The Infamous Crime Against Nature
Those who claim that homosexuality should be permitted and even accepted have many arguments, but each can be summarized by these three claims:
- Laws prohibiting homosexuality were only for the Israelites and are outdated just as the Jewish dietary laws are.
- Jesus never condemned homosexuality.
- People are born homosexuals; therefore God would be unjust if He condemned what is “natural” behavior for them.
I can confidently state that each of these claims is false. However, let us consider each in turn and determine why each will not stand up to sound Scriptural reasoning.
Artwork by James Long of Boise, ID
Claim: The Lord’s laws against homosexuality were just for the Israelites.
The Lord’s angels went to Sodom to investigate whether its citizens had “done entirely according to its outcry….”[1] Its citizens had, and the cities of that area were destroyed. How did the “outcry” of Sodom and Gomorrah revealed itself? The answer is both obvious and important. The outcry was evident in behavior that centered around homosexuality. Here is an important question: had the Lord given the law when He condemned Sodom’s behavior as a rebellious “outcry”? To ask another way, did the dietary laws Moses later transcribed apply to Abraham? The answer to both questions is, “No.” The Lord condemned homosexuality before He gave the Law, condemned it again when He gave the Law, and condemns the behavior now even after the Law has served its purpose of leading us to Christ.[2]
The outcry of Sodom was so infamous, that its name became synonymous with its sin. Until recently, this sin was so abhorrent people were embarrassed to describe it. I took criminal law in college. There I memorized all manner of complicated and long laws. But the crime of sodomy – do you recognize that word? – was not among the complicated ones. Sodomy is “the infamous crime against nature.” That’s it! The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah was their rejection of God’s gift, a gift which is good, joyous, and beautiful – the gift of a relationship between a husband and wife. In sodomy, men and women exchange that gift for something that twists and deforms their very nature. Their outcry profanes God’s purpose in creating them.
Claim: Jesus never condemned sodomy.
Everyone, myself included, wants Jesus on their side of an argument! The reason for this is simple. Honest people recognize an authority in Jesus’ teaching that makes one catch his breath in startled awe. So the Lord Jesus, when He affixes His Good Housekeeping Seal on certain behavior, ends debate. He freed us from the dietary laws by declaring all foods clean.[3] He exonerated the disciples when the Pharisees accused them of violating the Sabbath.[4] The question we should then ask is this: Did Jesus change the law against sodomy?
The short answer is no. Jesus never mentioned sodomy directly. That omission, of course, does not imply acceptance of the behavior. Jesus never directly mentioned many behaviors that everyone agrees are abhorrent, but no one claims these omissions should be interpreted as approval. In logic, we call such a claim argumentum ex silentio, an argument from silence. A person bases a conclusion upon the absence of a statement. Do I like anchovies – those little fish that go on pizza? Since I have not mentioned anchovies, you might say, “He likes anchovies, because he has not said otherwise.” But you could just as easily conclude, “He obviously hates anchovies, because he has not said he likes them.” Neither conclusion should be taken as authoritative, since both are equally speculative – they are guesses based on little evidence.
Unlike me with anchovies, however, we do have some very strong evidence of Jesus’ stance on sodomy. We have already discussed one example. In Matthew 19, Jesus tells the Pharisees:
“Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” (Matt. 19: 4 – 6)
Jesus affirms that the created order displays the Lord’s will for mankind: sexual relationships are designed for a husband and wife. Not only does creation displays God’s design, but Jesus teaches that the created order teaches us how to live.
In another passage, Jesus condemns Capernaum, a city where He performed many miracles, for her citizens’ unbelief. The Lord says that if those same miracles had occurred in Sodom, Sodom would have repented and “would have remained to this day.”[5] Why would this rebuke have shocked his audience? Why would it contain such a sharp sting? What evil did the men of Sodom need to repent of? The very evil that now bears their name, sodomy.
Claim: People are born homosexuals; therefore God would be unjust if He condemned them.
I will not spend the time necessary to discuss this argument fully, because doing so would detour us from our objective. Learning about God from the Scriptures is our goal; therefore, I will limit this response to the Scripture.
Think back to Jesus’ quote in Matthew 19. Do you see how His statement addresses this issue? Jesus affirms God’s design for men and women is revealed in the created order. This order is not merely one arrangement among many alternatives that the Lord might have chosen. How do we know this? Because Jesus is responding to a question about morals, about right and wrong. He tells the Pharisees they can determine the right, the just, the good thing to do by looking at what God ordained in creation. We cannot amputate the moral facet of God’s creation where His righteousness and justice shines forth without destroying the entire gem of creation. When the Lord “made them male and female,”[6] what did the Lordordain? He ordained a man and woman would become “one flesh” through their sexual union. The Lord’s assessment of His own work in Genesis 1 affirms Jesus conclusion: “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”[7] Creation was not simply good in appearance but also good because it conformed to God’s will, reflected His character and fulfilled His purpose.
The Greek culture of Jesus’ day was notoriously corrupt, and people engaged in all manner of sexual sins. As the gospel spread to these regions, Jesus’ apostles condemned these practices and plead with people to repent and turn to Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter reminded churches God reduced Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes as “an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter.”[8]
The Apostle Paul commanded the Corinthians not to be lead astray. The unrighteous, he said, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.[9] Paul lists behaviors which indicate a person is not a believer in Jesus. The list includes drunkards, revilers – those routinely using foul or abusive language – the covetous, and homosexuals. But the apostle finishes the passage this way:
Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. I Cor. 9:11
Even though the Corinthian believers had once been just like their neighbors and were characterized by this laundry list of deplorable behaviors, the Lord Jesus had rescued them! Praise be to the Lord Jesus who rescues all who come to Him in repentance from their sin!
Conclusion
Any behavior which strays from God’s blueprint for life is self-destructive and reveals a heart of rebellion. Very often, perhaps in every case, such behavior reveals an unthankful heart as well. Read Romans 1: 18 – 32. This is not a “pleasant” or encouraging passage, but is a necessary one. In explaining why unrepentant sinners deserve judgment, Paul says,
For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools… Romans 1: 21 – 22
Why does the thief steal? He is, in part, unthankful for what the Lord has given him. Why is a man unfaithful to his wife? Because he is unthankful for the bride God has blessed him with. Why does a person engage in sodomy? Again, the person is unthankful. God has blessed husbands and wives with a wonderful gift in ordaining they become one flesh through their physical relationship. But those who are unthankful for this gift insist on “enjoying” it outside the boundaries the Lord has erected. In doing this, people think themselves wise. They have fooled the Lord and cast off what they believe “needless restraints.” In fact, they are the fools. They trade the fullness and beauty of a proper physical relationship for fleeting physical pleasure. As if such a poor trade were not punishment enough, they punish themselves further! They deprive themselves of the greatest joy of all, a relationship with their own Creator.
[1] Gen. 18: 21
[2] Gal. 3:24
[3] Mark 7: 14 – 20
[4] Matt. 12: 1 – 7
[5] Matt. 11: 23
[6] Matthew 19: 4
[7] Genesis 1: 31 (NASV, 1973)
[8] II Pet. 2: 6
[9] I Corinthians 6: 9 – 11