Distinctive

While sin is a product of the flesh and a fact of life for every believer in Christ, we also recognize that Jesus died on a cross to set us free from it, to triumph over it, to consider it dead so that we may
enjoy life and freedom. Romans 6 states:
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Sin's power has been defeated by the death and resurrection of Christ, but that victory is not always manifested in the life of a believer.  But, that does not give us a reason to succomb to it and identify with it.  We are called to identify with Christ, not with our sin.  He controls our identity, not sin.  Paul teaches clearly that we have the tools to put the deeds of the flesh to death because of the grace of God in Christ Jesus.  So, we can be encouraged not to give up, but to give in to the power of the Spirit.

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God's Word is true and absolute, and in an age where the teachings of Scripture are being decried, redefined, or ignored, we can recognize that, yes, there are behaviors that He calls sinful, but there is an antidote, there is power to overcome the sin that resides in our hearts.  1st Corinthians 6 reinforces
that hope:
9 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 homosexuals, nor sodomites,
10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

The analysis continues and the implications explored in the Supreme Court decision in the Masterpiece Cakes case, in which a Colorado baker, Jack Phillips, received a favorable ruling in the case, in which he had appealed action taken against him by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission because of his refusal to provide a cake for a ceremony celebrating a same-sex union.

While headlines screamed it was a narrow ruling in favor of Jack, the numbers don't add up: it was 7-2, with Justice Kennedy, who wrote the ruling that legalized same-sex marriage three years ago, siding with the majority, along with the court conservatives and two of the liberal judges on the court.

Kristen Waggoner, Senior Counsel for the Christian legal advocacy group, Alliance Defending Freedom, argued the case in front of the high court.  She is quoted on the ADF website: “Jack serves all customers; he simply declines to express messages or celebrate events that violate his deeply held beliefs,” adding, “Creative professionals who serve all people should be free to create art consistent with their convictions without the threat of government punishment.”

The article continued to quote the attorney:

“Government hostility toward people of faith has no place in our society, yet the state of Colorado was openly antagonistic toward Jack’s religious beliefs about marriage,” Waggoner added. “The court was right to condemn that. Tolerance and respect for good-faith differences of opinion are essential in a society like ours. This decision makes clear that the government must respect Jack’s beliefs about marriage.”

But the ruling, as it has been pointed out, was incredibly narrow.  The Family Research Council website stated that Justice Thomas was "frustrated that the court didn't address the bigger question of religious liberty and same-sex marriage," and "thinks the time is coming – and soon – when the justices will have to weigh in."

The FRC site stated that...

...National Review's David French writes, Americans should take comfort in the fact that the justices took the opportunity to "[remind] state authorities that people of faith have the exact same rights -- and are entitled to the exact same treatment -- as people of different faith or no faith at all. And it did so in an opinion that decisively rejected the exact talking points so favored by the anti-religious Left." That, he thinks, is the most important part of Monday's ruling. Justice Kennedy may never be able to undo the damage he did to religious liberty when he took a wrecking ball to marriage in Obergefell, but he is at least trying to repair some of it. For once, French points out, "the court breathed a bit of life back into religious-liberty jurisprudence. And the justice who did it is none other than Anthony Kennedy... the justice most responsible for the gay-rights revolution.

And, the implications of that so-called "revolution" are continuing to reverberate throughout society.  Michael Foust of ChristianHeadlines.com, reports on a new Gallup Values and Beliefs Survey; he notes that: "A record 67 percent of American adults believe that gay and lesbian relations are morally acceptable, an increase from last year’s high of 63 percent."

The article also points out that 43 percent of those surveyed said pornography is morally acceptable, up from the previous high of 36 percent set last year.  The article states:

The seven-point jump in the acceptance of pornography was driven by unmarried people, Gallup’s Andrew Dugan wrote.

“This year, the percentage of nonmarried individuals who find pornography morally acceptable rose 15 points to 50%,” he wrote. “Acceptance of pornography among married individuals, at 35% this year, is essentially no different from last year's 37%. Meanwhile, 67% of men aged 18 to 49 this year say pornography is morally acceptable, a 14-point increase from last year.”

And, in an encouraging example, "The percentage of Americans who believe abortion is morally wrong is 48 percent, virtually unchanged from last year’s 49 percent. The percentage of those who say abortion is OK stayed at 43 percent."

We live in an unprecedented age in which what the Bible calls wrong, what is described as sinful behavior, is being widely accepted.  God's clear teaching in the Scriptures has been ignored, attempts have been made to redefine it, and there are those who make a mockery of what the Bible actually says.  Why, even this past week, the American Bible Society has received criticism because of a new policy that employees live according to the Bible in areas of sexuality.

The Biblical sexual ethic is clear, and it dates all the way back to the book of Genesis.  We find that: 1) God created male and female.  Period.  No multiplicity of genders, no, human beings were beautifully hand-crafted by the Most High. While the LGBT movement would try to promote gender fluidity, God's Word teaches stability.  2) Man and woman are to be joined together in marriage in a one-flesh relationship.  No room here for a union, sometimes termed a "mystical" union, between members of the same gender.  In fact, Paul refers to the sinfulness of homosexual behavior in 1st Corinthians chapter 6.  3) Humanity was given the instruction to multiply, and we recognize that this is done within the context of marriage. If so-called "same-sex marriage" were the plan of God, it would result in the termination of God's great human creation in essentially one generation.

We have to guard against the attempts to bring deviant sexual practices into the Church to be normalized. Under the guise of "tolerance" and "compassion," there is a distinct view that has been embraced in some sectors of Christianity that a person's deviant sexual or gender identity should supersede a person's identity in Christ.  This manifests itself through not only homosexual practice in the Church, but also those who claim to be and identify as being "same-sex attracted," but do not act on those urges.  As Owen Strachan of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary writes:

Every Christian, of course, must battle temptation. We may feel same-sex attraction or manifold other ungodly instincts rise up within us. We all do. But as with all “evil desire” (2 Peter 1:4), we fight it. We crucify it. We repent of it. We certainly do not enclose it within a bubble called our “orientation” and sanctify it. We break with it and flee from it, for we know it would close itself around our necks and drag us to hell if it could. The person experiencing same-sex attraction is not a special case. Understanding this, and rejecting the now-common spirit of victimhood, is key to victory in this area. People who struggle with same-sex attraction need the same gospel, the same Christ, the same Word we all do. They are made in the image of God, bearing infinite dignity and worth, and they have hope, infinite hope in Christ. This hope does not come, however, from dignifying lust (see Matthew 5:21-30). This hope comes from a life of repentance in the name of Jesus. We gain hope through holiness, and by continually fighting off the sins that so easily beset us through the power of the life-giving Spirit.

Finally, we recognize our call to be distinctive.  We cannot "buy in" to the new tolerance that is sweeping our nation.  We can, with conviction and compassion, uphold God's truth about sexuality in a compelling way that shows that we love Christ, and realize that an act of love toward another person is to tell him or her the truth about their sin.