reconcile_01

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation... Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:17–21)

When the culture redefines marriage, the church's calling is not culture war but reconciliation—bringing sinners to the cross.

Why Speak to This Now

We have been studying through the book of Second Corinthians, but for the next three Sundays we'll deviate into a little mini-series called Reconcile. To move from honoring our moms to this subject might seem out of place, but current events this last week have raised a lot of questions. I've received a number of emails regarding the church and statements our president made about his position on marriage. People are asking: how do we, the church, respond? How do we interact in our culture today?

I don't often talk about politics, and that is by choice. When we gather in a group this large, there's a mixed multitude—some more conservative, some more liberal, and that's perfectly fine. But on this issue there's so much discussion, and it really does have to do with the church. When we talk about marriage, we're talking about a religious institution. So when the state and the public start to talk about it, it involves the church, and I think there's a time when we should say something.

An Article on Marriage and Civil Rights

I want to read from an article I wrote for a blog I contribute to called Cross Connection Network, posted February 7th of this year, around the time the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals made its decision on Prop 8.

One of the hot political topics over the last several years has been the issue of marriage as it relates to the LGBT community. With 2012 being a major election year, we will hear a lot of rhetoric on this once again. This has become a major rallying point in the influential evangelical movement in America, which we are part of. The standard position among evangelical Christians has been one against the redefining of marriage, and many conservatives have funded campaigns to legally define marriage as between a man and a woman.

At the outset, I want to make it clear that I believe and agree with the conservative position. This is a theological issue. God ordained marriage as being between a man and a woman. Every culture has a basic framework for this family relationship because every culture grew out of God's initial creation as described in Genesis. The question I seek to tackle is how we, the church, ought to engage this discussion as we move forward in the 21st century.

This is a divisive issue, used like abortion and immigration as a political weapon to pit groups against one another and influence votes. Other than division, very little ever results. The debate has shifted; though some battles have been won on the conservative side, the momentum has begun to slide because the phraseology has changed. Just as conservatives are now deemed "anti-abortion" while the other side is "pro-choice," an ever so slight wording change has shifted the marriage discussion from marriage to civil rights. We are now the anti-rights group, and they the pro-rights.

The millennials, those born between 1980 and 2000, are now moving into voting age and will be the largest voting demographic for the next generation—and they are overwhelmingly pro-gay marriage. So within the next twenty years, we will likely see the legalization of homosexual marriage in America, as well as the legalization of marijuana. This presents us with an incredibly difficult situation—or is it actually an opportunity?

The Church Should Be Pro-Rights and Pro-Bible

I do believe there is a better way, wherein we can turn the discussion around while maintaining a footing from which the church can speak into our culture. I do not know a single American who does not love his or her civil liberties. That being the case, we should agree with the LGBT community that they should not in any way be denied civil liberties. This is not a religious issue; it's constitutional. We are quick to cry foul when our rights are infringed, but not so quick when the rights of others are endangered. We must be consistent. Therefore, we ought to be pro-rights in this area also.

How can we be pro-rights while maintaining a biblical position? Yes, we believe homosexual behavior is sin. We do not think the institution of marriage can be redefined, for it is ordained and defined by God. Therefore, since marriage is a religious institution, and the public sector desires to maintain a separation of church and state, we ought to petition our government to remove themselves from the discussion entirely. In the place of marriage licenses, the government should grant civil unions only, determining who receives such unions and the rights associated with them.

As a side note, the government needs to clarify who should receive such rights, as we are quickly moving in a direction where we have no ability to draw the line. In such cases we would have no ground from which to say that polygamists, pedophiles, and incestuous unions could not be valid. If the church would spearhead this move, marriage would maintain its religious definition as a God-ordained union between a man and a woman. Churches would continue to perform marriages while requiring those married to also receive a legal civil union through the state. And we would no longer be portrayed as those taking rights from those seeking them.

Additionally, such a move would bring to light that many within the LGBT community have a deeper motivation than the legal redefinition of marriage. This is not an original idea; Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz wrote on the subject in an LA Times op-ed in December of 2003, which I link to in the article.

Living in Interesting Times

I realize what I've said shakes some people, and some will not agree. But we need to recognize that marriage is a religious institution, and the state should probably get out of the marriage business and not even be involved in the discussion. It is a political weapon used to pit groups against each other, and we are living in a time when it makes sense for politicians to keep groups divided.

In times such as these, the church—the body of Christ—must recognize that it is our call, as we've been seeing in 2 Corinthians, to be ambassadors of Christ and to bring people into connection with God by way of the cross. That's why we are called Cross Connection. Our desire is to bring all sinners into connection with God through the cross—even homosexual sinners. God has called us to engage the homosexual community to see them come to salvation. How many of you were a sinner when you got saved? We don't come to God perfect, nor are any of us perfect as we sit here this morning.

Is It Genetic? It's Still Sin

A question came in during our Sunday night Q&A: is homosexuality a born trait? Is it genetic? At this point, science has found no genetic markers to say homosexuality is genetic, and I don't think they will. But even if they did, it doesn't diminish the issue at all. It would still be sin before God, because every one of us was born a sinner, born with the inclination to sin.

If science found a genetic marker for alcoholism, would that make drunkenness any less sinful? If someone said, "You don't understand my genetic makeup, I'm an adulterer," we would all say, "Come on, it's still sin." So whether a person is born with an inclination or not, it doesn't matter. Some people will tell you that from their earliest memories they felt an attraction to someone of the same sex. Whether you do or not, it doesn't make the behavior less sinful.

But we are ambassadors of Christ. We are not here to be sin inspectors or sin categorizers. Although the church has categorized certain sins as worse than others, that's not true from the Bible. All sin is sin, and all sin is judged by God.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul says that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, and all things have become new. All things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. How did he reconcile us? God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Several things stand out. We were all sinners who needed to be made righteous. None of us came to God as righteous, but Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we sinners could be made the righteousness of God in him. This is our task. We are saved by grace through faith, not by anything we have done. All sinners need salvation; that is their deepest need.

Jesus is the only one who knew no sin, and because of his sinlessness he could be the perfect sacrifice. He has committed this ministry of reconciliation to every single Christian—not just the pastors. When you're on a construction site, working for the city, or at a school, you are an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Your employer pays you to do a job, but at the end of the day you're a light of Christ, a representative of the gospel and the kingdom of heaven, sent to bring the good news of God's grace and love to sinners. And we can never forget that we are sinners as well.

"And Such Were Some of You"

In 1 Corinthians 6:9, Paul says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God."

It is true: homosexual behavior is sin. So is heterosexual sex outside of marriage, adultery, theft, drunkenness, covetousness, and the like. The list goes on and on. People who live in habitual, unrepentant practice of these sins will not inherit the kingdom of God. That's what God-inspired Scripture says.

But look at verse 11: "And such were some of you—but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." We don't need a show of hands, but every one of us was somewhere on that list prior to the work of Christ. And if you're not on that list, I can show you a dozen others that will peg you as a sinner. We're all sinners. Paul said Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom he was chief.

The only way we will reach a lost and dying world is to first recognize that we are sinners ourselves, whom Christ died to save. Many within the church have categorized certain sins as worse than others. The Bible does talk about homosexuality, but it doesn't exalt it as the worst possible sin; it lists it like any other.

A Fallen World We Shouldn't Be Shocked By

Homosexuality was far more rampant in the first-century Roman world than in 21st-century America. I did research years ago for a paper on the history of homosexuality—I don't encourage you to search that on Google, because it's frightening. In the Greek and Roman world, young boys were attached to a mentor, and part of that relationship was a homosexual, pedophilic one, seen as a good thing. Some in our culture today are pushing for that. It's an indication of the fallenness of humanity.

We live in a fallen world, and we shouldn't be shocked by it. When we gather in rooms like this with people who believe the same text, watch the same news channels, and listen to the same talk shows, then meet someone who thinks differently, we think, "You're a freak!" But we live in a sinful, fallen world. Anyone who works in a corporate environment recognizes the fallenness of humanity—in the things coworkers joke about, in what they post on Facebook. Humanity needs salvation, and we are those given the ministry of reconciliation.

Created for Oneness

The world is yearning for love, desperately seeking acceptance and genuine, loving relationship. Why? Because humanity is created in the image of God. Genesis 2 says God created man in his image. That doesn't mean God looks like us; it means he created us like him in nature. God is triune—three persons in one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He didn't create us because he was lonely and needed friends. He created us because he is a creator, compelled by his nature to create, just as an artist is compelled to produce art. In God there is genuine, loving community, and he created us with the desire for that.

This is evidenced by God's first negative statement in the Bible, Genesis 2:18. Seven times in chapter one he says creation "is good." Then he comes to something not good: "It is not good that man should be alone." This isn't evil in his creation; it's incompleteness. God already knew it, but he wanted to reveal it to man. So he caused all the animals to pass by, and Adam named them—lion, lioness, on and on—and realized there was nothing comparable to him. The closest thing was a gorilla, and he didn't want a gorilla.

So God met the need. He caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam, took from his side, and formed woman. He brought Eve to Adam, and the two became one. That's God's ordained order. He created marriage and presided over the first joining of two as one. And humanity not only desires oneness with another human being but yearns for oneness with their Creator. Before Genesis 3, Adam and Eve had both.

Sin Brings Separation

What destroys that oneness? Sin. In Genesis 3 the serpent, more subtle than any beast of the field, asks the woman, "Has God said you shall not eat of every tree in the garden?" She replies that they may eat of the trees but not of the one in the midst of the garden, lest they die. The serpent says, "You shall not surely die"—but death means separation. He promises their eyes will be opened and they will be as gods, knowing good and evil. The woman saw the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise; she took, ate, and gave to her husband, and he ate.

Their eyes were opened, and they knew they were naked. Now there is shame. Previously they were naked and unashamed. Sin entered between the two who were made one. They sewed fig leaves together—Adam constantly trying to fix the separation sin causes. When they heard the Lord God walking in the garden, they hid themselves among the trees, separating themselves from God. There was already a disconnect.

God called, "Where are you?" Adam answered, "I heard your voice and was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." God asked, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree?" And the man said, "The woman whom you gave me"—it comes so naturally, doesn't it? "She gave me of the tree, and I did eat." The woman said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." Then the curse is given. We see clearly that God created man for oneness with himself and with another human being and ordained marriage as the place for it—but sin enters and brings separation.

Only One Place We Are Made One

Isaiah 59:2 says, "Your sins have separated you from your God." This is the human condition: isolated and separated because of iniquity. Because of sin, every human relationship is tainted, and none completely satisfies. Even the heterosexual marriage relationship does not completely satisfy that inner longing for soul-to-soul connection. How do we know? The rampant nature of divorce. If you're looking to your spouse to satisfy that, you're looking in the wrong place.

This is what the world is experiencing. All of us are sinful—heterosexuals and homosexuals alike. Because humanity seeks satisfaction in unions apart from salvation, those unions never satisfy. There is only one place humanity is made one: in Christ. He has broken down the middle wall of partition and made us one. The only place humanity can find true oneness apart from the separating issues of sin is the body of Christ, and the only way man's oneness with God is restored is through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

As Christians we have what the whole world is longing for: true community with one another and true communion with God. Everyone outside these doors is actually looking for this. All the hooking up is an attempt to satisfy a need those things can never satisfy. So you have a very sad world, filled with sorrow, where the enemy has planted the lie, "This will satisfy." They try it; it doesn't; so they go a little farther down the road until they're in complete bondage and still unsatisfied.

Cross-Cultural Ambassadors

This is why God did not take us out of the world. He wants us here to experience and exhibit Christ-honoring community with one another and with God. Yet we set up barriers to keep people from that community, when we're meant to bring them into the reconciling power of God. We live in a crazy world, and if you're freaked out now, it's going to get worse. This is not the kingdom of God—but the kingdom of God is in the midst of this world through the body of Christ, and greater is he who is in us than he that is in the world.

We will meet people who don't live, talk, think, or act like us, and that's okay. We're of a different culture; we're citizens of heaven, as Philippians says. We're cross-cultural ambassadors thrust into a world that, even though you were born here, will never feel just right. It's not supposed to. If you ever reach a point where this world feels just right, you're in danger. We go into this world to connect people with the gospel of Jesus Christ, which heals the stain of sin, reunites humanity with one another, and reunites man with God—what man at his deepest core is longing for.

Heterosexual people think they'll find it in a relationship; homosexual individuals think they'll find it in a relationship; neither will. They sink deeper into bondage and sorrow. We see it in a nation that spends more on antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication than any other nation in the world—multiplied times over. Our culture knows it. We sing, "I can't get no satisfaction." Twenty years later, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for." We have the ministry of reconciliation. We have what all humanity genuinely desires, and we just need to look for opportunities to share it.

An Engagement Party and a Decision

I received an invitation from a family friend having an engagement party with his homosexual partner. I asked a few friends what they would do, and our initial reaction is, "I can't go—it would be approving of it." But wait. How many unbelieving heterosexual couples do we attend engagement parties or weddings for, who've been living together or had children out of wedlock? We go, hoping in some way to be a light of Christ, an ambassador of the kingdom of God.

Is there really a difference between the heterosexual couple with children out of wedlock now getting married, whose wedding we attend, and the homosexual couple asking us to their engagement party? There's an instant reaction in us to say, "I can't go to that." But I decided we would go. Why? Because Christ loves Chad, and God wants to bring him to the knowledge of the truth.

Does that mean we are saying homosexual behavior is not sin? No, we still say it's sin—just as we say heterosexual sinful behavior is sin, and drunkenness is sin. But we are ambassadors of Christ, and we will be until the day we stand before him. We're going to feel out of place. We're going to have our culture stepped on. Our nation is going to keep changing direction—it already has. But we still need to be lights in a dark world. We have the one thing that satisfies—the salve, the balm that cures the stain of sin, the cure for sorrow and depression in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're ambassadors with the ministry of reconciliation.

Closing Prayer

Father, I ask that you by your Spirit would minister to our hearts, for I know I've said some things today that challenge us at a cultural level, and I'm sure I'll receive correspondence, and I'm thankful for that. As we prepare to step outside these doors and interact with people who don't think, talk, or live like we do, help us to be bright shining lights of your grace and your love. Jesus, when you came, we beheld your glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. These two are met together in you. Help us to speak with grace seasoned with salt when we interact with people living in a lifestyle that does not line up with your word. Help us to remember that each of us came out of lifestyles that were not honoring to you, and you saved us, cleansed us, and justified us. Because of the shedding of your own blood, we can have fellowship with one another and with you. Lord, help us to engage our culture this week. We ask this in your precious name, amen.