They are two evils in that it is doubly offensive to God (that we’d forsake Him, and that we’d attempt to be satisfied in something other than God) and 2) that is how we see it unfold. In reality there is just one evil. When we forsake God, we by necessity embrace something else. When we flee pursuit of joy in God, we must do it to find joy else where. And the converse is true, when we go to pursue joy in something other than God, we by necessity forsake God. This is evil. This is sin. So we sin, when we forsake to find our joy in God to find it somewhere else. That is sin> not treasuring God as the ultimate, indescribable gift (1 Cor 9:15, Mt 13:44). Any sin, including Homosexuality, is not really about the outward manifestation of that sin, but rather the internal desires of the heart. For some it is about finding satisfaction, happiness, fulfillment in the sexual gratification. For others it is about longing to be loved because someone else rejected you. I know a guy who is “gay”. His father left his home when he was 12. He longed to have a male leader figure in his life, so that when a man came and showed him love, he said it was sexually attractive to him. In other words, he transferred the love into something sexual, therefore exchanging something good for something less than good. (This is his testimony). The sin at the heart is that this guy longed to be loved and love someone more than God and in addition to that, to love that (in at least that way) which God has forbidden for creative reasons. The sin is not just the act of sex between two guys, but rather that they desire to be satisfied apart from God and God’s will. Sex between and man/husband and a woman/wife, is God’s way of continuing the creative work and pointing people back to Himself and His glory and the joy that He brings. When two men or two women get together, whether in marriage (in MA or HI) or just live together or have an ONS (one night stand) it doesn’t show God as the Glorious, Loving, Holy Being that He is. So, it is wicked because it goes against the design of creation in being “formed” in God’s image. It is wicked because it “forsakes God, the fountain of living water” for “broken cisterns that cannot hold water”. Another way that it “falls short of the glory of God” is that they (two men, or two women) don’t fit the way that Adam and Eve (or any man and any woman married to each other) together in a natural way, so that it doesn’t point to God, but rather lies about the creator. That brings dishonor to God and takes away joy for the sinful party. Since God created us “Male and Female” to come together in marriage to show Him as glorious, homosexuality is a broken cistern that cannot hold water because it goes against God’s creative design. That which goes against the creative Design, “falls short of showing God as glorious” and cannot fulfill the way God’s unbridled glory will bring true pleasure (Ps 16:11). The point of this series is to show that God doesn’t look at Homosexuals any differently than he does any other sinner. The Hell on earth and eternity is no less hell for the homosexual than it is for the Married Republican with 2.3 kids, a house, a dog, and a good job, who treasures-house, 2.3 kids, his job, dog, and at least twice a week his wife and three times if it is their anniversary J above Jesus Christ. Conclusion of Part One: Sin is not a list of things we do or don’t do. Sin is choosing to find happiness, satisfaction, pleasure (or whatever synonym you prefer) in something other than God Himself through the gifts that God gives to us to point us to Him (Like a wife if you are a guy, or a husband if you are a woman- or shower headJ). God is “Father of lights and the giver of every good and perfect gift”, and these gifts are meant to point the recipient to the Giver, not the gift! In the next blog I would like to talk about how a Christian should view a homosexual, and then follow up with how do we preach and live the gospel with our homosexual neighbor or co-worker. Father Glorify Your Name in all the earth! Grant to us to be satisfied in You and You alone! Til we hang again- SC