Jeff’s Errors on Homosexuality, pt. II
Continuing this series, let’s examine more of Jeff Haws’s errors regarding homosexuality and the church.
How do we know everything Jesus said? Everything we know about Jesus indicates he was accepting of a lot of people who most people didn’t accept. All the historical accounts we have show Jesus to have been a man who was drawn to outcasts, at least partly because he was a sort of outcast himself. It seems entirely within Jesus’ character to have said homosexuality was OK. And I’ve said Maybe this Christian knows something you don’t. (source)
The short answer is that we don’t know everything that Jesus said (Jn 21:25). But Jesus consistently upheld the Bible, and even told us to observe the law (Mat 23:1-3; cf. Mat 5:18; 1 Jn 5:3, 2 Jn 6). So for this premise to be valid, Jesus would have had to have said something that didn’t fit with the Bible that no one recorded. As much as the scribes and the Pharisees hated Christ, if He had ever said something that contradicted the Scriptures, these guys would have had a field day. They would have written it down, they would have told every one of Jesus’ disciples. In short, the scribes and the Pharisees would have formed any single contradiction in Jesus’ teachings into a cornerstone of their case against Him. They never did that, so I think it is reasonable to conclude that He said no such thing.
Homosexuality is against the Law of God (Lev 18:22, 20:13). Jesus said that He has not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill the Law (5:17-20). Therefore, it is impossible to conclude that Christ would have done anything except condemn homosexuality.
That said, I agree with Jeff in spirit. I believe that Christ would have consorted with homosexuals, with the added caveat that He would call them to repentance. He would have ministered to them, but He would have–by the grace of God–forgiven their sins and told them to sin no more, as He did with others.
As the apostle Paul put it, we are now a new creation in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). We, saved by the grace of God, should not continue to sin so that grace may abound–we are dead to sin, so we should not live in it (Rom 6:1-2).
