The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Church in Rome to explain the good news that God has reached out and offered salvation and life to all those who are separated from Him by sin. Salvation and restoration are available to all who believe.

Paul starts the letter by demonstrating mankind’s utter separation from God. This disconnection from God is brought about by the deliberate suppression of truth about who God is – a powerful and divine Creator, worthy of thanks and worship.

Because of this denial of truth about God’s character, humanity is given over to all kinds of evil. In Romans 1, in a series of three parallels, Paul points back to creation and illustrates this veering from the truth:

1. People deny that creation reveals a powerful Creator, become foolish, begin to worship the created, and enter into sexual chaos (verses 18-24);
2. People exchange the truth of God for a lie, worship created things, and pursue homosexual behavior (verses 24-27); and,
3. People give up their knowledge of God, they are filled with all kinds of evil, and they commit all kinds of sin (verses 28-32).

Paul uses sexual and homosexual sin as markers of humanity’s journey into darkness. Throughout this passage he refers to Genesis 1-3, the story of man’s creation and rebellion. Just as creation points to a Creator, so our bodies – male and female – point to the appropriate function of sex as established in Genesis. Sex, as intended by God, is designed for complementary beings – male and female – united in marriage.

Just as people leave the truth about God, they also leave God’s boundaries for human sexuality. First, sinful humanity disrupts the unity of the marriage relationship. Lust, divorce, pornography, rape, promiscuity, abuse, adultery – all these are outside God’s design for us. Then, the natural order of male-female relations is abandoned. All kinds of sin and destruction follow.

Paul also uses homosexuality as a symptom of sin because it is so clearly connected to the idolatry that is the result of not worshipping God. Those of us who leave homosexuality know well the captivity and folly of idolizing another person.

Seeing God as He has revealed Himself to us – through Creation, through Scripture and through His Son – is so very important. The Church has labored for centuries to see and know God more clearly.

Clearly it is a serious matter for a church – or group of churches – to embrace sexual brokenness and homosexuality as “good.” This embrace of sin reflects deeper issues: suppression of the truth about God; rejection of God as He has revealed Himself; and confusion and distortion of Scripture.

That’s why it was sobering and sad to read about a recent “rite of reception” for lesbian-, gay- and transgender-identified ministers in a San Francisco church, in a major denomination. Suffice it to say here that it’s not just about sex, it’s about creating a god in their own image.

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