Why Homosexuality Is Unique Among Sins
Homosexual activity is like other sins in that it is disobedience and an affront to God. God forgives homosexual deeds when the sinner repents and relies on Jesus’ death as full payment for them. Even so, homosexual activity is unique. In Romans 1:26-27 (go here for the passage in context), Paul indicated homosexuality was “against nature” or “unnatural.” By contrast, heterosexual intercourse outside of marriage, though sinful, is natural. Dr. James Boice says that while we need God’s Word to know that heterosexual sex outside of marriage is wrong, we don’t even need it to know homosexuality is wrong: “A look at one’s sexual apparatus should convince anyone that practices of this kind are not…meant to be.” Yet the Bible still informs us, so we need to heed and live according to its warning. Be aware that in Scripture, homosexuality isn’t an identity, but an activity. God freely forgives repentant homosexuals just as He pardons repentant thieves, adulterers, and other sinners.
The Consequences of God’s Letting Go
Paul wrote that those who continue to rebel against God are without excuse because they deny what they know intuitively about God and worship His creation rather than Him. So “God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.” (Rom. 1:24). Paul went on to describe homosexual activity among women and among men but also named other sins (see vv. 18-32).
James M. Boice observes that people tend to think of God’s giving people over to their desires (see vv. 24,26) as being akin to releasing a porcelain pitcher in outer space and letting it float harmlessly away. Not so. It really is like letting go of the pitcher on earth, where gravity causes it to drop to the ground and possibly shatter completely. Sin has dire consequences, but through repentance and faith in Christ we can find forgiveness.
Sources: Why Homosexuality Is Unique Among Sins
James Montgomery Boice, Romans: An Expositional Commentary—Volume 1, Justification by Faith, Romans 1–4, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1991), 181.
Joe Dallas and Nancy Heche, eds., The Complete Christian Guide to Understanding Homosexuality: A Biblical and Compassionate Response to Same-Sex Attraction, (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2010), 99.
Source: Why Homosexuality Is Unique Among Sins
James Montgomery Boice, Romans: An Expositional Commentary—Volume 1, Justification by Faith, Romans 1–4, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1991), 178-179.
Copyright © 2020 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible passages in this article are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.