One of the things I keep hearing during this debate on same-sex marriage is that Jesus didn’t condemn homosexuality or same-sex marriage. While He didn’t talk about homosexuality, it would be incorrect to assume His silence on the matter was an acceptance of it as permissible. Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. --Matthew 5:17-18 (NKJV) In other words, whatever was written in the Old Testament Jesus not only accepted but was the living breathing completion of it. There were many sinful things that Jesus didn’t talk about but look at what He did say…For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. --(Matthew 5:20 NKJV) His expectation for us is to do better than those who were guided by the Old Testament. Even though some people want to put their opinion or spin on the teachings of Jesus; He left little doubt where He stood on the laws given in the Old Testament.
While Jesus did not specifically address homosexuality He did talk about marriage…And He answered and said to them, Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. --Matthew 19:4-6 NKJV) According to Jesus, God specifically created us as male and female for marriage. Without getting too graphic here…the equipment we have been given by God makes it obvious that we were designed for marriage between a man and a woman. Jesus goes on to say that marriage is something that God does…notice it is God that joins us together in marriage!
I will be saying much more about this in our sermon series coming in June when we will talk about marriage.
