I'm a gay Christian and I have some questions.
by Jay Yong
(Malaysia)
Rick Brentlinger Answers -
Jay writes: "I used to read all these anti-gay Bible verses and feel guilty and shameful. However, thanks to your website, I now understand the subject on homosexuality through the Bible in a different perspective."
Rick Answers: I'm glad that GayChristian101.com has been helpful in your spiritual journey.
Jay writes: "I personally am not really yet convinced with your arguments especially on Leviticus and Romans, but at least I now see that those verses do not apply to our today's world homosexuality context."
Rick Answers: Its not necessary for us to agree on every issue to still be friends and brothers in Christ. The key to understanding Leviticus and Romans is to understand the historical and religious context they addressed.
If we try to make sense of Leviticus and Romans without factoring in the real historical situation they addressed, we are flying in the dark, with no hope of understanding these important Bible passages.
Jay writes: "I'm gay, still in the closet. Grew up from an Anglican background, now attending a Methodist Church. And this is what I was taught,
I understand laws from the Old Testament do not apply in today's world eg: circumcision, eating unclean food, laws on women etc. And that ever since the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul emphasizes that we Christians are, from now on, justified by faith, no longer by the laws."
Rick Answers: The first thing to understand is your own personal salvation. Only saved people can really understand and make sense of the scriptures.
"But the natural man (the unsaved man) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." -1 Corinthians 2:14
These Links are a good place to start, to know for sure that you are saved and that your salvation is forever.
- Understand the reality of hell.
- Understand Who Jesus is.
- Understand what it means to repent.
- Understand how to be saved.
- Understand that your salvation is forever.
- Understand why Christians are not under the Law.
Jay writes: "And this is where I have a confusion. Should we then believe that as long as we have faith, we believe in Jesus Christ being our personal savior, we will therefore receive salvation, even though we continue sinning?"
Rick Answers: Jesus died on the Cross, shedding His precious blood to pay the penalty for all our sins. The payment Jesus made satisfied God and God raised Jesus from the dead, proving that He accepted Jesus' payment for our sins.
When we repent of our sins and trust Jesus as our Savior, God applies Jesus' payment and forgives our sins. God also freely imputes the sinless perfect righteousness of Christ to us so that its as if we lived the perfect, sinless life that Jesus lived.
We have the righteousness of Christ and God views us as being perfect and sinless, in Christ.
That doesn't mean we no longer sin. Instead it means that:
"if any man sin, we have an advocate (Jesus is our lawyer who represents us before God) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
And he is the propitiation (the required sacrifice which God has accepted) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world (in the sense that the death of Jesus reconciled every individual in the world to Himself - if they want to be saved, they must be reconciled to God by trusting Jesus as their sacrifice for sin, according to 1 Cor 5:19-20)." -1 John 2:1-2
Jay writes: "Can we say that we no longer need to obey God's words, so long as we just have faith?"
Rick Answers: No, God wants us to be obedient but from the resurrection of Christ on, God does not require us to keep the Old Testament Law.
Instead, in the New Testament, being obedient means we
"walk in the Spirit," Galatians 5:16, living according to
"the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." -Romans 8:2
Jay writes: "1 Corinthians 7:19b - Keeping God's commands is what counts. I understand certain laws were abolished or modified due to time/cultural differences. But who draws the line?!"
Actually, it seems to me that Paul is making the opposite argument in 1 Cor 7:19. He is saying that our relationship to God is not about legalism and keeping God's commands from the Old Testament.
He is saying that if you're an uncircumcised Gentile believer, you don't need to get circumcised and if you're a circumcised Jewish believer, you don't need to regret getting circumcised.
God expects us to
"walk in love" and to
walk in the Spirit." The bottom line is that Jesus already perfectly kept God's Law in our place. He already did for us what we cannot do for ourselves. When we trust Jesus Christ, God imputes (freely gives us) the righteousness of Christ. Our obedience now is because we love God, not because we're trying to earn salvation by keeping the Law.
Jay writes: "And unless the Bible stated clearly that gay is acceptable, can we make or accept what are only mere assumptions?!"
Rick Answers: I see your point but if we are going to only do what the Bible clearly states is
100% acceptable, then shouldn't we apply that logic in every area of our lives?
The Bible says nothing about air conditioning, ice cream, computers, websites, automobiles, motorcycles, electricity, prescription medicine and many other things which are important in modern life.
Yet we do not refuse to enjoy these blessings simply because they are not mentioned or affirmed in scripture.
In the heterosexual realm, scripture does not affirm or even mention exchanging wedding rings, having a wedding in a church building, having a denominationally affiliated pastor officiate the wedding.
That doesn't mean those things are wrong. It just means that modern culture approaches weddings differently than ancient Biblical cultures.
Heterosexual Christians do not apply
"its gotta be in the Bible" logic to their marriages. Why should gay and lesbian Christians allow them to impose on us a logic which they refuse to honor in their own lives?
Jay writes: "I hope to one day live a free life being myself, being gay. I'm also a devoted Christian who loves God's word."
Rick Answers: You sound like a wonderful guy, with Godly morals and a sincere desire to honor God with your life. I think you will make some blessed Christian guy very happy when God brings you two together.
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." -John 8:32
"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." -John 8:36
Jay writes: "And, being a logical person, I'm afraid the only way I'll be convinced that gay is acceptable in God's eye, is if the Bible has concrete evidence of it. Appreciate your feedback on my problem. Thanks."
Rick Answers: The Bible speaks to many issues but not to every issue Christians face. Instead of writing down a long list of do's and don'ts, God gave us the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide us into truth. We read the Bible and look for principles which apply to the questions we face.
"Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth..." -John 16:13
God expects us to use our common sense, our understanding of scriptural principles, the leading God gives the body of Christ and the personal leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives, to make informed judgments about issues we face.
The scriptural example of this in practice is Acts 15, where the Jerusalem church struggled with the issue of Jewish legalism. Some born again Jews insisted that Gentiles had to be circumcised to be saved.
The apostles and elders in Jerusalem studied, prayed, discussed and received God's guidance that Gentiles were
NOT required to keep Jewish law to be saved or to be in right relationship with God.
To maintain peace in the churches and to demonstrate loving regard for the easily offended sensibilities of those Jewish Christians, the apostles and elders asked Gentile Christians in that particular situation, to observe four necessary things, (not necessary for salvation but necessary to keep the peace in congregations which had a mixture of Jewish Christians and Gentile converts to Christ), Acts 15:2829; 21:25 .
- Abstain from meats offered to idols
- Abstain from eating blood, Leviticus 17:10-14
- Abstain from things strangled (because blood stayed in the body and polluted it)
- Abstain from fornication (porneia - probably sex related to idol worship in this context, like shrine prostitution)
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