What does the Bible say about homosexuality?

But their visit was rudely interrupted by many men of Sodom, both young and old, boldly demanding that the two men who came to Lot's home should come out and be subjected to the horror of homosexual relations (vv. 4-5).

The miracle consisted in fire from the Lord out of heaven starting the mighty conflagration and eruptions that blasted these four cities out of existence, and left their sites to this day as "an example to those that after should live ungodly." (2 Peter 2:6). The thought of the evil and its judgment has persisted, for the word "sodomy" is found in our language as designating sin of a specially vile and unnatural sort. This judgment, moreover, was a sample of what is yet to come on a much greater scale in "the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (2 Peter 3:7).

Sodom is regarded in scripture as a symbol of wickedness. Isaiah calls the heads of Judah the 'rulers of Sodom.' Isa. 1:10; cf. Ezek. 16:46-56; Rev. 11:8. The Lord, to show the exceeding wickedness of rejecting Him, after hearing His gracious words and seeing His mighty works, declared that it would be more tolerable in a day of judgement for Sodom than for the cities that rejected Him.

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).

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 not 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).

The penalty for incest was death for both parties (vv. 11-12). Those guilty of homosexual relations incurred the same penalty (v. 13).

And Judah did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. And there were also sodomites in the land; and they did according to all the abominations of the nations.

He took away the sodomites out of the land. "Asa's heart was perfect," or, undivided, "with Jehovah all his days."

And there were also sodomites (men consecrated to impurity) in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.

Man had given up God, now we have the statement, thrice repeated, "That God gave them up". In the government of God men are allowed to reap what they sow. Their lusts had turned them away from the true God, now, the false gods, they had set up according to their own tastes, sanctioned and encouraged their lusts. God giving them up to their lusts, they immediately proceed to dishonour their own bodies, even as they had already dishonoured God.

Having changed the truth of God into a lie, and in place of the Creator set up the creature as an object of worship, they are permitted to fall beneath the creatures that they worshipped. Men sank below the beasts. It has been truly said a beast is not a moral creature, but a man degraded to the level of a beast becomes immoral: his affections become corrupted and perverted from their natural course into that which is contrary to nature.

The awful effect of sin is to leave men with defiled bodies (24), degraded affections (26), and deformed minds (28). Man is fallen body, soul, and spirit.

Their plight has been reached under the government of God. Three times over do we get the phrase (with slight variations) "God gave them up to …" If men object to thinking of God and give Him up, they have no ground of complaint when He gives them up. And if they give up God, and consequently good, they naturally find themselves given up to everything that is evil and degrading. There is an ironic justice about God's government.

Law then is established for lawless and unruly, ungodly and sinners, unholy and profane, beaters of fathers and beaters of mothers … murderers, fornicators, sodomites, men-stealers (or kidnappers), liars, perjurers, and if anything else is opposed to the sound doctrine.

Its excellence lies in its unsparingness of evil; and man is evil, and this by nature. Grace, not law, saves sinners. Not law but grace teaches us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 2:11-13).

Sodom and Gomorrha lusted and abandoned the natural order which God had ordained. This again was apostasy, exposing them to the judgment of "eternal fire."

"As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having in the like manner with them greedily committed fornication and gone after strange flesh, lie there an example, undergoing judgment of eternal fire."