Why Is Homosexuality a Sin?

Why is homosexuality a sin? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity.

Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open right now, and you can call us for the next 25 minutes with your question. Here's the number. It's 833-3200.

The CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and of course you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Robert calling in from Missouri. Robert, what's your question for Adriel? Hello. Hi, this is Robert.

Hey, Robert. Yes, my question is on Acts chapter 26, verse 20. It's about repentance and works, what works we should do for to get repentance, to have repentance. Mm-hmm. And is your question, what are those works that we should do to get repentance? Is that what you're asking? Yes, it says, where Apostle Paul is preaching to Damascus and Jerusalem and all the coasts of Judea and to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works to meet for repentance.

Okay. Yeah, so this is the Apostle Paul preaching. He's sharing his conversion. He says in verse 19, therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. So it's not that the deeds precede their repentance. It's not like they're doing it for repentance. It's not that the deeds precede their repentance.

It's not like they're doing works that earn them repentance or something like that. He's saying, no, walk in line with this change, with this turn toward God that you've made. There's similar language in the gospels as well through the preaching of John the Baptist.

John the Baptist warned the religious teachers in Matthew chapter three, verse seven, when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to him, to his baptism, he said to them, you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. In other words, repentance looks like something. Now the biblical word for repentance, metanoia, it means a change of mind. So you think about turning around, changing direction, changing your mind. That's what the word means.

But that does look like something. And of course, our repentance is not perfect. We still continue to struggle with sin, but here he's calling them to turn to God and to exhibit that, to demonstrate that by that change of life, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Or again, Paul to King Agrippa there in verse 20 of Acts chapter 26, you know, turn to God performing deeds in keeping with repentance. And so we see that we're not saved by our works, but a true turning to God looks like something.

And I think that's what Paul is indicating there in that text. Thanks for giving us a call, Robert. Robert, thanks so much for listening to Core Christianity. We really do appreciate you. We'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life doctrine or theology, maybe something going on in your church that you're concerned about, or maybe something happening in your Christian life that you're really struggling with.

Hey, we'd be happy to pray for you. Here's the number. It's 833-THECORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also leave us a voicemail at that number as well.

Here's a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners named G. Roberts. Yeah, that's a great catch. And there are two ways of looking at this. One, he actually was sweating blood. And there's a really rare medical condition called hematidrosis, hema, tie. Well, I don't even know if I'm saying it right. Bill, you're the doctor, what do you think?

That sounds good to me. Rare medical condition. This is from one medical website. It's a very rare condition in which an individual sweats blood. It may occur in an individual who is suffering from extreme levels of stress.

Apparently, there have only been a few confirmed cases. So it could be that Jesus, this is a thing, it could be that Jesus is actually there in the Garden of Gethsemane sweating blood. Now you did pick up on one word in verse 44 there of Luke chapter 22 being in agony. He prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

There's a marker of comparison. It was like great drops of blood. So some people might say it's not that he was actually sweating blood.

There's this imagery that's given here. Look, I actually think it's really interesting to consider the fact that here is Jesus and what's being highlighted here is the stress and the agony that he's under. And if anyone could or should sweat drops of blood, I think that this is it. Agony not just because he knows he's about to die but because he's about to bear the curse in our place, the judgment that we deserve. And so it makes sense to me that he would there in that place sweat blood. But of course, again, is there a comparison being drawn here?

Maybe. I think the focus of this entire text, brother, is the agony of our Lord. And what we can't miss is it's not that he's in agony just because he knows he's about to face crucifixion and terrible death. There have been many people who have faced crucifixion. It's the wrath of God.

It's the judgment that we deserve. It's bearing the weight of the sin of the world that crushes him, if you will, there in the garden of Gethsemane. And so we have here just a clear picture of the fact that our Lord, the eternal Word of the Father, Jesus, was well aware of what it was that he was doing, of the penalty that he was bearing for our sins.

And so that's what I would say. Luke 22 verses 39 and following for those of you that want to read the passage describing Jesus praying there in the garden of Gethsemane. By the way, we have a great Bible study on the book of Luke, and you can find that at our website, corechristianity.com forward slash studies. Love to have you pick up that study or any one of our Bible studies.

Well, we do get emails here at the core. And Adriel, here's one that's kind of on a doctrinal issue. It's from a woman named Jan that says, Why would an all knowing, all loving God create a man knowing that he would fall and condemn future mankind, leading to a world filled with such evil and darkness? I know he had a plan of redemption by sending Jesus to get back everything that Adam had forfeited and lost through his disobedience. But why would God create Adam in the first place?

Yeah. Well, we've answered this question on the broadcast before, but it's one of those questions that comes up again and again and again, because I mean, well, if God does know everything, why did he create the world the way that he did? Why did he allow for this? Well, what we need to say is that everything that God does, he has a purpose. We may not know what that purpose is from our perspective, at least not now. It could be that there comes a point in the presence of the Lord, where we know just as we have been known, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, where we have a fuller understanding and a fuller knowledge, but we don't have that knowledge right now, and that's okay.

We're not always going to have the answer to those kinds of questions. We don't have the mind of God. We are called to trust in him, though.

What we know is God is able to make all things work together for the good. In the context of that, he's allowed sin to enter into the world. He gave Adam and Eve freedom of choice. Anything that he does, he does ultimately for his own glory.

He magnifies himself, his own name. If we're looking for a specific answer, a real clear specific answer, that's not something that God has revealed to us in his word apart from that he is sovereign, that all things that he does and allows, he's able to work together for his glory and the good of those who are called according to his purposes, and that he didn't allow anything that he hadn't already purposed how to solve, how to deal with it. That's the hope that we have, that God is good, that he's righteous, that he's sovereign, that he's not overcome by or overwhelmed by the evil that is in the world.

He's purposed to deal with that problem. Ultimately, he dealt with it through his son, Jesus Christ. That's, I think, where we have to go ultimately to the cross because there at the cross, we see a picture of human sin and suffering being dealt with mysteriously, powerfully by a sovereign God. Here you have people that are putting Jesus to death, murdering him, and yet through the free acts of human beings, sinful acts, God is accomplishing salvation for murderers and thieves and adulterers and those who reject his law. God is able to use even our sinful actions for the good of humanity somehow.

Again, we don't always see how that works, but we trust that the God who sent his son into the world, Jesus, who came freely to bear our sins and our curse so that we might have life, we trust him and entrust ourselves to him. Thanks for that email. Great response. Thank you for that, Adriel. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, feel free to give us a call right now. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

Maybe there's a passage of scripture that's always kind of confused you and you'd like some clarification on it. Adriel will be happy to dig into that with you. Again, it's 833-THE-CORE. We'd love to hear from you. You can also leave us a voicemail.

24 hours a day at that same number, and here's a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners named Michael. My question is, I just have the pastor talking about how homosexuality, I know it's wrong, but because of the Bible, that's how the Bible says. Why, though, if he can help me understand that, the reason why? Because I understand lying is wrong because when you lie to people, they feel bad, but why is homosexuality sin?

Thank you. Michael, thank you for that question. As a father, how often, if you're a parent, do your kids say, well, why? The temptation is to say, well, because I said so. Sometimes I think we can do that when we're talking about God's word and God's law in particular. Why is this wrong? Why is this particular thing wrong? We can just say, well, the Bible says it's wrong.

That's true, but I appreciate the fact that you're wanting to go deeper here. Why in particular is homosexuality described as a sin in scripture? First, what is sin? Sin is any want of conformity to or transgression of God's law. We don't live up to the standard that God has called us to in his revelation, in his word.

Ultimately, that standard is summarized by what Jesus said when we love God perfectly with all of our hearts and when we love our neighbor as ourselves. Love is the fulfillment of the law. The Bible is very clear.

God's law is very clear that homosexuality and a number of other sexual sins are outside of the bounds, are not in line with what God has called us to in his law. In terms of answering or getting to the heart of the why question, we need to recognize more fundamentally why God gave the law to begin with. It's not to keep us from doing all of the things that we would like to do. No, the law is really about human flourishing. It's a gift that God has given, a guide for humanity in terms of the flourishing and thriving of humanity, of the human race.

We oftentimes miss that. These are good things that God has given to us. We may not fully understand that, but that's how we view it. That's precisely how the Bible talks about the law. How often in the Old Testament and in the New Testament do you have these exhortations about keeping God's law to live, the relationship between life and obedience to God's word, thriving individually in joy and in fullness, and following after what God has said. The problem is, and this is where we get into distinguishing between the law and the gospel, all of us have fallen short of God's law. We've broken his commandments and we see the fruit of that all around us with death and destruction and disease and sorrow and pain and sickness and all of those things. That came about through sin. What we would say is the law of God was given, including the commandments related to sexuality and homosexuality.

The law of God was given for humanity's good and for human thriving and flourishing. Insofar as we reject it, that's what we're rejecting. That's why it's not a good thing. That's why it's not okay. I appreciate that you brought up the example of lying. I get why lying is wrong because if I lie to this other person, I'm hurting them. As we've heard from many today, why does God care about who I choose to love or what I do in my own house, in my own bedroom, and who I do it with? Why does God care about that so long as I'm not hurting anyone? C.S.

Lewis I think did a great job of addressing this. I don't remember if it was in mere Christianity. I think it was in mere Christianity, but he talks about how the assumption there is you think of a car driving down the freeway and that car, so long as it's not bumping into other cars, scratching them up and dinging them.

It's fine. I can drive the car however I want, so long as I'm not hurting other cars. Why can I do it? Because it's my car.

I own it. The assumption here is we don't belong to the Lord. The truth is, according to the Bible, that each of us have been made by a good and a loving God who calls us to live in certain ways and to know Him and to follow Him and to love Him. It's not just like I can do whatever I want with me because I'm the master of me.

No, if you were created, just take a step back and think about that. If you were created by an eternally wise and good God and programmed, if you will, for a certain purpose to know Him and to glorify Him, then not doing that, even if you're not punching others and crashing into them or whatever, then not doing that is to misuse and to misapply what God has given to you. Those are some of the things I would want to say, but just recovering this sense of God's law was given to us to help with our flourishing and our thriving.

The problem is we reject it. It's only through Christ that we experience that grace and forgiveness, and then we're called to and able to walk after the Lord by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Michael, I appreciate the question, and thanks for reaching out to us. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. I want to remind you we have some great Bible studies that are available. You can use those in your own personal devotions or in a small group curriculum or maybe in a Sunday school this fall. We'd love to make those available to you, and Adriel's got a little more information on our great Bible studies. Yeah, most of them are 10-week Bible studies, and so a great resource for you to go through on your own by yourself if you're looking for something to go deeper in one of the Gospels or one of the Pauline Epistles, even the Old Testament. We have a study in the book of Jonah, just some wonderful resources or something you could go through with some friends at your church for just a donation of $15 or more. All of our studies are available as a PDF download, and we also offer leader's guides, making this a perfect resource to send to your pastor or small group leader, as I was saying, as they're planning their fall Bible studies or community groups or what have you. So get ahold of these resources. You can find those by going to corechristianity.com forward slash studies.

Again, corechristianity.com forward slash studies to check out those great Bible studies. Well, let's go to Charlotte calling in from Illinois. Charlotte, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, I was just wondering if masturbation is a sin, and can you be forgiven of it if the devil's got you and he attacks you every now and then with that, you know.

Charlotte, thank you for giving us a call. We were just talking about God's design for us as human beings. Is law given to us for thriving, and at the heart of the law is loving God perfectly and loving our neighbor as ourselves. And so this question comes up because, well, this is a private thing, a personal thing, but when we think about God's design for sex and sexuality, I'll just say yes to answer your question very clearly. I do believe that it is a sin. And this in particular, when we think about intimacy and how God created, it's not about me as an individual, the love of self, which in one sense is exhibited in this so clearly, lack of self-control and passion. Scripture talks about recognizing that as human beings, the way God made us, we have these desires. I think this is one of the reasons why Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 talks about marriage as a gift. And of course, this is something that single people especially, but everyone really has to think about and wrestle with. And I would just say, yes, according to Scripture, it seems to me, when we think about the kinds of things that we should pursue as the people of God and how we should think about sexuality and pleasure, this is not something that would be okay or just we should give ourselves over to as followers of Jesus Christ.

And so I appreciate your question, Charlotte, very sensitive question. And I think for everyone, for all of us, we have to commit to pursuing the Lord and asking for the grace of His Spirit to help us to cultivate in our own lives self-control. That's a fruit of the Holy Spirit. And to focus on one of the things that Paul says in the latter days, people will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And I think that, again, when you think about society and culture, the rise of pornography, how pervasive that is everywhere, we are a society that loves pleasure over God. And we need to confess that, we need to recognize that, and we need to recover what it looks like to love God with all of our hearts, minds, soul, and strength, and to think about these things, sexuality and pleasure, in the context of what God has revealed in His Word. Thanks, Charlotte. Well said.

This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Brian in Missouri. Brian, what's your question for Adriel? Hello. I appreciate your program.

Thank you so much, Brian. What's your question? Yes. You know what? I read a scripture that basically said the good die young to protect them from evil.

And I need your help. Anything come to mind on that? I believe it was in the Old Testament. Okay.

I'm thinking, this is a good question. I'm thinking you might be referring to Ecclesiastes chapter four, verse one. And this passage comes up because I remember a friend of mine years and years ago who had a family member who they lost a child.

It was just a tragic thing, one of the tragic things. And this verse in particular was a verse that the Lord comforted her with. Ecclesiastes chapter four, verse one, maybe this is what you're thinking of. Again, I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun and behold the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them.

On the side of their oppressors, there was power and there was no one to comfort them. And then the text continues. Again, this is Ecclesiastes chapter four. And I thought, the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. And so that might be what you're getting, just the evil in the world that's out there. And then of course, this is wisdom literature. And so we have to understand what the author of Ecclesiastes is getting at here specifically. He's highlighting, and it sounds like this is what you were talking about, just the evil, the wickedness that's out there in the world and how not experiencing that is a good thing.

Now, of course, anytime the young die, it is a tragedy. It's sin. It's a part of sin in the world.

I mean, this is why this happens. It's not how the world is supposed to be, not in a perfect world, not in a world created by God apart from sin. And yet it is this tension where the evil that we see all around us, how grievous it is that the author, the one who wrote Ecclesiastes can say what he says there in verse two. Is that the path you were referring to, Brian? Well, I don't think so. I wanted to say it was in Isaiah, but honestly, I can't find it.

If it comes to mind sometime in the future, you can reference it because it gets distinctly said evil to protect them from the evil to come. Yeah. Sorry, I couldn't help with that one more, Brian.

Thanks for reaching out to us and giving us a call. May the Lord bless you. Tough question. And, you know, Adriel, you mentioned something earlier, and it, of course, breaks all of our hearts when we hear about a child passing away prematurely, and there's probably nothing more devastating to a family than when that occurs. And we got that question.

Why? Why would God allow this to happen? I'm sure you've been asked that before as a pastor. Yeah.

Well, just even on today's broadcast, Bill, I mean, that's that's kind of what we were opening up the show with. It was that email about, you know, if God knows all of these things, how can how can he permit them to continue to take place? And this is where we have to say, OK, look, I'm the creature. You're the creator. And I believe that you're good and righteous and that you're able somehow to work through these circumstances. But I'm trusting in you as the God who knows all things and loves me still. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833 the core. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.