The Gospel and Homosexuality aka my second college English paper

ENG 102 - English Composition
Judy A Jowers, Professor
4/13/09


Writing Assignment #2
By Mike Ivaska


In preaching the gospel to homosexuals, the evangelical church should primarily draw the attention of its audience to Jesus Christ and not to the issue of homosexuality. I would like to present three reasons for this. First, the church represents the biblical God to the world. This means that the church has the responsibility to represent God accurately. Second, the individual Christians who make up the church generally expect God to be patient with their own sinfulness. This patience that we experience and expect should be extended to others as well. The third reason for focusing on Christ instead of the homosexual's personal brand of sin is that, when this particular sin is not in view, the evangelical church consistently preaches justification by faith, expecting obedience and holiness to come as the logical outcome, not as the grounds, of salvation.

The church represents the biblical God to the world. This does not depend on whether the church's audience believes its message or not. Evangelical Christians are known to be Bible believers. Our beliefs and actions are therefore expected to reflect, in some sense, the God who we meet in Scripture. In this way the church operates as a visible "face" of God to the world. Because of this, the evangelical church is responsible for presenting God accurately to the world. We meet God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Second, when dealing with their own sin, Christians expect God to be patient with them. They understand, or should understand at any rate, what it means to be sinful - what it means to struggle with sin. They know that not all sin is a matter of simple repentance. Some issues take a lifetime to defeat. Some go undefeated to the grave. Christians know that the one, true, and holy God has accepted them on the basis of Jesus Christ, on the merits of His obedience and sacrifice. They bring only a weak and broken faith to this table.

Lastly, when the evangelical church is presenting the good news of Jesus Christ to sinners, the goal is always to present Jesus Christ so that He may be received by faith. Biblical obedience is always grounded in belief. Faith that the gospel message is true and worth believing is always primary. Repentance, and the leaving behind of sinful lifestyles, does an individual no lasting favors if he or she has not met Jesus Christ. Moralism overshadows the content of the gospel. Repentance is from sin, but it is primarily repentance unto God. If with homosexuality we suddenly change our view of the efficacy of the gospel message, then we accept the culture's definition of homosexuality. Others are sinners, but this man is a homosexual. That is something different.

When the evangelical church preaches the biblical gospel to homosexuals as it should, the focus will be upon Jesus Christ and not primarily upon the issue of homosexuality. The church is responsible for accurately representing God to the world. This is the same God that Christians themselves expect to be patient with their sins and struggles. This same God is the one that is expected and believed to accept repentant sinners on the basis of the holiness of Jesus Christ and not upon their own holiness or righteousness. Because this is the God that evangelicals believe in, they should present Him to homosexuals in the way that He has chosen to be presented - through His Son, Jesus Christ.