In 2012 Matthew Vines, then only twenty-one years old,
produced a remarkable YouTube video in which he attempted to provide a biblical defense
of loving, faithful, gay marriage.
There are a number of commendable features of this presentation.
First, Vines apparently accepts the authority of Scripture, and he attempts to
base his conclusions on a careful interaction with the biblical texts. Second, while
this is an emotionally charged issue, he maintains a calm demeanor. Third, his
appeal at the end of the presentation is passionate without becoming maudlin.
Nevertheless, his handling of Scripture is fundamentally
flawed. Rather than going point by point through the texts he examines, I want to begin with his misrepresentation
of the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. I’ll start with
Paul’s final letter to his young apprentice Timothy (Star Wars verbal parallel noted).
You,
however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of,
knowing from whom you have learned them,
and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to
give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God
may be adequate, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:14-17).
The sacred writings Timothy learned as a child from his
mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5) were, of course the books of the Old
Testament. The New Testament did not exist when Timothy was a child. Jesus and
the authors of the New Testament constantly pointed back to the Old Testament
as (1) a testimony of Christ to come, and (2) a guide for living in a manner
pleasing to God. Even “love your neighbor as yourself,” which many people
assume Jesus must have invented, comes from the Old Testament (Leviticus
19:18). New Testament ethics is based squarely on the Old Testament.
There are, of course, many commands in the Old Testament
that do not apply to believers today—for example wearing clothes with mixed
fabric or boiling a kid in its mother’s milk. The issue, therefore, is how to
determine which commandments are permanently valid. In order to answer this
question, we must keep in mind the three kinds of commandments included in the
Mosaic Covenant.
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Moral Law. Commandments that are permanently
valid because they are based on God’s character and on the image of God in
human beings (what we might call created human nature).
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Ceremonial Law. Commandments relating to the Old
Testament sacrificial system and commandments designed to keep ancient Israel
separate from the surrounding culture. We also include here the Sabbath
commandment which was the sign of the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 31:13-17).
Ø
Civil Law. This aspect of the law prescribes
penalties for infractions of the Moral Law and the Ceremonial Law. The Civil
Law was specifically designed for Israel living in the land of Palestine under
a theocratic government.
The Mosaic Law as a Covenant given to Israel has indeed
passed away since it is fulfilled in Christ. This is the argument of Hebrews
7-10. Notice (and this is important)—the author bases his argument for the
passing of the Old Covenant on the Old Testament itself. The apostles did not
do away with the Mosaic Covenant on their own authority. So what remains?
Ø
The New Testament specifically sets aside the
sacrificial system of the Old Covenant (Hebrews 7-10); circumcision (Acts 15;
Galatians 2:1-10); the Sabbath and other holy days, and dietary laws
(Colossians 2:16-23; 1 Timothy 4:1-5).
Ø
The civil penalties of the Old Covenant are
completely ignored in the New Testament. Jesus and the apostles never applied
the Civil Law of the Jewish state to the church.
Ø
The provisions of the Moral Law, however, are
frequently and firmly reiterated in the New Testament. So how do we know which
provisions of the Old Covenant are permanent? We look at the New Testament.
With all of this in view, it simply will not do for Vines to
say that since we no longer stone disobedient children, we are no longer to
regard the prohibition of homosexuality as permanent. Stoning the incorrigibly
rebellious child was a penalty of the Civil Law under the Mosaic Covenant. The
Civil Law of the Jews is no longer in force, but disobedience to parents is
still a sin, since it violates the permanent Moral Law of God (Romans 1:30).
Which brings me to Romans 1. Vines spends quite a bit of
time trying to undermine the plain sense of this passage.
For
this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged
the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the
men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire
toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in
their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see
fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do
those things which are not proper
(Romans 1:26-28).
Vines’ argument rests on two key foundations. First, ancient
peoples did not understand sexual orientation as we do—that some people, by
nature have an attraction to the same sex. Therefore, the ancients could only
think of same-sex relationships as an excess of the normal sexual drive, like
promiscuity. Second, the people Paul condemned were acting contrary to their
own personal nature. They were doing what was unnatural for themselves, since
their natural desire was for the opposite sex. I’ll take the second issue
first.
Paul was clearly not
referring to sexual relations contrary to a person’s own individual nature.
Paul’s argument in Romans 1 and 2 is that all people have the permanent Moral
Law of God impressed on their hearts. They are able to suppress this law so
that they no longer feel its force, but that only increases their guilt.
For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that
which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to
them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal
power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what
has been made, so that they are without excuse. 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 1:18-22).
Those who do not have the written
Law, the Mosaic Law, nevertheless know God’s Law since it is written on their
hearts.
For
all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all
who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the
doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law
do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to
themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts,
their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or
else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge
the secrets of men through Christ Jesus (Romans 2:12-16).
When Paul writes that men and women
exchanged the natural sexual partner for what was unnatural, he clearly means
that they were going against God’s created nature for men and women, not that
they were going against their own sexual orientation. Furthermore, unnatural
sexual relations are listed along with all sorts of other activities that Vines
would recognize as sinful: being filled
with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil,
disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving,
unmerciful (Romans 1:29-31).
I suspect, by the way, that some rapacious hedge fund managers will end up in a
far deeper pit of hell that some gays in life-long committed relationships. We
oughtn’t to single out gays as hell-bound when all human beings are headed that
direction apart from the saving grace of Christ.
Now I return to the other pillar of
Vines’ interpretation of Romans 1. There is no evidence at all that Paul was
basing his condemnation of same-sex relations on a supposed Greco-Roman notion
of an excess of sexual desire. The proper context for Paul’s understanding of
the Moral Law is the Old Testament. He really believed, as he later wrote to
Timothy, that the Scriptures teach us how to live in a manner pleasing to God.
Homosexual and lesbian relationships
were not strongly condemned in the Greco-Roman world. In Plato’s Symposium one of the speakers praises
homosexuality as heavenly love. Rather than defending it as an outlet for
excessive passion, he describes how to make a virtuous choice when choosing a
lover. One of the other speakers may be mildly mocking him, but the dialogue has
no outright condemnation of same-sex relations.
Jesus had no need to condemn
homosexuality because the Jews already knew it was wrong (Leviticus 18:22; 20:13).
Paul had to address it in clear and forceful language because it was condoned
rather than condemned in Greco-Roman culture.
Now
I need to address the issue of human thriving, which formed another major part
of Vines’ argument. He noted from
Matthew 7 that a good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad
fruit. Therefore, he said, good teaching doesn’t push people down into low
self-esteem and despair. Furthermore, from Genesis 2, we know that is not good
for people to be alone, but depriving gays of the right to marry forces them to
be alone. God created some people gay, therefore God must want them to find
companionship and happiness in gay relationships. To tell gay people that they
are broken crushes their spirits and goes against the way God has made them.
Unfortunately, many children in
Sunday school learn that since God made them, He likes them just the way they
are. This false teaching is a radical denial of the doctrine of original sin.
When God made Adam and Eve, He was starting with unfallen stuff. He pronounced them
and the rest of creation “very good.” Now, however, He is starting with broken
stuff. All of us are born broken. What we ought to be telling children is they
were made by God in His image, but because of sin His image in us is broken.
God loves us even though we are broken, and He wants to fix us. That is why He
sent His Son Jesus to die for us.
Jesus begins to fix us when we are
born again, but the work will not be finished until we see Him face to face at
the resurrection. All of us carry around baggage that keeps us from
experiencing perfect happiness. So we have some healing now, and we experience true
joy in the Lord, but perfect healing and perfect happiness must wait for that
future day. Some gay people may be able to have a satisfying marriage with a
person of the opposite sex, but many will not. Nevertheless, they can please
the Lord by living chastely, and they can have healthy relationships with
people of both sexes.
It is a mistake to start with the
notion that God wants me to be happy.
The problem is that we do not know how to be truly happy. People very
frequently make choices, in an effort to be happy, that produce exactly the
opposite result. According to Jesus, true happiness (blessedness) is an
outgrowth of a certain kind of character. The beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12)
include, “Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God” (v. 8). The way to be happy is to seek to be holy.
That is God’s way. Seek holiness first and you will find true happiness. Seek
happiness first, and you will lose everything. “For he who wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his
life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25).
I want to close with one final, sobering observation. After
condemning homosexual and lesbian relationships along with a host of other
sins, the apostle Paul concludes, “and
although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things
are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval
to those who practice them” (Romans 1:32). This ought to make you cautious
about endorsing a gay lifestyle. Love your gay friends. Be kind to them. Listen
to their heart-felt anguish, and sympathize with them, but I beg you not to endorse
their rebellion against God.
What all people need is the gospel
of Christ, winsomely explained and lovingly lived. In our interactions with gay
people, as with all people, we ought to focus on the death and resurrection of
Christ, the generosity of God, and the promise of happiness through holiness.
And yes, we need to speak about their sin, fully conscious that we also are
sinners of the deepest dye. When our friends and family insist on clinging to
their sins instead of turning to the Savior, we ought to weep rather than
self-righteously condemning them.
May God give us the grace to love
sinners like ourselves into the kingdom of God.
