1. We will attempt
to understand any biblical passage in its biblical context. In Leviticus
18, we may read this prohibition: You
shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination (v. 22, New Revised Standard Version, here and following).
Let’s put that verse into its biblical context. Leviticus
18 is largely about the prohibition of certain sexual acts. In it Yahweh forbids
sexual intercourse between close relatives (vs. 6-18, 20), with one’s wife
while she is menstruating (v. 19), between two men (v. 22), and with any
animal (v. 23). In this passage Yahweh also forbids the sacrifice of children to Molech
(Jupiter).
Yahweh prefaced those prohibitions with these words: I am [Yahweh] your God. You shall not do as
they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do
in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not follow their
statutes. My…statutes you shall keep, following them: I am [Yahweh] your God
(vs. 2b-4).
Egyptians and Canaanites alike worship the six
conventional yet false gods of Olympianity (though using different names for them). The
whole purpose of Yahweh’s people is to live as faithful witnesses to him as the
one true god. They can’t do that if they devote themselves to the Olympian gods
by acting in the same devoted ways as their Olympian neighbors. So Yahweh prohibits sexual acts that witness to those false gods rather than to him. For
Yahweh, it’s the spiritual issue of identity rather than a moral issue of
ignorance, weakness, or malice.
2. We will attempt
to understand any biblical passage in its theological context. When we read
the Bible, we find several passages in it, like Leviticus 18:22, specifically
about homosexuality. To rightly understand these, however, we need to relate
them to many more passages about sexuality in general.
The earliest biblical passage about sexual intercourse
also remains one of the most important. And
the rib that [Yahweh] God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought
her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh
of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was
taken.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his
wife, and they become one flesh” (Genesis 2:22-24).
From this passage we learn that sexual intercourse is
meant to be the celebration of a joyful intimacy and intense unity.
To rightly understand biblical passages about
homosexuality, we need to relate them not only to many more passages about
sexuality in general. We also need to relate them to the even broader subject
of the relationships between men and woman as well as the relationships between
human beings and Yahweh.
Again we find that the earliest passage mentioning these
relationships remains one of the most important. So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created
them; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27).
From all eternity, God the Father freely loved God the
Son in the unity of God the Spirit. As an expression of that love, God the
Father freely created human beings through God the Son by the power of God the
Spirit. Even more, God created them in his image: creatures capable of freely
loving him, one another, and the rest of God’s good creation.
3. We understand
Jesus Christ himself to be the final context of all biblical passages. In
his Letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul makes an important connection
between marriage and Jesus Christ. He makes that connection at the conclusion
of a passage about the right relationships between husbands and wives. He tells
husbands: For no one ever hates his own
body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the
church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave
his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one
flesh.” This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church (Ephesians
5:29-32).
4. Tying it all
together. I will now attempt to explain how sexual intercourse and marriage
might witness to Jesus Christ and the church. I will try to do so in a way that
is biblically consistent, theologically coherent, and Christ-centered.
Jesus Christ freely loves his church in a way that is
full, exclusive, and forever.
The relationship of husband to wife, and of wife to
husband, may likewise witness to Jesus if each spouse freely loves the other in
a way that is full, exclusive, and forever.
Sexual intercourse witnesses to Jesus if it is the celebration of the joyful intimacy and intense unity shared by a
husband and wife. In fact, in this way, husbands and wives may bear the
clearest possible witness to the relationship between Jesus and his
church.
In detail, we bear faithful witness to Jesus when we
love our spouse fully; that is, physically, emotionally, intellectually, volitionally, and
spiritually. Olympians love their spouses conditionally: in one of these ways
or another and to one degree or another in each way. That is why the Bible
speaks against pre-marital sex or fornication; that is, sexual intercourse that
is not celebrating a free commitment to love fully.
We witness to Jesus when we love our spouse exclusively.
That’s why the Old Testament speaks against adultery and the New Testament speaks
in favor of monogamy.
We witness to Jesus when we love our spouse permanently. That’s
why the Bible speaks against divorce.
Finally, we witness to Jesus in a relationship which is a
differentiated unity. A differentiated unity is a whole composed of different
parts. Christ and his church enjoy a real unity in the love each freely has for
the other. At the same time, this is a unity despite real differences: Jesus is
wholly divine as well as wholly human whereas we as church and Christians are
not divine at all and never will be.
We were created in the image of God. That’s why the Bible
speaks against sexual intercourse between human beings and animals or even
between people devoted to Yahweh and people devoted to the Olympian gods. There’s
not enough similarity.
But we are not identical in nature to Jesus. That’s why
the Bible speaks against sexual intercourse between subjects too similar in
nature. While that includes people of the same sex, it also includes
intercourse between men and women who are close relatives. There’s not enough
difference.
5. Two important implications
for the Church. As faithful witnesses to Jesus, we want to live in ways
that point to him rather than to Venus (goddess of sex) and the other Olympian gods. We do this
when we have sexual intercourse only with our spouse whom we freely love in a way that
is full, exclusive, and permanent.
There are ways of living which demonstrate devotion to
Venus and her gang. Sexual intercourse outside of marriage does this because it
lacks the fullness, or unconditionality, of love as understood by Jesus.
Adultery and polygamy do this because they lack love’s exclusivity. Sexual
intercourse with animals or even Olympians does this because there’s too much
difference. Sexual intercourse between close relatives does this because there’s not
enough difference. All of these variations demonstrate our devotion to Venus
and her gang because in each of them we have a choice and choose to love her
more than Jesus.
That’s what distinguishes those variations from some
divorces. The permanent relationship of love freely given between husband and
wife remains our normative witness to Jesus. Most divorces between Christians
may be made for sadly Olympian reasons. But sometimes a relationship between a
husband and a wife may deteriorate to the point that divorce may be the most
loving alternative. Both Jesus and Paul allow for this.
The element of choice is also what distinguishes those
various devotions to Venus from some relationships between homosexuals. A
relationship of love freely given between a man and a woman remains the
differentiated unity that bears clearest witness to Jesus. But
sometimes a relationship of love freely given between two homosexuals may have
the fullness, exclusivity, and permanence that witness to Christ’s blessing of
it as well.
Copyright © 2015
by Steven Farsaci. All rights reserved.
