The immense human desire for “recognition” and “justification” has relentlessly driven the LGBT movement to unprecedented heights of political and social achievements; if you consider that estimates place figures between 2% and 11% of the population consider themselves to be in the LGBT community, their social and political advances are astonishing.
It is that human desire to be “recognized” and “justified” in our actions that is so clearly, beautifully and tragically articulated in an interview between news correspondent Kattie Couric and the Supreme Court’s chief plaintiff Jim Obergefell. Now, I say “beautifully” because I thank God that every human being has such a tremendous drive in their heart to be “justified” and “recognized” because it is that drive that resonates with Christ’s call to repent and become the adopted children of God. But it is also tragic because Jim Obergefell’s quest for justification and recognition has led him in the directly opposite direction from the only One that can give him true and satisfying justification and recognition- and that is the one man, Christ Jesus our God and Savior.
We are all acutely aware of our personal state of condemnation and separation from God; this awareness is what the gospel resonates with in our spirits to drive us back to Him- but when people lose this awareness, they “become past feeling” and “give themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Ephesians 4:19). And it is this sense that we need to be justified and recognized that we see at work driving the homosexual community against all odds to gain recognition and justification from the highest court of our land.
Here are a few brief excerpts from the interview:
Jim Obergefell: “I feel a lot of relief knowing that my marriage, my 20 year relationship with John, cannot be erased by the State of Ohio”.
Kattie Couric: “What was it like when the decision was issued?”
Jim Obergefell: “about two sentences in, I started to cry… It was an incredible experience to hear a Supreme Court Justice talk about how my marriage, my relationship, how John and I mattered, and how we deserved respect and dignity, and I started to feel like a full, equal American at that moment.”
Jim is desperately seeking for a lasting and enduring recognition of his sin with his partner, John. You can clearly see the powerful yearning from deep within Jim’s heart for dignity, respect, and justification.
The problem is that the promise of yesterday’s ruling cannot be delivered because it is not man, or his courts, who joins two people together in marriage, it is God. And more importantly, no one can satisfy that deep longing for recognition and justification but God- sure we can sometimes silence that longing, or temporarily deceive it, but we can never satisfy it- that sense of our deep need to be recognized and justified can only be satisfied when the reality of our condemnation is lifted from our souls and we stand recognized before God by the Holy Spirit’s inward witness, “Abba, Father!” That alone can satisfy these deep yearnings in our heart.
When the sense of euphoria over yesterday’s “victory” wears off from the LGBT community and that deep yearning for recognition and justification begins to gnaw at their hearts again, then I believe they will turn their attention away from the government and direct it towards the Christian community, whom they instinctually recognize as ministers of God’s moral justice and holy righteousness- and that will be when the Christian community will feel real pressure to give them the recognition and justification they are looking for.
But we have to understand that those virtues are not ours to offer; we can no more give the LGBT community recognition and justification in their sin than the Supreme Court could. What we have to offer the LGBT community is Christ’s gospel of salvation. The Church is not armed with the power to placate sin, it is armed with the power of God for salvation to all who believe- the gospel- and apart from being faithful stewards of the unique ministry of reconciliation that has been entrusted to the Church, we have no more to offer anyone than the most meaningless rulings that the courts of men have to offer.
It is going to become increasingly more difficult for Christians to find a place to “remain neutral” on this issue because God has never been neutral about it, and the LGBT community’s craving for recognition and justification will drive them to seek out Christians in an attempt to force us to condone their sin- as if we could.
What Christians will experience is the apparent indignation of the LGBT community as their emptiness drives them to utilize their new-found civil powers- and make no mistake, that is exactly what yesterday’s ruling gives them- to afflict everyone who does not give them the recognition and justification they so desire with the full force of their indignation.
Here’s the twist in this narrative: Christians who have been seeking recognition and justification for their own personal sins are going to find themselves “in the valley of decision”, being forced to make a decision between whether or not you believe that “the cross” is God’s final answer to sin.
Anyone that continues to seek justification and sympathetic recognition from their fellow believers for their own personal sins will not be able to find enough solid footing to stand on, and will eventually be swept away by this flood of deception and iniquity that is sweeping across the land.
We have to come to terms with whether or not we are ashamed of the cross. Are we willing to accept Christ on the cross as God’s wisdom for salvation to all who believe and join Him in the likeness of His death, as His gospel demands, or, are we going to drink the wine that is causing the inhabitants of this world to continue in their abominations and seek salvation elsewhere?
That is the wine that is making the inhabitants of this world drunk; the wine that causes us to revel and glory in our abominations without a thought or care for the judgment of God that is coming upon this world.
Many in the Church are drinking this wine; sins of divorce, adultery, fornication, lust, greed, covetousness- which is idolatry- and a many others, are recognized and justified as sins that we can tolerate. Far too many Christians revel in their covetousness, indeed, entire Churches worship in covetousness, thinking that the judgments of God will not come upon them, and they rejoice exceedingly! But they forget that whoever sows to abominations, will reap from those abominations wrath and judgment! The Church has not been dealing with these sins in God’s way- by calling them out as sinful and making confession, by forgiving one another and bearing each other’s burdens, and ultimately by taking our own individual sins to the cross that our body of sin my be crucified with Christ on the cross and be done away with!
If this gospel is news to you, please read Romans 6, and consider 1 John 1:5- 2:2 and 3:1-10.
The question we as Christians must ask ourselves is whether or not the cross will be our answer to sin, or will we join the LGBT community in justifying and recognizing sins in a vain attempt to satisfy our deep longings that can only be satisfied by the truth of God?
Biblical Reasons 