INDEPENDENT CHURCH OF CHRIST
IGLESIA DE CRISTO INDEPENDIENTE

   


Did Jesus Ever Condemn Homosexuality?

QUESTION: "Is there any place in the New Testament where Jesus actually condemned homosexuality? If so, I have not been able to find it. It seems to me that if the Savior didn't say it was wrong, then neither should we."
ANSWER: While it is true that there is no New Testament record of where Jesus explicitly stated that homosexuality is wrong, He did in fact condemn the behavior. A careful study of the Bible will bear this out.

Please read the following Bible passages and then consider the questions that follow:

1. "And He answered and said to them, 'Have you not read that He
who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said,
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to
his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?" (Matthew 19:4-5).

QUESTION: What did Jesus say about God's creative work? Did He make Adam and Joseph? Did He create male and male, or did He create male and female? According to this passage, what has been God's plan for sexual union (one flesh) since the beginning of time? Was His plan for a male partner to be joined to another male partner, or was it for a husband to be united to his wife? According to this passage, is a man to cleave to his male partner, or to his spouse?

CONSIDER: Since Jesus approved of His Father's plan (i.e., one man, one woman, one flesh), could we correctly say that Jesus condemned homosexuality?

2. "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" (John 5:46-47).

QUESTIONS: Under what law was Jesus born? Under what law did He live?

ANSWER: The Law of Moses (cf. Galatians 4:4).

QUESTIONSDid Jesus endorse and follow the Law of Moses? What did the Law of Moses say about homosexuality (Leviticus 18:22; Leviticus 20:13; Deuteronomy 23:17)?

CONSIDER: Since Jesus was born and lived under the Law of Moses, and since He endorsed the Law of Moses, and since the Law of Moses explicitly condemned homosexuality, then could we correctly say that Jesus also condemned it?

3. "1 still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for he will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you" (John 16:12-15).

QUESTIONS: What did Jesus say the Holy Spirit would do for the apostles?

ANSWER: Guide them into ALL truth (John 16:13).

QUESTION: As the Holy Spirit guided the apostles into all truth, would He (the Holy Spirit-FG) speak on His own authority?

ANSWER: No. He (the Holy Spirit-FG) would speak on the authority of Christ (John 16:14).

QUESTION: What did Jesus say the Holy Spirit would do in John 16:14?

ANSWER: "He [i.e., the Holy Spirit] will take of what is Mine [i.e., Christ's] and declare it to you" (i.e., the apostles).

QUESTION: Since (1) the apostles would be guided into all truth by the Holy Spirit and since (2) the Holy Spirit would not speak on His own authority, but instead would speak on the authority of Christ, and since (3) the Holy Spirit would take of what was Christ's and declare it to the apostles, then by whose authority would the apostles speak/write/teach when the Holy Spirit guided them into all truth?

ANSWER: Christ's.

QUESTION: What did the apostle Paul (by Christ's authority) say about the practice of homosexuality?

ANSWER: Find the answer in Romans 1:26-27 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. You will see that the lifestyle is clearly identified and just as clearly condemned.

CONCLUSION: Yes, Jesus did condemn homosexuality in His Word! The good news is that there is hope for the homosexual; he/she has reason to believe there is hope for a brighter future. Paul states that some at Corinth had engaged in homosexual acts, but they had been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). The same can happen today. As with anyone who repents of a sin, the homosexual can be forgiven. He/she can experience the same freedom and joy that any other sinner knows when he/she becomes a Christian. The Bible condemns homosexual sex, but it clearly states that non-practicing homosexuals can be saved, just as all other penitent and obedient sinners can be saved, if they remain faithful to God's law of grace and pardon.


Mike Benson is a Gospel preacher living in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA
(Emphasis by FG)

 
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."
"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."
"There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel."
"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,"
"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come."
"He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you."
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: "And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet."
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind," "Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind," "Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." "And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."