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Hard Facts

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"--Romans 6:1-2

I've been trying to wrap my mind around how to say this ever since last week when a discussion of homosexuality arose over at my friend Mark's blog. This is important and I hope I say it well.

First of all, without grace all of us are hopeless sinnners. No matter what temptations plague us most, we are lost without the grace of God. That means that no matter what sin I have committed, be it murder or eating a few grapes in the produce section of the supermarket without paying for them, I am just as guilty.

Secondly, living in sin is a miserable condition. Human beings were created for one purpose, to commune with God. God created us to have a relationship with Him and all other relationships we experience on this earth are secondary to that relationship, not from our point of view, but from His. A holy God cannot commune with sinful man unless the bridge of grace is provided. As we are created to be in fellowship with God, we will forever miss His communion with us until we accept the gift of grace. Nothing will ever satisfy the person who is without God.

Thirdly, I cannot come under the grace of God unless I first admit that I am a sinner. I will never admit that I am a sinner unless I fall under conviction of the Holy Spirit. Humility is the first step to obtaining grace.

Last of all, to willfully continue in my sin after I have received the gift of grace is to waste God's most precious gift. Jesus died to free us from sin. He expects us to attempt to live lives that will please God once we have accepted the free gift of salvation.

This is why churches should not condone homosexuality. Anyone professing to have accepted the grace of God should not be committing what God says is an abomination.

Now, I know that the argument is whether or not people are born gay. Well, I have to say that where you fall in the discussion of whether this is a sin hinges on that argument. If you believe that God creates gay people, you cannot believe that it is wrong to be gay. Just like, you cannot believe that it is wrong to be of a minority race.

But consider this, why would the Bible have ever said that it was an abomination if people were born that way? I know there's the argument that eating shrimp is also supposed to be an abomination. But think on this, eating is shrimp is choice. Whether or not you choose to enjoy shellfish is not a predisposition you were born with. Some like shellfish more than others, but no one can say that they cannot help but eat shellfish and that they absolutely cannot enjoy other foods.

And yes, portions of the Levitical code are outdated simply because they were written for a culture that had never heard the word "antibacterial." But homosexuality doesn't fall under that distinction.

Also, the argument about committed relationships being okay doesn't hold water. You don't just magically wake up one day in a committed relationship. You have to be looking for that and there is always a phase in a relationship that is casual. Are we to assume that gay couples wait until they are in committed relationships to have sex? And what constitutes a committed relationship--a marriage or civil union or just people that have dated for a long time?

It's all just to fuzzy. The bottom line is that God created us to have communion with Him first. If you come to Him with an agenda, unwilling to lay down your lifestyle before Him, you have not made a commitment to Him.

Anything that gets in the way of our fellowship with God is sin. God forgives sin, but he expects repentance. So should we.