The last thing I want to consider in this brief series on same sex marriage has to do with rebellion. Mr. Webster defined rebellion as, “Open resistance to authority.” All sin is a form of rebellion against God. The prophet Samuel said to King Saul, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15.23a). It is a very serious matter indeed to rebel against God and His righteous commands. Refusing to believe on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is in essence rebellion against God’s anointed King.
When we come to Romans 1 in the New Testament we find what has been called a description of the progressive stages of Gentile unbelief. Let’s take a look at what the apostle Paul said about progressive unbelief and rebellion.
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.”
The first step in the downward spiral away from God comes when a person has some knowledge or recognition of God and chooses by an act of rebellion to not worship or glorify Him as God. Creation reveals there is a God so all men and women are without excuse. There are many today who know full well there is a God and choose of their own stubbornness to ignore or deny Him. To reject God leads to the second step of rebellion, ingratitude. Those who refuse to acknowledge God are not thankful for the life He gives or the necessities of life He provides, like food, water, and the air we breathe. Those who reject God are not thankful for His general grace and mercy to all men. We see here that this rejection of God and an unthankful heart leads to the third step of empty thinking or reasoning, moral senselessness, and an inability to understand truth. There comes a point in a person’s life when they have rejected God for so long, they come to a point where they can no longer discern truth from error. Once a person or group of people have reached this level of rebellion against God they will begin to worship gods of their own making in the form of idolatry. They will make images and worship animals and other things that the living God has created. The ultimate irony is that man will reject the true and living God and then worship gods they make with their own hands. Many in our culture today worship the god of money, power, success, materialism, and pleasure.
The final step in the downward spiral away from God is to be judicially turned over by God to sin and its consequences. In other words, there comes a time when a person or persons have so rejected God and his advances of love toward them that God lets them have their sin and the consequences that sin brings. Notice what the apostle Paul said in the next few verses,
Romans 1.24-27
“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”
“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”
When we follow out the path of rebellion against God it ends in sexual immorality and degradation. The ultimate form of sexual immorality is homosexuality. It is clear in verses 26 and 27 that God turned them over to unnatural affection for the same sex which is speaking of homosexuality. This being true, we can make some pertinent observations concerning the culture of our own day. First, our culture is in full blown rebellion against God as exemplified in the continued spread of a militant homosexual agenda. Our nation is continuing to embrace this sin more and more openly which is a sign of our further demise. Secondly, the consequences of this continual rebellion against God is that we bring the natural consequences of our sin upon ourselves. God’s direct judgment as well as the natural damage of homosexuality in society are increasingly evident every day.
In the final analysis there is no such thing as same sex marriage. Homosexuality is a sin, defined as such by God. To pursue any sin, including homosexuality, is to invited the just judgment of God. The good news is God loves us and does not want us to suffer for our sin. Jesus came and died on a cross to take away our sin and set us free from its dominion. There is no sin for which God will not forgive us if we genuinely confess that sin to Him, repent or turn away from that sin, and by faith ask Him to forgive us in Jesus Christ. May we pray for a revival in our land where God would turn our hearts back to Him.
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