I am in no way an expert or an authority on this issue. I have gay friends, but that doesn’t make me an authority on homosexuality. That’s like someone saying that they should have a respected word in racial equality because they know black people. However, you should read this article for the same reason you would read anything that I write: to glean from it the good, true, and wise (in other words, godly), and reject the foolish, prideful, and ignorant (in other words, me). So my main goal in this is to reject the things coming from my wisdom and knowledge, and to only put on Christ’s love, wisdom, and grace for all of humanity.
There is a stigma attached to being gay. Somehow the church has decided that homosexuality is a worse sin then others, and, in so doing, has rejected people in desperate need of God’s grace. The ambassadors of Christ’s love have given the world a false message of superiority and pride, and have traded in God’s revolutionary doctrine of grace for a lesser, more-understandable doctrine of decency. The doctrine of decency says this: that once people become Christians, their problems go away, they no longer struggle with sin, and if they do struggle with sin, their salvation is in question. The doctrine of decency celebrates God’s grace, but only to an extent. For once God’s grace seems to be impossible, improbable, or im-palatable, those who follow the doctrine of decency discard the notion of endless grace and a mercy that’s new every morning. We’ve traded in the gospel of Jesus Christ for something lesser.
Here’s the deal though. The only way to understand fully the doctrine of grace is introspection. I only understand God’s infinite grace when I look at my own life. For once I look at my own life, I see God’s mercy. And when I see God’s mercy in my life, I don’t merely see it at the point of my salvation. I see it when I’ve tried and failed, stepped and fallen, and run from God. I see God’s grace in my life when I sin, when I’m too timid to take action, and when I judge other’s for the sins that they’ve committed when I am indeed the worst of sinners. This is the gospel of grace: that Jesus stepped from His throne in order to redeem the worst of sinners, to heal the sickest of people, to give grace to the lowest of the low, no strings attached. God’s grace isn’t a loan, waiting to be paid off. God’s grace doesn’t come with an I.O.U that demands that He be repaid.
“But Ben,” you’re saying, “I know that God’s grace is great in your life and whatever. I’ve heard that. What I want to know is how God’s grace relates to the LGBTQ community. I want to hear about God’s grace and how it affects lesbian, gay, bi, and transgender people.”
Here’s the crazy part: that God’s grace and love doesn’t stop at loving and forgiving gay people. His grace even reaches to the sinners who have rejected loving His children. His mercy extends to the prideful sinners who have rejected His children and, in so doing, rejected Him. God’s mercy even covers me. And I, in humble reverence to God, am allowed to step into His presence, to raise my redeemed hands to the author and perfector of my salvation, side-by-side with the murderers, prideful, gays, lesbians, liars, swindlers, sick, redeemed. I am invited to share in His glory along with the same people I have neglected. God isn’t only crazy enough to save gay people and invite them into his presence, He’s crazy enough to save me. THAT’S THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE! God didn’t stop at the sick who were crying out for salvation, He even gave grace to the sick guy who thought his sickness was in some way more noble and refined then the others in the hospital! HE. SAVED. ME. And if He is the God who loves ME, He is the God who loves EVERYBODY! That’s the true doctrine of grace!
And so let us approach the throne of God with confidence! He loved us, so we love Him. We are redeemed in the eyes of God because He sacrificed His Son in order to save us! Let us walk, hand-in-hand to the throne room of the Almighty King, knowing that we are forgiven. And not only forgiven when we have our act together. Not only forgiven when we’re doing well. But forgiven even when we have rebelled against our Father. Let us know grace.
