The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Kayla M. during the 2009-2010 League.
Mission: Research on Homosexuality
Throughout His Word, God reveals that homosexuality is a sin contrary to His design and calling for redemption through Christ.
God designed marriage as a holy union between one man and one woman, first instituted on the sixth day of Creation and documented in Genesis 1 and 2. Because of God's design, a man is "united to his wife, and they will become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). The initiation of marriage makes clear God's intent for sexuality –designed for one man with one woman for life.
Unfortunately, because of the fall of the human race and the inherent depravity of man since then, people have committed the sin of practicing homosexuality. Homosexuality is a distressing twist of God's gift that was given strictly for the realm of marriage between a man and a woman.
Throughout the Bible God has punished sin with consequences, and he has punished the practice of homosexuality in the same way. Just as God sent the worldwide Flood as His judgment on the corruption of mankind, He "rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah" (Genesis 19:24). Known for their blatant sexual immorality, these cities received the serious consequences of God's righteous judgment.
Thousands of years later, the apostle Paul addresses the same sin that was rampant in Sodom and Gomorrah. He writes that, because members of the human race had rejected God, the Lord "gave them over the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies" (Romans 1:24). God allowed humanity's rebellion to take its course in "shameful lusts" in the form of homosexuality (Romans 1:26). Like all other forms of sin, homosexuality has consequences, and thus the men described in Romans 1 "received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion." Paul's use of the strong word "perversion" demonstrates both God's hatred of the act of homosexuality and the seriousness of all sin in His eyes.
In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, he further describes the serious consequences of homosexuality. He writes that "neither the immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers…nor homosexual offenders nor thieves…will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 6:9-10). By listing homosexual offenders with other sinners in this passage, Paul establishes that the practice is a serious sin deserving of God's righteous wrath. This passage also reminds us that we are all sinners, breakers of God's law and enemies of our Creator. Instead of leading humanity to despair, however, God reveals the remedy. At the end of the 1 Corinthians passage, He says, "You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."
All sin is deserving of God's eternal wrath, and so is every member of the human race –except One, the Lord Jesus. He perfectly fulfilled God's law and bore the entire weight of God's righteous judgment on our sin. As we examine the sin of homosexual practice, let us remember the hope of salvation from all of our depravity through Jesus Christ.
