This Week’s Focus Passage: Romans 1:28

‘Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge.’

    ‘Now there were some present at that very season who told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And He answered and said unto them, Think ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they have suffered these things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all in like manner perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them, think ye that they were offenders above all the men that dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all in like manner perish.’ Luke 13:1-5. Could we reasonably, and in an admitted anachronism, rephrase and update this pronouncement from the lips of our Lord in stating it thus, ‘These homosexuals, upon whom you would like to see the tower of Siloam fall, and kill them, think ye that they are offenders above all that dwell in our country? I tell you, No: but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish?

    We have recently witnessed the present administration of our country taking this nation further down the road of amorality and, we are tempted to add, with a vengeance. The powers that be have declared that the position of those who hold that the only lawful marriage union is one between a man and a woman, is indefensible, and unconstitutional. What a ‘slippery slope’ this nation has been plummeting down for decades! There was a time, not so far removed, when sin, especially sexual sin, was confined to the closet, as it were. Our society, in general, at that time still considered many of the things, which are now done in the open, to be both immoral, as well as, unacceptable behavior. We have been turned into a people of whom the foremost consideration now seems to be that of permissiveness toward virtually any lifestyle. We have taken to extreme length the axiom, ‘Live and let live,’ where everything is right, and nothing is wrong. Homosexuality is unequivocally wrong. May we be absolutely clear; homosexual behavior is sinful behavior! They are not the only guilty persons, however. Listen as the apostle continues and expands his denunciations at the close of this first chapter of his epistle to the church at Rome. 

‘And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without under-standing, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful: who knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also consent with them that practice them.’ Romans 1:28-32.

    This country, that once even had laws against such things now ‘consent with them that practice them,’ first, by looking the other way and, then eventually sanctioning these practices, and now would make them legally and authoritatively binding, in their view, even according to our constitution. But the reader may be wondering why the passage from Luke 13 was initially cited. It is because, while the writer finds homosexuality a heinous (as well as disgusting) sin, clearly pronounced to be so in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, it is not the unpardonable sin, and the words of our Savior, “except ye repent, ye shall all in like manner perish.” must be remembered, along with the litany of sins that the apostle declaimed against in the above-cited passage from Romans. In point of fact, could it be that Paul is even suggesting that those who consent to these many sins as well as with homosexual sin, are equally worthy of death? Is the ‘immoral majority’ in our nation not going to be held accountable for much of the behavior that is permitted by their consent? So that, alongside those with this sinful life-style, will be judged those that have granted their consent, from the executive, to the legislative, to the judicial branches of our government that are much more concerned with votes than with integrity.

    We have stated that we do not believe that homosexual behavior is the unpardonable sin, but sin it definitely is. And so is adultery! Indeed, are homosexuals outside the reach of the gospel of salvation? Are adulterers beyond the mercy of God? David and others give witness to the truth that adultery is not unpardonable. And to cite the apostle Paul once more, it is noteworthy that his teaching declares that homosexuals are not outside the reach of the gospel. We are so informed in his first epistle to the church at Corinth when he says, in chapter six, verses nine through eleven:

Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, not covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 

After Paul has made this solemn asseveration which severely denounces the sins listed as those which would prevent one from inheriting the kingdom of God; sin not only of abusing oneself with men, but, and equally, the sins of fornication and adultery and idolatry and drunkenness, and theft, he proclaims that such were some of you!

But ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.  

Not a few have determined that while they cannot dogmatically assert that God cannot, or does not, save homosexuals, yet they will say that they have never met such a person, or even that they have never heard of such a person. Well, Paul had met such, and sets it on record that it is so. This is not an attempt at putting forth a defense of such abhorrent wickedness, but it is to point out at least two things that should be kept in our minds; one, God can, and has, saved abusers of themselves with men, two, adulterers and others listed above are sinners equally in need of the gifts, both of repentance and faith, if they are not to perish.

David Farmer, elder

Fellowship Bible Church