Divine Balance of Truth and Grace May 15, 2011
Gen. 19 Lev. 18, 20 John 8:2-11 1 Peter 1:13-16 Romans 1 1 Cor. 6
There’s a story that comes from many years ago in England. At that time, they still used balanced scales to buy and sell food. Well, it seems that a baker sued a farmer over a pound of butter. The baker claimed that the pound of butter the farmer sold him was less than a pound. He charged that the farmer had been gradually making each package of butter smaller and smaller until now it was only one-third of a pound, but the baker was still paying the same price. So the baker charged the farmer with cheating his customers.
In his own defense, the farmer told the judge, “Sir, I have a perfectly balanced scale for measuring the butter. On the one side, I place the butter. On the other side, I always put the baker’s own ‘pound loaf’ of bread. The butter always weighs the same as the baker’s bread. That’s how I know when he’s getting his pound of butter.”
Finding the right balance for our lives isn’t always easy. Given that we’re flawed by sin in our most basic nature, a Godly balance can be even harder to find. Today I’d like to address a most pressing issue of balance with which many churches are struggling. It’s the issue of the ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians, but at its root – and often not mentioned – is the much larger issue of the Authority of Scripture.
Before I begin, I want you to know that it’s quite alright to disagree with me. I’ve even disagreed with myself at times. Yet, all my prayers keep leading me back to one very fundamental question. Do I believe that God’s written law, God’s Truth, is the same for each generation and each culture? Is God’s Word clear enough that you and I can read it together – giving it scholarly and prayerful thought – and arrive at the same conclusions? I believe we can.
Much of my sermon is adapted from an article I read by Rev. Dr. Scott Dudley of Belleview Presbyterian Church in Belleview, Washington. After reading his article, I saw no reason to reinvent the wheel. He said it so well, and many of his opinions echo my own that I had previously written in correspondences with other ministers in the last two years.
Where I want to start – and to me this is important – is with an apology. The first thing I want to say is, to anyone in this room who has struggled personally with the issue of homosexuality in your own life, or in the life of a friend or a family member. To you, I want to say, “I’m sorry.” I’m sorry for all the ways that Christians have failed to show the real face of Jesus to you or your loved ones in many different ways. As a Christian, I take responsibility for that.
I know that I have probably failed at times to show the real face of Jesus to some who were struggling with this issue. So I apologize in advance if I have said or may say any-thing hurtful. I don’t mean to. What I hope to do is to show what Scripture says, and hopefully together, we can see God’s truth. I pray that the Holy Spirit helps me do this.
The second thing I want to do is to state clearly that anyone who struggles with issues of homosexuality is welcome in God’s church. You are loved, and no one, in God’s church, should ever judge you. I want to make this very clear. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. We are all equal.
I want to start with two working premises. The first is that, on this topic, the two extremes that we’ve seen played out in the media are neither one Biblical, and both are wrong. On the one side, you get a sort of super-judgmental, “you’re really an awful person if you have homosexual desires,” We’ve all heard this condemnation. I cannot stress enough that this attitude does not represent what the Bible says.
But the other extreme is also wrong, where you hear people say, “Well, God approves because God made you this way. So don’t worry what the Bible says.” Neither of those extremes really captures God’s message in His Word.
The second premise that I’m going to work through is that the laws of God laid down in Scripture are meant for our good, not to make us miserable. When God gives us a law, even though it may be hard to follow, even though it might not feel natural at first, its purpose is not to make us miserable. Rather, it’s to make us whole. If we redefine what God calls sin so that we now call it normal, we steal hope from those seeking redemption. Just because someone says it’s not a sin does not make it so in God’s Truth. Redemption cannot come without repentance. Those two premises will govern everything I say.
So, let’s begin with two passages of Scripture, both from the Gospel of John. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – John 1:1. The second comes from John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us full of grace and truth; We have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father.”
There you have it; both Grace and Truth. We, as Christians, are forever falling off the horse on one side or the other, aren’t we? You’ve got the Christian community that I call the “truth people”. They’re always telling you the truth, and they make sure you know how much of a sinner you are, and they want you to understand the Bible doesn’t like what you’re doing.
Then on the other side, you have people like me who tend to be the “grace people”. Our response to “alternative lifestyles” tends to be: “Oh, that’s okay. God forgives you, and I love you.” Both types of Christians are generally honest. In fact, we need both together – but in equal proportions. We need,
A divine balance of Grace and truth.
The fact is, if you don’t have BOTH grace and truth, you don’t have either one. If you’re only telling the truth all the time, then it’s not really the truth, because you’re forgetting the Grace of God, and grace is also true. Also, if you’re only about Truth, no one’s going to hear you because your TRUTH is getting in the way, and truth alone can be so obnoxious.
But, and here’s the key, if all you’re doing is grace, well in the end, that’s not really grace, because a big part of grace is being given the power to be transformed, to lead new lives. So if you’re not having both truth and grace, at the end of the day, you have neither one.
I want you to consider what we read this morning in John 8. In this story, the Pharisees clearly represent the position of “Truth”. They were strict adherents to the letter of the Law. In this story however, they attempt to use the Law as a trap in order to accuse Jesus. Jesus had shown people so much love and grace up to this point that they probably figured he had no stomach for the Law. So the Pharisees calculated that they could snare him with this basic issue of Law.
We’re told, “They made (the accused woman) stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” That’s the Truth person without grace.
Then we’re told of Jesus’ response, “. . . Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw stones at her.’ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away, one at a time, the older ones first, (probably because they had accumulated more sin over their lifetime) until only Jesus was left. The woman still standing there, Jesus asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now, and leave your life of sin.’” That last sentence has the balance just right: “neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more.” Grace and truth!
What I love about this story is, when Jesus was presented with a false binary choice, “should we stone her or let her go,” he gave them God’s answer. When asked, “Is it A, or is it C?” Jesus said, “It’s neither A, nor C. It’s not even B, a sort of compromise.” The answer is “bananas”. In other words, it’s a whole different paradigm. It’s God’s view which none of them had considered. It’s a third way.
I want to challenge us today to be people of “the third way”. Can we get that balance of grace and truth right without making a compromise with the world? “Woman, who condemns you? … Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” The reason he says “sin no more” is not because he thinks she’s a wicked woman. He says it for her own good. It’s for her own good to “leave this life of sin.”
In our culture, the word “sin” has come to mean a sort of horrible person. But in its original Greek, “Sin” is an archery term, and it means, “to fail to hit the bull’s eye.” So, if you shot an arrow and it missed the mark, that was a “sin.” You missed – You sinned. To “sin” is to miss God’s intended best for us. To “sin” is to fall short of becoming everything that God intended us to be. It’s not to say, “oh, you’re a terrible person.” The homosexual lifestyle simply misses God’s intended best for us. This is also true of infidelity in marriage, dishonest business dealings, constant gossip, and many others.
Again, God gives us His rules – not to make us miserable, but to make us whole; even if the rules make it harder; even if the rules prohibit something that may feel good to us. It’s no secret that we cling to things that give us pleasure –even if they’re not good for us. God’s desire is for us to be renewed and whole. Sometimes we don’t acknowledge what we need – only what we want, and what we need is to accept God’s way in order to be made whole.
Those who are ordained to minister to us must accept the responsibility to show us God’s best intentions for our lives – without compromise and without ignoring God’s Truth and teach only God’s Grace. If people stumble, it’s not for us to excuse them by saying, “Oh, that’s no longer a sin. Now-a-days, we just call it ‘alternative lifestyles’ and show God’s grace.” The problem is, this is grace without truth which means, it’s neither. So let’s look at what scripture says about homosexuality.
This is the “Truth” part of my talk. Some of the passages I’m going to read are going to sound harsh to our contemporary ears. There’s going to be some truth, but hang on, grace is coming toward the end.
To start with, you should know that there are relatively few passages that speak directly to homosexual behavior. Jesus, in fact, said nothing about it. There are far more passages about gluttony and greed, and even more about caring for the poor and the oppressed, than there are about homosexuality.
That said, there are also more passages about this topic than some people care to admit. There are at least fourteen that directly mention homosexuality, and another six that strongly imply it. About twenty passages in all.
Before I look at some of these passages, it needs to be stated emphatically that homosexual feelings are not a sin. Behavior is always the issue in Scripture, and you’ll see that in these passages. It’s not the feelings. It’s not about sexual orientation. At issue here is how we act on those feelings.
On this, I must be clear. All of us have the temptation to sin. If it weren’t for sinners and the temptation to sin, churches would be empty. The purpose of the church is to help sinners – sinners like you and me – to know the transforming power of God’s Word. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. All of us need a healthy relationship with Jesus Christ.
Now, let’s begin our study with Genesis 19. This is about Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. One evening all the men of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, both young and old, surrounded Lot’s house. Lot had some male visitors, and they were probably angels or messengers from God.
The men of the city called out to Lot, (Genesis 19:4-8) “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out so that we can have sex with them.” Lot went outside to meet them, and shut the door behind him. And he said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
Now the first thing to notice is that Lot is being absolutely horrendous. He’s totally missing the bull’s eye. This isn’t an “Ooops.” What he says is obscene. He’s willing to sacrifice his daughters to save his own honor.
In the ancient world – and even in many parts of the Middle East today – there are rules of hospitality that are considered hugely important. One is that, if you have a guest in your home, you must show them every courtesy, and you MUST protect them. In his zeal to protect his guests from homosexual rape, he became morally horrific. With that said, it’s still clear from this Scripture that homosexual behavior is viewed as sin.
Next passage, Leviticus 18:22; this is repeated in Leviticus 20: “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman. That is detestable.” Again, notice that the act is what’s detestable, not the person’s thoughts. It’s the act of sinning which diminishes the person.
Then consider I Corinthians 6. Paul writes. “The very fact that you have
lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already.” Paul is chastising the Corinthians and telling them that they’re doing all kinds of things wrong. He’s taking them to task on it.
Then beginning in verse 9, Paul continues: (1 Cor. 6:9-11) “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, 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. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God.”
There’s two things about this passage that you must see. First, homosexual behavior is clearly listed as a sin. It’s off the mark, but so are a lot of other things including slander, greed, swindlers, gossips, drunkards, all kinds of stuff.
The second thing to notice about this passage is that there is grace and redemption. I love Paul’s phrase: “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of . . . Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” In short, that was you!
Now, beginning with Romans 1:21, we read a long passage, and I need to read the whole context. (If you wish to follow along with me in your pew Bibles, please open to Romans 1:21-32. (In case you’re not sure, it’s right after The Book of Acts.) “For although they knew God they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man, and birds, and animals, and reptiles. In this, we see that they did not seek God’s glory, and their thinking became futile. “They claimed to be wise” but “they became fools and exchanged glory for idols.”
In other words, they read God’s words, but they didn’t like what it said. So they changed the meaning and lost the wisdom. They became “fools”, and since they would not accept God’s Truth, we’re told: “Therefore God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts, to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator, who is forever praised. Because of this God gave them over to their shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural 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 indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind; to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
And now Paul concludes with where such behavior leads: Although they know God’s righteous decrees that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them.” Now I say to you, “What part of this is hard to understand?”
Again notice, homosexuality is listed as a sin, but in context with a lot of other
sins. I would wager that every person in this room could find themselves somewhere in that list. And most of us could probably find ourselves in two or three places. It’s a sin, but one of many.
The second thing to notice is, once again, the feelings aren’t condemned. It’s the behavior that is the sin. But even here in Romans, homosexual behavior is not the whole issue. The main issue is idolatry – setting worldly values above God’s Truth. It’s denying God’s message. The main issue is taking our cues from created things rather than from the Creator, and it leads to all kinds of problems.
When our first focus is on political correctness, when we’re more concerned with social acceptance, then we’ve surrendered ourselves to the world’s morality . . . or should I say, “immorality”. What Paul is pointing to is our lives, our happiness, our wholeness. These should not to be defined by what we do sexually. They should be defined by God.
One of the places where I believe we approach this subject in contemporary culture is perhaps the most broken and distant from Biblical truth, is the statement or the phrase, “I am gay.” We hear people say this. They are defining themselves by their sexual orientation. “I do homosexual behaviors,” or “I do heterosexual behaviors.” Socially, we say, “I am gay,” or “I am straight,” We say, “I am,” as though that were the essence of our identity. That’s what Paul is really after here. Only by obedience to God can we find the best that God wants for us.
We must not take our cues, our identity from created things, from what we do sexually or anything else we do. We must not define ourselves by whether we are Democrat or Republican. These are the world’s standards.
We must take our true identity from God. “I am a child of God redeemed in Christ.” That is my identity. To preach grace only, Paul is saying, “No, that is a tragic form of idolatry, and it leads to all kinds of sinful behavior which makes false excuses for our sins.”
Those are just a few of the passages that mention homosexuality. Again, there are about twenty in all. In every single one of those passages, homosexual behavior is described as a sin, without one exception. Yet, there are some who say that Scripture doesn’t really mean what it says. Some who argue that our God has only Grace, and that Truth is relative. Such teaching misses the mark. It makes excuses and steals from the believer God’s intended best for our lives.
You cannot eliminate sin by redefining it. God’s truth is absolute and cannot be litigated. In the Bible, homosexual behavior – like gluttony and greed – is clearly a sin, but sin for which there is grace, redemption, forgiveness, and wholeness. The ground is level at the foot of the cross.
As a people saved by the blood of Christ, we are summoned to a better way, a Third Way; a way of divine balance in Truth and Grace.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for dying to make us whole. We pray for one another in this church that you would help us to be people of the third way. Help us to be a people who seek both grace and truth, both acceptance as well as holding out the promise of your wholeness to each other, in a way that is loving and life giving. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
