Recently I have been coming across some terrible and wrong teaching from people who call themselves Christians. But these are people who want Jesus while holding on to their sin. These are the sort who dismiss parts of the Bible by pointing out some of the lesser laws as an excuse to dismiss the important stuff. I am sure you have come across the two types of material argument to excuse the acceptance of homosexuality.
What we are failing to understand is that Jesus is the complete and perfect revelation of our God. In him all the law was made complete. Our example is found in him. His words are what we live. We do not need to search for anything outside of him. So, in order to find the truth I look to Jesus and found he told us plainly what is important:
"Don’t you know that everything that goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? But what goes out of the mouth comes from the heart. And that’s what contaminates a person in God’s sight. Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adultery, sexual sins, thefts, false testimonies, and insults. These contaminate a person in God’s sight." (Matthew 15:17-20)
Jesus fulfilled the whole law and made it possible for our hearts and minds to be transformed. We have been made into a new creation, like Jesus. Our bodies will be transformed when it is time but for now it has been made possible for us to understand the will of the Father and to live a life pleasing to him. And here Jesus tells us what the priority is in the Kingdom.
All sexual sin is wrong because it comes from a contaminated heart. Jesus defined the only acceptable relationship for sex, the relationship for which it was created:
“Haven’t you read that at the beginning the creator made them male and female? And God said, ‘Because of this a man should leave his father and mother and be joined together with his wife, and the two will be one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh." (Matthew 5:4-6)
If we truly know Jesus and have laid down our life to him we know this to be true. But if we are seeking a philosophy and claim to know Jesus while fiercely holding onto our sin, we have not honestly encountered him and made a decision for him. If we search hard enough we are going to find some demonic spirit preaching whatever our itching ears want to hear, but if we are a true seekers then we will gladly lay it all down for him.
It doesn't matter if we are talking about homosexuality, fornication or adultery, they all come from a sin bound heart. Jesus came to set us free from this not to make us more comfortable in it. He came to give us the power to repent, to turn away from those things that do not please God, and we do exactly that because we love him. True love produces obedience. Sin produces rebellion.
Remember that Jesus said that the way is narrow and not many will make it. Remember that he said if we want to be his disciples we have to first of all deny ourselves. Deny our flesh desires. Deny our opinions. Deny everything about our former life so that we can be dressed in the clothing of the Kingdom, his righteousness.
We can lie to ourselves. We can be self-delusional. We can continue to be lovers of self and proclaim to the darkness that we are Christians but the fruit of our heart does not lie. You cannot have the sinful pleasures of this fallen world and Jesus Christ. It just doesn't work that way.
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