By: Thomas F. Booher
I have some significant disagreements with this post. Mostly with the orientation language. While some things said in this post are true, at least to an extent, I think some of it is not true and quite dangerous. If I said I was still "adultery" oriented how would that go over? Or "Greed and bitterness" oriented. And if I said that God may not deliver me from this orientation this side of heaven, would you be cool with me saying that? I would hope not. We are new creatures in Christ (2 Cor. 5:16-21), and I don't think Christians (especially Pastors and theologians; I had one Reformed and Presbyterian Pastor who was appointed to study the issue of homosexuality tell me he read 60 books on the issue, but when I asked him what Romans 1 had to say about it, he said he hadn't really thought about it that much) are reading their Bibles enough and Paul's powerful language of deliverance that we already have in Christ. Yes full sanctification awaits, glorification is not yet, but let me tell you, if you are in Christ, He is your orientation. You are a new creature oriented and attracted to Him, and we should not be speaking of any sin, no matter if it is a thorn in the flesh type of besetting sin, as our orientation.
Oh, and Piper and other Calvinistic leaders couldn't be more wrong if they think that heterosexuality is indifferent or unnecessary to real and true holiness, though I realize some seem to be equivocating a bit or simply trying to say that heterosexuality is not "ultimate" or the final goal (and yet marriage, which requires as a prerequisite heterosexuality, is given to us as the beautiful picture of Christ and the Church and the love that we have as believers in and with Christ). When it comes to sexual holiness, our orientation needs to be how it was before sin and the Fall, which was man and woman, Adam and Eve, husband and wife. Even if you have the gift of celibacy/singleness, your orientation is still, and must be, a heterosexual one.
You can struggle with homosexual lusts all your life just as I sadly imagine I will struggle with heterosexual lusts and every other sin all my life. But I'm not oriented around those things any longer. As much as I sin and indulge in the same filthy sins time and time again, I know by God's grace not to believe that is my orientation (Romans 6:10-12, really all of Romans 6 and 7 is very important).
My flesh still craves all sorts of vile things, but that flesh and those sins have already been crucified, and Christ has already broken the power of reigning sin and set me free from slavery to all the lusts of my flesh.
And if you are a Christian who deals with homosexual lusts/thoughts/desires, I have good news. That is not your orientation. That is not your prevailing sexual disposition. I don't care if it's a constant, hourly battle to resist those homosexual lusts. If you are waging war hourly, your orientation is war, your orientation is toward godliness/holiness and yes, toward heterosexuality (you cannot wage war without looking to Christ, and you cannot fully look to Christ without looking to that which most perfectly pictures the relationship that you have with Christ, which is the picture of marriage between man and woman, and the love that is flowing in that union).
The road that leads to life is your orientation, and He who began this good work in you will finish it. So keep fighting the good fight, armed with the conviction that you are fighting against already crucified lusts, attractions, desires, orientations, etc., and that just as true holiness for the person fighting greed and covetousness manifests itself as progressively growing in giving and generosity, so the one who finds holiness over homosexuality is the one who embraces and meditates upon the good, noble, beautiful, pure and lovely heterosexuality (understanding how this all points to Christ of course), even if that means you never marry yourself or find yourself in the position of "it is better to marry than to burn with passion" (1 Cor. 7:9). For you know that heterosexuality and the man and woman one-flesh union that grows from heterosexuality is really a picture of Christ and His beautiful bride, the Church, which is nothing less than a picture of the gospel of the kingdom of God.
You cannot look to the holiness and love of the spotless bride of Christ and to our heavenly bridegroom very well without looking to true marriage, true heterosexuality, and that's true even if you don't marry (the Apostle Paul wasn't married and he wrote so beautifully about the bond between man and wife and how that teaches about and points to Christ!). The ideal of heterosexual marriage and the intimate love that flows from that, including heterosexual sex itself, should be appealing to all Christians, for it truly pictures Christ and the Church and our intimate and glorious relationship with God.
And this marriage relationship with our Lord and Savior, the splendor of the new covenant that we partake in through Christ's blood, will endure and be displayed for all eternity, in all its full glory and majesty.
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