“Not All That Different”

In his sermon titled “How the Fall Affects Us All” on  Romans 1:24-32 and surrounding verses, J. D. Greear effectively minimizes the seriousness homosexuality by stressing how awful other sins are. To his credit, Greear does say homosexuality is a sin, but he essentially says it is one of many, and not all that different from other sins.

He preached this sermon on January 27, 2019. Sermon notes are available here. Seven months later, on Wednesday, August 28, 2019, Greear posted an article on his blog titled “Three Ways We Go Wrong When Discussing Homosexuality.” The article carries the same basic content his January sermon did, although it was, of necessity, streamlined.

In both his sermon and his article, Greear makes three points.

1. 1. 1. 1. We’re wrong if we believe God doesn’t care about our sexuality.
         2. We’re wrong if we think same-sex behavior is a fundamentally different type of sin.
         3. We’re wrong if we assume it’s hard for LGBT people to get to heaven.

Here’s what J. D. said in his sermon about item 2.

Paul lists homosexuality as simply one corruption among many. Again, look at the rest of the list. Here’s a question [I had] when I read that list. Do you think of deceit and boasting as equally depraved? How about greed? Do you think of greed as equally depraved as homosexuality? How about a rebellious attitude against your parents? Do you see that as equally depraved? Paul would!

You know, you’re like, I’m worried my child’s got a same-sex attraction. You ought to be worried that they have a rebellious attitude toward authority, ’cause in God’s book, that’s every bit the same. In another one of Paul’s letters, Paul even talks about the pride that comes from religion, and an obsession to do everything right and be better than everybody else as the same kind of idolatry. Is that equally depraved in your book—people who are judgmental? People who look down on others and try to be a certain kind of good, whether it’s a good mom, or a good husband, or a good Christian, so they can look down on people. Is that equally depraved as same-sex attraction. It should be. I mean in terms of the frequency of mention or the passion with which Paul talks about it, it would appear that quite a few other sins are more egregious in God’s eyes than homosexuality.

Jen Wilkin, who’s one of our favorite Bible teachers here and who’s actually leading our women’s conference, says we ought to whisper about what the Bible whispers about, and we ought to shout about what it shouts about. And the Bible appears more to whisper when it comes to sexual sin compared to it’s shout[ing] about materialism and religious pride.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry and His life we see Him demonstrating great, just incredible sympathy for those caught in sexual sin, and great animosity toward the religiously proud. In fact, Jesus, [not] one time, not one time, ever said that it was difficult for the same-sex attracted to go to heaven. He did say it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it was for a religiously proud or materialistically successful person to enter into the kingdom of God.

That is not to say that same-sex behavior is not sinful. It’s just to say that we often present it differently than the Bible does. The worst sin, the core sin, the sin behind all the other sins—is one that we are all alike guilty of, and that is replacing God’s rule with our rule, replacing ourselves at the center where He belongs.

Only when we grasp, only when we grasp this truth will we become ministers of the gospel. When we understand, like Paul did that we are the worst sinner that we know! Only when you understand that will you understand that if Jesus came to die for you that there is nobody He didn’t die for. And when you finally realize that in your soul, you’ll stop being a judgmental, Pharisaical dispenser of the Law, and you’ll suddenly become a gospel witness. And your life will no longer be characterized by judgmentalism and fundamentalism, and it’ll be characterized by compassion. You’ll start loving your neighbor like somebody made in the image of God, and feeling compassion for them in their weakness. You’ll begin to treat them first and foremost like people who deserve compassion—not scorn, or judgment, or a political voting block that we need to marginalize.

When you understand that, then what that means is that you become a person who will, for example, stand up and be among the fiercest advocates for the preservation of the dignity and the rights of LGBT people. Because we recognize that gay and lesbian people are essentially just like us—people made in the image of God like us, and deserving of all the dignity and respect that we desire for us or our children.

There is no them! That’s what Paul is saying. It’s just a big old we. That means you ought to see in the face of every sinner a reflection  of the corruption that afflicts your own heart. You ought to see in their face the fruit of the rebellion that you have participated in. Is that how you read Romans 1?

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