Does the New Testament Teach about Homosexuality?

He answered and said, “Have you not read … ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’”?
—Matthew 19:4-5

Does the New Testament have anything to say about homosexuality? The answer is yes. In Romans 1:24-27, Paul describes how some people rejected the knowledge of God and replaced it with a god of their own making. “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. … 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.” Could it be any clearer?

Another passage is 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” Some Christians misinterpret that passage to say that homosexuality is the unpardonable sin because no homosexual will be in heaven. Well, if that’s how you interpret the passage, then homosexuals are not the only group excluded from heaven. It says fornicators won’t be there. A fornicator is somebody who has premarital sex. It says, “nor idolaters.” Have you ever cared more about a person or a possession than you have about God? If so, that’s idolatry. Not only that, but it says adulterers aren’t going to heaven. Jesus said if you even lust after somebody who is not your mate, you are an adulterer. It also says the covetous are not going to be there. Have you ever wanted what somebody else has? That’s to be guilty of covetousness. If you use that interpretation, heaven will be a lonely place, because nobody is going to be there. But that is not what this passage is saying. Verse 11 is the key to understanding the passage. Paul said, “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 want to say this clearly: No sin is outside of the grace of God. The blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But to receive God’s forgiveness, we first have to admit that what we’re doing is wrong.

***
Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Why Gay Is Not Okay” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2008.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.