Deception’s use of subtle devices is what makes it so dangerous. When truth mingles with error, many stir in confusion. Unable to see what is lie and what is truth. In our time, deception is rising. The sin of homosexuality and homosexual marriage is exhibit A. As Jesus seekers, we need to know what is truth and why it is the truth. Otherwise the waters are muddied and many enter into confusion on matters that are clear in God’s Word, in matters that are near to the heart of God. Unity in Christ’s true church can never stand on any other ground than truth, all other ground is sinking sand. And Truth comes in the form of a person, He has a name, Jesus.

 

Jesus died on the cross for all of my sins and all of yours, because He loves us. And He knows the wages of sin is death. He knows, but He overcame all of that. And on a Sunday we call Easter He rose, deadened lungs breathed air and lived to give us new life, not the same old life we once had, but a new life altogether. That same Savior who is our God, placed in His created order a picture, a mysterious glimpse into something God had been doing from the beginning. He created marriage. He created Adam, a man, and Eve, a woman and they were husband and wife. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul talks about these Genesis roots in chapter 5. There he talks about the picture of marriage and the mystery of the Gospel. Homosexuality is a distortion of this picture and a sin against God.

 

We live in a day when some assert that there is no one way to interpret Scripture, a culture that argues how can we know what an ancient text written by so many authors really means. The problem with this thought process is that if followed to its logical conclusion we will end up riding the waves of cultural relativism, which Jesus never embraces. There are faithful principles for discerning what the Lord is saying, to suggest otherwise would leave us in Pilate’s fog What is truth? Truth is Jesus and His Word is truth. And it is a Word that can be rightly divided and discerned.

 

As the Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy and the Holy Spirit says to us,

 

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15

 

And the Apostle Peter admonishes,

 

…knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:20-21

 

Just because truth isn’t clear to someone doesn’t make it any less the truth. And it doesn’t make you any less loving to stand for the truth and against error. I am sure that God desires us to faithfully interpret Scripture, to assume He meant just what He said, even when the generation at hand doesn’t want to stomach what He has to say anymore. The Lord didn’t inspire a Word and give it to us so that we would not understand and be confused on so many issues because culture is shifting. He gave us Word that is clear to understand so we could have firm ground when the world inevitably moved closer to its destination, so that there might be some left to snatch those about to fall into eternal judgment.

 

 

In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Jude 18-23

 

 

The issue on gay marriage has always been and will always be a Gospel issue. Those who make peace in the end will be the ones who stood for truth, those who perhaps took an unpopular, disliked stance on an issue that is as “polarizing” as this one. But could there be a way to agree with God’s Word and still come out as a peacemaker? Can’t we say the truth about what sin is and is not without being cut down to the unloving, Bible thumping, pharisaical types? If Jesus died for our sin and we can’t call it so, my sin and everyone else’s, then what did He die for? God wasn’t confused when He called it an abomination…when he said homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom along with the sexually immoral and idolaters He didn’t give us the wrong word. He is telling us the truth.

 

 

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. Romans 1

 

 

It is human pride to think that we just can’t know truth and in saying so we have only given way to the moral relativism on which our culture, our country, and many a human soul will rot upon. Peacemakers will in the end always be those who stood in truth, regardless of being called intolerant, unloving, or whatever else, because after all Jesus died for our unholiness. Yeah, I believe that too. Engulf us Lord is everlasting grace and truth. Let us grow in that.