If Stephen Colbert is your favorite theologian, I’m about to burst your bubble. Colbert is absolutely wrong on this statement and this can be explained through three very important biblical truths from the old and new testaments.
Firstly, people that make this claim don’t know who Jesus is (John 8:58, John 10:30, John 1:1, Isaiah 9:6, etc, etc, etc). Jesus has always existed in perfect harmony with the Father. Perfect harmony means both Jesus and the Holy Spirit saw it just when the Father destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
Secondly, Jesus affirmed what the definition of marriage is when He was questioned about divorce. “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said,‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? Where’s the variance? Where’s the apology for burning the aforementioned places to the ground? Where does He say the rules have changed? He doesn’t. In fact, He says that you shouldn’t even begin to think the rules have changed.
The third and last point is this: Jesus said plainly that He did not intend to do away with the law, which were the commandments given mostly throughout Leviticus and Deuteronomy (Matthew 5:17). According to the law, acting on same-sex attraction sexually is toebah, an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. In that single statement, He addressed homosexuality, murder, rape, and everything sinful in the world. He did not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it. Lastly, I’d ask anyone that challenges this to present scripture the supports any sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage. I’ll just go ahead and tell you that it’s not there. During the great commission, Jesus told the apostles to make children of all nations, teaching them all that He commanded. What did those men say about homosexuality? Take a look at the first chapter of Romans in the New Testament. You’ll see that God has not changed His mind (He doesn’t do that).
If you experience same-sex attraction and you’re reading this, know that I and anyone else reading this, we all are just as sinful as you. We all fall short of the glory of God. None of us deserve His mercy, yet He loved us first. Yet, He died for us. You are free to turn away from your sin. You don’t need to fix yourself and somehow put a stop to your attraction. Indeed, you can’t. In our sins, we are slaves to our sin.
The good news is God changes us. God gives us a heart willing to obey Him. God grants us repentance and fights sin with us and abides in us. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that wonderful? He’ll be with us even until the end of the age throughout all struggles with sin. God loves you. Your true identity, like mine, is within Him and not in your sexuality. True freedom is in Christ and not sex. True harmoniousness will not be found outside of Christ, as hard as you may try.
Also, take comfort in knowing that you have always been invited to join the church. Paul mentions members of the early Christian church that turned away from their sins to follow Christ and homosexuals are among them. The love of Christ is for you too. All you have to do is follow Him. He will do the rest for and in you.
Anxious Hearts 