What does the Bible say about homosexuality?

Closely related to this is the strong prohibition of the abominable practice of homosexuality (v. 22). God has provided the honorable institution of the marriage of a man and woman, yet people dare to abuse the very best that God has given, because of utter selfishness. We know too that such things bring painful repercussions (Rom. 1:26-27. God is not mocked. People may feel they get away with evildoing, but whatever one sows he will also reap (Gal. 6:7).

"You shall not commit adultery" is the seventh commandment. Adultery is the corruption of the marriage bond, and the prohibition would certainly extend to every kind of such corruption whether persons are married or not. In the New Testament, though the words, "Ye shall not" are not used, yet the evil of fornication is no less warned against (Acts 15:29; 1 Thes.4:3-4). Homosexuality is worse still -- a most flagrant corruption of the bond of marriage (Rom.1:26-27).

"On this account God gave them up unto passions of dishonour; for both their females changed the natural use into the contrary of nature, and likewise also the males, leaving the natural use of the female, burned in their desire toward one another; males with males working out unseemliness, and fully receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was due." (Ver. 26, 27.) In this graphic but most grave sketch of the humiliating picture, which the classics fill up in so different a tone (for "the unjust knows no shame"), the weaker vessel comes first, as indeed the shamelessness was there most apparent and human depravity proved most complete and hopeless. The apostle does not deign to characterize them (though the greatest and highest, sages of earth, monarchs, conquerors, poets, philosophers, and what not) as men and women, but as "females" and "males," characterized by ways below the brute, given up of God, and even now enduring the meet reward of their deeds.

Adultery too (a guilty infraction of the marriage bond) called for the death penalty for both the man and the woman involved in this. God does not require Gentile governments to enforce Israel's laws, but these evils are no less wicked wherever they are found. Meanwhile, God is delaying punishment, and today is commanding all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). If so, they will be saved from the punishment they deserve: if not, their punishment will be not only death, but eternal torment in the lake of fire.

The penalty for incest was death for both parties (vv. 11-12). Those guilty of homosexual relations incurred the same penalty (v. 13). If a man married both a woman and her mother, all three of them were to be burned to death.

Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor pathics, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And these things were some of you; but ye got washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:9-11). How real and great is the depravity of man left to himself and Satan! How real and still greater is the delivering grace of God in the name of the Lord Jesus and by His own Spirit! In Jesus He has revealed Himself to us; and, as we were the slaves of lust and passion under the power of Satan, He by Jesus wrought a work to rescue all who believe with a sure title, and made it good in our souls by His Spirit. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, as well as power, love, and a sound mind.

The unnatural brutalities of verses 22, 23, are plain enough; but it may not be known how unblushingly they were perpetrated among the heathen, even by the Greeks and the Romans. What abomination! It is confusion, says Jehovah. Israel were not to render themselves unclean in any of these things, as in all these did the nations of Canaan which He cast out before them. How much guiltier, if so, would Israel be! The very land was made unclean. Therefore had He visited the iniquity on it. Earth vomited out its inhabitants; so that Israel must beware, not only for themselves, but for any stranger sojourning among them, lest the land should vomit them out, as it had the nations that dwelt there before Israel. For such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and yet more offensive in His own people than in any other; a truth forgotten soon among the Jews, as later in Christendom. "Therefore shall ye observe my charge that ye do not [any] of the abominable customs which were done before you, and that ye make not yourselves unclean therein: I [am] Jehovah your God." It is by receiving the good that is from God, His word and above all His Christ, that souls are kept from evil.

And now comes another example from among men, and this too used by Peter. When I say used by Peter, I do not pretend to attempt to decide the time when the two Epistles were written; nor does it signify that I am aware of. Peter says, "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly." Whereas Judas has it: "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after other flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the judgment of eternal fire." In this case it is evident that it is a breaking out, not merely into sin, but into that which was beyond measure flagrant, not evil alone, but contrary even to fallen nature. This is what is spoken of here. The very same persons are described in a different manner, according to the object of the Holy Ghost.

· The third example is taken from the cities of sin. Genesis 13:10 furnishes us with the detail, Ezekiel 16:46-50 gives more information about Sodom and Gomorrha[3]. There was a well-watered plain at Zoar but that did not make the people grateful or satisfied. Sexual perversion marked them, going contrary to creation's order, whether with men or angels. Satan has ever laboured to corrupt the testimony of the church in this manner. The plain lesson that we must learn is that the destruction of the cities because of their vice serves as a vivid example of those who undergo the judgment of eternal fire because of such sins. They lie there as a corpse on display, laid out before all

If we were to question this, we should have to deny some of the plainest passages of Scripture. Taker Cor. 6:9-10, for example: what can be plainer? "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived," and this, mark, is addressed to professing Christians, "neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers," and so on, "shall inherit the kingdom of God."

This is most plain and most weighty. It makes it quite plain that the gospel is not intended to be an allowance of sin, but salvation from it. Where really received, it brings a man out of the things it finds him in, and sets him in the way of holiness. As the apostle goes on here: "And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified," etc. And again, as in Titus 2:11-12, "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared, … teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." The grace which saves makes holy.

These laws deal with matters that are morally wrong and are still wrong today. Though the believer is not in any sense "under law," but "under grace," this does nor mean that he is free to break over bounds of morality. Rather, it means that grace gives him both the desire and the ability to carry out the righteousness required by the law, without considering himself under the law's authority (Rom. 8:3-4).