AS CHRISTIANS, WE CONDEMN all violence against any human being. Not only is it inappropriate, but it’s a violation of God’s moral law. Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Everyone has a fallen human nature and propensities toward evil.
We cannot have any superiority over another person and look at them with hate because of their actions. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that everyone has a heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and Romans 3:23 states, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
There is no place for hate. We’re saved by grace. We rest in His love. In the Christian ethic, we respect others’ freedom of choice, even if we disagree with their choice. So, as Christians, it’s important to separate our compassion for others from their behavior or actions that are not in harmony with the will of God.
The Bible is very clear: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold” (Romans 12:2, Phillips), but be transformed “by the renewing of your mind.” Paul invites us to go out and change the culture, to “shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15, NKJV). If we walk in the light as Jesus is in the light, we walk in the truth of His Word. The purpose of the Church is to transform culture, not to be transformed by culture. So let’s pursue what Scripture says about human sexuality.
THE BIBLICAL BASIS OF SEXUALITY
In Genesis 1:27, 28, we find the basis of understanding all human sexuality. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number . . .’”
The male and female “one flesh” experience (Genesis 2:24) reveals God’s image and His magnificent love. That love is most fully manifest when a male and a female created in the image of God give themselves to one another in self-sacrificial love as Christ did for us. The first reason God created male and female—two distinct, separate sexes—is to reveal God’s image in the perfection of their love for each other. The second reason is to “be fruitful and increase in number” (Genesis 1:28)—to propagate the human race.
Jesus affirms marriage is between one man and one woman in Matthew 19:4–6: “Haven’t you read,” He replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
A same-sex marriage union between two men or two women denies the clear biological, physiological, and psychological differences between men and women. It denies the reality of husband and wife coming together and, from that sacred union of selfsacrificial love, producing children.
LIFE PRINCIPLES
In the book of Leviticus, God outlines life principles for His people. In Leviticus 18, you find what some people call “the purity code.” This purity code deals with moral and ethical standards, not just the ceremonial law. It speaks of adultery, idolatry, and sexual depravity.
Leviticus 18:20 says, “Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her.” This is the seventh commandment on adultery. In verse 21 we read, “Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.” What commandment is that? First, second, and third. Then in verse 22, we find, “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.” We have already seen the commandments mentioned in these verses. So this must be more than a purity or holiness code—it also contains moral and ethical standards.
In a release titled Homosexuality, Scripture, and the Church, Dr. Ekkehardt Mueller, a former associate director of the Biblical Research Institute, wrote, “First, these two texts describe and condemn male homosexual activity. No exceptions are mentioned. Obviously they’re opposed to any homosexual activity. However, it’s very likely that they included lesbianism.”1
This reputed scholar explains that this prohibition of male with male in Leviticus 18 is far more than simply a holiness code for ancient people in the ceremonial law; it has to do with the moral Ten Commandment law. The purity code, indeed, is not simply something for ancient people. Its bedrock principles help us define the truth about human sexuality.
INHERITED OR CULTIVATED?
There’s a fascinating article published in the well-respected journal Nature titled “No ‘gay gene.’” The article reports on a study by researchers at Harvard and MIT. After studying the genomes of nearly half a million people, the researchers concluded there is no such thing as a single “gay gene.”2
There have also been some fascinating studies on identical twins. With identical twins, you would expect them to have the same genetic disposition. How is it, then, that one identical twin (a very small percentage) may lean toward homosexual tendencies while the other twin might not? If they’re genetically the same, you’d expect they both would. But research indicates that’s not always the case.3
But let’s assume some people are born with tendencies for male-to-male or female-to-female sexual relationships. Does that necessarily make these tendencies God’s will? Let’s suppose a man is born with strong sexual desires for women, and let’s suppose he has a really difficult time controlling those sexual desires. Does that mean his tendencies are God’s will? What about a person born with a propensity toward alcoholism or drugs because of some genetic predisposition? Is that in harmony with God’s will? David said, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). All of us have brokenness. All of us have fallen human natures and propensities toward evil. We do not understand all the reasons for LGBTQ+ tendencies. There may be some genetic reasons, social reasons, or environmental reasons. It’s a very complicated, complex situation. And again, I want to emphasize that we reach out in love to all human beings. And while we accept all human beings, as Christians, based on the Word of God, we cannot condone all behavior.
THERE IS HOPE
But there is incredibly good news for every propensity that any human being may have! “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
If we’re in Christ, we are new creations. There’s hope for those who have sexual desires and express them outside of marriage, for those who have committed adultery and have uncontrolled passions, and for those who have LGBTQ+ relationships. And that hope is in the power and grace of Jesus Christ. “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Romans 5:20). Christ forgives us when we fall, and His grace enters our lives and changes us. It makes us new creations in Jesus.
The Apostle Paul talks about the incredible power of God’s divine grace in 1 Corinthians 6:9–11. First he gives a warning; then he articulates incredible hope: “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were.” The church at Corinth lived in a godless, immoral society. “But you were washed.” What does that mean? You were cleansed by the grace of Christ. God changed you. “You were sanctified”—you were made holy, set apart for God. “You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Here is the incredibly good news: Whatever tendencies we have inherited or cultivated because of the brokenness of our lives, whoever we are, straight or gay, the grace of Christ can transform us. Ellen White makes a marvelous statement on this point in the book Ministry of Healing. “Those who put their trust in Christ are not to be enslaved by any hereditary or cultivated habit or tendency. Instead of being held in bondage to the lower nature, they are to rule every appetite and passion. God has not left us to battle with evil in our own finite strength. Whatever may be our inherited or cultivated tendencies to wrong, we can overcome through the power that He is ready to impart” (pp. 175, 176).
What hope! “Christ has given His Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His own character upon His church” (The Desire of Ages, p. 671).
PAUL ON SEXUALITY
The book of Romans exalts the cross of Christ, justification by faith, and the power of the gospel to transform lives. To show the supremacy of Christ and lay out the case for our desperate need for salvation and justification, Paul establishes the lostness of humanity. In chapter one, he deals with the waywardness, vileness, and wickedness of the Gentile world. In Romans 2, he points out that the Jews, although they have the oracles of God and the prophets of God, have disobeyed them. In Romans 3, we read that all have sinned and fall short. But Paul explains in Romans 4–6 that there is salvation and justification in Christ. In Romans 7, he goes through a great struggle, but in Romans 8, Paul finds there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, and sin no longer controls him. Like Paul, we are no longer dominated by sin because we are free in
Jesus in the context of the plan of salvation.
As Paul catalogs the sins of the Gentile world, he addresses the concept of human sexuality. “God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:26, 27).
Notice Paul talks about men leaving the natural use of women. Where does he get the expression “natural”? He’s talking about creation. The “natural” order of creation is a male and a female becoming married. But, he says, they change the natural use of nature, indicating that homosexuality is unnatural. Just prior, in verse 25, he wrote, “They exchanged the truth about God for the lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator . . .”
In the Andrews Study Bible, we read this comment from scholars specializing in the Old and New Testament: “These verses [26, 27] condemn homosexual activities. Unnatural sexuality, however, goes beyond homosexual behaviors. The New Testament sanctions only the monogamous relationship between male and female. It condemns all other forms of sexual activity, whether homosexual or heterosexual, as sinful.”4
STRONG BIBLICAL ADVOCATES
Recently, the Seventh-day Adventist Church published a reaffirmation statement, leaving no doubt as to where the Church stands on this issue: “We reaffirm, without hesitation, our long-standing position as expressed in the Church’s Fundamental Beliefs: ‘Marriage was divinely established in Eden and affirmed by Jesus to be a lifelong union between a man and a woman in loving companionship.’ . . . God instituted ‘marriage, a covenant-based union of two genders [male and female] physically, emotionally, and spiritually, spoken of in Scripture as “one flesh.”’ ‘The monogamous union in marriage of a man and woman is . . . the only morally appropriate focus of genital or related intimate sexual expression.’ ‘Any lowering of this high view is to that extent a lowering of the heavenly ideal.’”
The statement describes how homosexuality is a manifestation of the disturbance and brokenness of human nature but closes with this important statement: “We hold that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, are loved by God. We do not condone singling out any group for scorn or derision, let alone abuse. Still, God’s Word that transcends time and culture does not permit a homosexual lifestyle. The Bible’s opposition to same-sex unions/marriage is anchored in God’s plan at creation for marriage . . . , in divine legislation . . . , and in Jesus’ explicit confirmation of a permanent, monogamous, and heterosexual relationship . . .”5
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has been very clear on this. We should, though, make a distinction between LGBTQ+ orientation and action. Because of the brokenness of sin, each of us has certain passions, desires, and orientations, but by the grace of God, we can choose not to act upon them. To love another doesn’t mean we approve of actions out of harmony with God’s will. The most loving thing we can do is to share the truth of Christ’s amazing grace that forgives our past, transforms our present, and gives us hope for the future.
Jesus invites us to reach out as brothers and sisters in Christ, sharing the truth of God’s Word in kindness and compassion, recognizing that if any man or woman is in Christ, they are new creatures, and recognizing that the grace of God, the power of God, is greater than any sin. There is no sin that God’s grace cannot deliver us from by His grace and through His power. Let us embrace and love one another enough to share the truth of God’s Word, pray together, share the divine truths of Scripture together, and watch the new creation take place in every single one of our lives.
1 Ekkehardt Mueller, Homosexuality, Scripture, and the Church, Biblical Research Institute, Release 6 (Silver Spring: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2010), p. 14. adventistbiblicalresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/BRI-Release-6-2.pdf.
2 Jonathan Lambert, “No ‘gay gene’: study looks at genetic basis of sexuality,” Nature, vol. 573 (5 September 2019): pp. 14-15, cited in Bennett Mcintosh, “There’s (Still) No Gay Gene,”Harvard Magazine, 29 August 2019, harvardmagazine.com/2019/08/there-s-still-no-gay-gene.
3 Michael Balter, “Gay Is Not All in the Genes,” Science, 30 June 2008, science.org/content/article/gay-not-all-genes.
4 Andrews Study Bible (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2010), p. 1469.
5 “Same-sex Unions,” Official document, Seventh-day Adventist Church, voted by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Executive Committee, October 17, 2012, adventist.org/documents/same-sex-unions/.
